US Congress Introduce Magnitsky Visa Ban Law

September 29, 2010

Law Intro­duced in US Con­gress to Freeze Assets and Ban Visas for Russ­ian Offi­cials Impli­cat­ed in Death of Sergei Magnitsky 

Today, a law has been intro­duced in the US Con­gress which will enact eco­nom­ic sanc­tions and visa bans on Russ­ian offi­cials and oth­er indi­vid­u­als involved in the tor­ture and mur­der in cus­tody of 37-year old lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The new law, enti­tled “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010”, will make those impli­cat­ed in the repres­sive arrest and death of Mag­nit­sky inel­i­gi­ble for admis­sion to the Unit­ed States and will revoke any exist­ing US visas. The law will also freeze and pro­hib­it all finan­cial trans­ac­tions of those indi­vid­u­als with­in the Unit­ed States.

The co-spon­sors of the “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010” law are some of the most promi­nent US polit­i­cal fig­ures and lead­ers in the fields of human rights and jus­tice, includ­ing Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin and Con­gress­man James McGovern.

The authors of the law stat­ed its pur­pose to be as follows:

“A Bill to require the Sec­re­tary of State to iden­ti­fy indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for the deten­tion, abuse, or death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky or for the con­spir­a­cy to defraud the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion of tax­es on cor­po­rate prof­its through fraud­u­lent trans­ac­tions and law­suits against Her­mitage, and to impose a visa ban and cer­tain finan­cial mea­sures with respect to such indi­vid­u­als, until the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion has thor­ough­ly inves­ti­gat­ed the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and brought the Russ­ian crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem into com­pli­ance with inter­na­tion­al legal stan­dards, and for oth­er purposes.”

The eco­nom­ic sanc­tions and visa bans will affect all offi­cials involved in the embez­zle­ment of $230 mil­lion of bud­get funds uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and those con­nect­ed to his arrest and per­se­cu­tion in deten­tion as well as all indi­vid­u­als involved in the cov­er-up of these crimes. The sanc­tions will also apply to their depen­dent fam­i­ly mem­bers. The law also calls for a freeze on trans­ac­tions con­duct­ed by any peo­ple act­ing on their behalf.

Sen­a­tor Cardin said:

“Near­ly a year after Sergei’s death, the lead­ing fig­ures in this scheme remain in pow­er in Rus­sia. It has become clear that if we expect any mea­sure of jus­tice in this case, we must act in the Unit­ed States…At the least we can and should block these cor­rupt indi­vid­u­als from trav­el­ing and invest­ing their ill-got­ten mon­ey in our country.”

The visa ban ini­tia­tive was orig­i­nal­ly intro­duced in April 2010 after US Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin, Chair­man of the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion, leaned about the absolute impuni­ty shown by the offi­cials respon­si­ble for the death of Mag­nit­sky. He sub­se­quent­ly request­ed US Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton to impose a visa ban on 60 Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the arrest, per­se­cu­tion and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. In May this year, US Con­gress­man James McGov­ern, co-chair of the US Con­gres­sion­al Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion, held hear­ings on the Sergei Mag­nit­sky case where he vowed to make those visa bans into law and to strength­en them with finan­cial sanctions.

William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal said:

“Mak­ing the visa ban ini­tia­tive into law is a fur­ther step by US law­mak­ers in show­ing their com­mit­ment in the fight against endem­ic cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia. It is also a trib­ute to the ideals of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who believed in the rule of law and jus­tice and fought for them until the last moments of his young life.”

More than ten months since Sergei Magnitsky’s death, nobody has been charged in the inves­ti­ga­tion ordered by Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Medvedev. The cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials impli­cat­ed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky have in fact been pro­mot­ed. They are liv­ing way beyond what their offi­cial salaries would allow, pur­su­ing lav­ish lifestyles and buy­ing prop­er­ties worth mil­lions of dol­lars. For more details, see Russ­ian Untouch­ables videos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZB3YoAvEro;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWhlPqVddc

The intro­duc­tion of the “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010” law in the US Con­gress comes two weeks after a pub­lic appeal from 14 promi­nent Russ­ian civ­il rights activists who urged US and EU gov­ern­ments to enact sanc­tions against Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed arrest and mur­der and who remain “untouch­able” in Rus­sia. Among those who sup­port­ed the appeal are Lud­mi­la Alex­ee­va, Chair of the Moscow Helsin­ki Group; Sergei Kovalev, Chair of Memo­r­i­al human rights group; Lev Pono­marev, Direc­tor of For Human Rights group; Alex­ei Simonov, Pres­i­dent of Glas­nost foundation.

The Bill will come into force 90 days after the date of the enact­ment of the Act.

Sum­ma­ry of the “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act” 
Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin || Rep. Jim McGovern

Overview: This bill would bar all indi­vid­u­als con­nect­ed to the 2009 death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky from receiv­ing U.S. visas and access­ing U.S. finan­cial markets.

Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, died after suf­fer­ing tor­tur­ous con­di­tions in pre-tri­al deten­tion, after repeat­ed­ly being denied med­ical treat­ment. He had exposed a $230 mil­lion tax fraud scheme and accused Russ­ian offi­cials of steal­ing the mil­lions of tax dol­lars paid by his client, Her­mitage Capital.

Visa Ban:
No U.S. visas are to be issued to:
 — Indi­vid­u­als who were engaged in any act that was instru­men­tal in caus­ing Sergei Magnitsky’s death;
 — Indi­vid­u­als who con­spired to com­mit tax fraud against the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion through a scheme tar­get­ing Hermitage;
 — Spous­es, sons, daugh­ters or par­ents of the same individuals.

Finan­cial Sanc­tions: The Sec­re­tary of Trea­sury shall freeze and pro­hib­it all trans­ac­tions of prop­er­ty or invest­ments in Unit­ed States finan­cial insti­tu­tions by indi­vid­u­als con­nect­ed to Magnitsky’s death or the tax fraud scheme.

Ter­mi­na­tion: This Act is lift­ed when the Sec­re­taries of State and Trea­sury cer­ti­fy to Con­gress that the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion has:

- Con­duct­ed a thor­ough and impar­tial inves­ti­ga­tion in Magnitsky’s case and brought those respon­si­ble to justice;
 — Tak­en steps to bring their crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and penal sys­tem into com­pli­ance with inter­na­tion­al standards;
 — Strength­ened statu­to­ry whistle­blow­er protection;
 — Rec­og­nized the con­tri­bu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in the fight against cor­rup­tion and for the rule of law.

Notes to Editors

Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin (Demo­c­rat) is the chair­man of the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion, empow­ered to mon­i­tor human rights oblig­a­tions in OSCE mem­ber countries.

Con­gress­man James McGov­ern (Demo­c­rat) has been a mem­ber of the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives since 1997. Since his elec­tion, he has been rec­og­nized as an unri­valed sup­port­er for jus­tice and fun­da­men­tal human rights. He serves as co-chair of the US Con­gres­sion­al Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Commission.

For a full list of the orig­i­nal 60 impli­cat­ed Russ­ian offi­cials pub­lished by the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion: http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Files.Download&FileStore_id=1744

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