U.S. Senator Calls for U.S. Visa Ban of 60 Russian Officials Involved in Corruption and the Death of Sergei Magnitsky

April 26, 2010

26 April 2010 – Today the Chair­man of the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion, U.S. Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin, called for imme­di­ate and per­ma­nent visa sanc­tions against 60 Russ­ian offi­cials who were involved in a $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion case dis­cov­ered and exposed by the late Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky and who autho­rised Magnitsky’s arrest on false charges and orches­trat­ed his tor­ture and mur­der in cus­tody. In a let­ter addressed to U.S. Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton, Sen­a­tor Cardin demand­ed that the State Depart­ment “imme­di­ate­ly can­cel and per­ma­nent­ly with­draw the U.S visa priv­i­leges of all those involved in this crime, along with their depen­dents and fam­i­ly mem­bers.”(See http://csce.gov/)

Sen­a­tor Cardin fur­ther wrote to Sec­re­tary Clinton:

“I am writ­ing to request the imme­di­ate can­cel­la­tion of U.S. visas held by a num­ber of Russ­ian offi­cials and oth­ers who are involved in sig­nif­i­cant cor­rup­tion in that coun­try and who are respon­si­ble for last year’s tor­ture and death in prison of the Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who tes­ti­fied against them.” 

High-rank­ing offi­cials from the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (FSB), Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office, Fed­er­al Tax Ser­vice, Fed­er­al Prison Ser­vice and judges in the Russ­ian court sys­tem are named in the visa ban list. These offi­cials include:

• Alex­ei Anichin, Head of the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee of the Inte­ri­or Min­istry, respon­si­ble for the cov­er-up of Sergei Magnitsky’s tes­ti­mo­ny about the role of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers in the $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud. Anichin also direct­ed the repres­sive crim­i­nal case based on false charges against Magnitsky;
• Vic­tor Grin, Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor of Rus­sia, respon­si­ble for absolv­ing from crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion the offi­cials impli­cat­ed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky in the $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud and instead sole­ly charg­ing a sawmill employ­ee for the entire fraud;
• Vic­tor Voronin, Deputy Head of Eco­nom­ic Secu­ri­ty Divi­sion of the Russ­ian Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (FSB), who autho­rised a crim­i­nal case based on false charges that was used to per­pe­trate a cor­rupt scheme to steal $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian Trea­sury, through the theft of the Her­mitage Fund’s Russ­ian com­pa­nies, via the ille­gal seizure of their orig­i­nal statu­to­ry doc­u­ments with­out a warrant.

Sen­a­tor Cardin stated:

“We can take the con­crete action to ensure those pub­lic offi­cials and oth­ers who share respon­si­bil­i­ty for this crime should be denied entry visas to the Unit­ed States. As you know, the Unit­ed States has the pol­i­cy of pro­hibit­ing indi­vid­u­als involved in cor­rup­tion from vis­it­ing our coun­try, and the State Depart­ment is man­dat­ed by the Pres­i­dent to achieve this aim.” 

The visa sanc­tions tar­get com­plic­it Russ­ian offi­cials, their depen­dents and fam­i­ly mem­bers and are based on U.S. Pres­i­den­tial Procla­ma­tion 7750, enact­ed in 2004. This Pres­i­den­tial Procla­ma­tion pro­hibits cor­rupt for­eign offi­cials and their fam­i­ly mem­bers from gain­ing entry to the Unit­ed States (See Procla­ma­tion 7750 “To Sus­pend Entry as Immi­grants or Non­im­mi­grants of Per­sons Engaged in or Ben­e­fit­ing From Cor­rup­tion” http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04 – 957.pdf).

The U.S. visa sanc­tions involve Russ­ian offi­cials who organ­ised and approved the $230 mil­lion cor­rupt scheme, released from respon­si­bil­i­ty offi­cials impli­cat­ed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and pur­sued repres­sive crim­i­nal cas­es on false grounds to silence and intim­i­date Her­mitage exec­u­tives and lawyers who had report­ed cor­rupt offi­cials to the authorities.

In his let­ter, Sen­a­tor Cardin point­ed out that the repres­sion and arrest of Sergei Mag­nit­sky were orches­trat­ed by the very same Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers whom he had exposed in the $230 mil­lion fraud:

“The crime, which involved a fraud­u­lent $230 mil­lion tax refund paid to the crim­i­nal group, was exposed by Hermitage’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky…One month after his tes­ti­mo­ny he was arrest­ed… in his Moscow home by a team of Inte­ri­or Min­istry troop­ers report­ing direct­ly to the offi­cers Mr. Mag­nit­sky had accused.” 

Sen­a­tor Cardin fur­ther stat­ed that in cus­tody Sergei Mag­nit­sky was sub­ject­ed to tor­ture designed to force him to absolve the gov­ern­ment offi­cials from the crimes they had com­mit­ted and to false­ly tes­ti­fy against him­self and his client, the Her­mitage Fund:

“As high­light­ed in the 2009 State Depart­ment Coun­try Report of Human Rights in Rus­sia, Sergei Mag­nit­sky was tor­tured in an attempt to force him to with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny and to incrim­i­nate him­self and his client. His detailed let­ters from prison attest to the inhu­man con­di­tions in which he was kept for near­ly a year with­out a trial.” 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, exposed the largest known tax rebate fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry per­pe­trat­ed by gov­ern­ment offi­cials. In 2008, he tes­ti­fied against senior Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers for abuse of office, theft of his client’s (the Her­mitage Fund) com­pa­nies in order to steal the $230 mil­lion they had pre­vi­ous­ly paid to the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment, and the fab­ri­ca­tion of a false crim­i­nal case in order to per­pe­trate the cor­rupt scheme. A month after his tes­ti­mo­ny, Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed by direct sub­or­di­nates of the offi­cers he tes­ti­fied against, kept in cus­tody with­out a tri­al for a year and tor­tured to with­draw his state­ments. Mag­nit­sky refused and instead on 13 Octo­ber 2009 gave fur­ther detailed tes­ti­mo­ny impli­cat­ing the Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in a cor­rupt $230 mil­lion scheme and in orches­trat­ing his repres­sion in cus­tody. A month lat­er, on 16 Novem­ber 2009 Sergei Mag­nit­sky was found dead in a Moscow pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­ter under cir­cum­stances described as “inten­tion­al death” and “mur­der” by Russ­ian human rights defenders.

Sen­a­tor Cardin added that five months after Sergei Magnitsky’s death, none of the offi­cials involved in the $230 mil­lion fraud and the per­se­cu­tion and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky have been brought to justice:

“Since the death, a num­ber of prison offi­cials have been fired, but no one has been pros­e­cut­ed for his tor­ture or death, nor for par­tic­i­pat­ing in the cor­rup­tion he exposed.” 

In a sep­a­rate devel­op­ment last week, the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, an inde­pen­dent Russ­ian human rights organ­i­sa­tion, called upon Russ­ian author­i­ties to imme­di­ate­ly press charges against Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s case for crimes under sev­er­al arti­cles of the Russ­ian Crim­i­nal Code: “Con­duct of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of a know­ing­ly inno­cent man,” “Unlaw­ful arrest and deten­tion”; “Forc­ing to give tes­ti­monies”; “Tor­ture”; “Mur­der com­mit­ted with spe­cial degree of bru­tal­i­ty” and “Mur­der com­mit­ted to con­ceal oth­er crimes” (See Moscow Helsin­ki Group appli­ca­tion: http://www.mhg.ru/news/EB81324).

The Com­mis­sion on Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe, also known as the Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion, is an inde­pen­dent U.S. Gov­ern­ment agency cre­at­ed in 1976 to mon­i­tor and encour­age com­pli­ance with the Helsin­ki Final Act and oth­er OSCE commitments.

Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin has a long-stand­ing inter­est in for­eign affairs and human rights. He has been a Mem­ber of the Com­mis­sion on Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion) since 1993, serv­ing as Rank­ing Mem­ber from 2003 – 2006. In the 110^th Con­gress, he was appoint­ed Co-Chair­man of the Com­mis­sion, and is cur­rent­ly Vice Pres­i­dent of the Orga­ni­za­tion for Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (OSCE) Par­lia­men­tary Assembly.

For fur­ther information:

Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin
+1 202 224 4524
http://cardin.senate.gov/news/releases.cfm

The Com­mis­sion on Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (Helsin­ki Commission)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE || April 26, 2010
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Cardin Urges Visa Ban for Russ­ian Offi­cials Connected
to Anti-Cor­rup­tion Lawyer’s Death

WASHINGTON — The State Depart­ment should impose visa sanc­tions against 60 Russ­ian offi­cials and oth­ers involved in a $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion case that result­ed in the death of a Moscow anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, U.S. Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin L. Cardin (D‑MD) said today in a let­ter to Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton. (A copy of the let­ter text is below and here as a pdf.)

As Chair­man of the Com­mis­sion on Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion), Sen­a­tor Cardin has held hear­ings on cor­rup­tion, includ­ing a 2009 event that high­light­ed the case of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, the com­pa­ny whose lawyer — Sergei Mag­nit­sky — exposed a $230 mil­lion tax fraud scheme per­pe­trat­ed by numer­ous Russ­ian offi­cials, includ­ing Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Kar­pov. Mag­nit­sky died while in pre-tri­al deten­tion, after repeat­ed­ly being denied med­ical treatment.

“I urge you to imme­di­ate­ly can­cel and per­ma­nent­ly with­draw the U.S visa priv­i­leges of all those involved in this crime, along with their depen­dents and fam­i­ly mem­bers,” Cardin wrote in the letter.

The 60 names on the list include senior offi­cials from the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice, Fed­er­al Tax Ser­vice, Arbi­tra­tion Courts, Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Office, and Fed­er­al Prison Ser­vice, along with detailed descrip­tions of their involve­ment in the case. (Click here for a pdf of the com­plete list.)

“The visa sanc­tions will send an impor­tant mes­sage to cor­rupt offi­cials in Rus­sia and else­where that the U.S. is seri­ous about com­bat­ing for­eign cor­rup­tion and the harm it does. It will also help to pro­tect U.S. com­pa­nies oper­at­ing in Rus­sia who risk falling prey to sim­i­lar schemes in the future,” Cardin said.

The offi­cials for whom Sen. Cardin has request­ed visa sanc­tions remain unpun­ished and in posi­tions of power.

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Let­ter to Sec­re­tary Clin­ton — April 26, 2010

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