US Appeals Court to Hear Emergency Motion on Disqualification of Lawyer John Moscow in the Magnitsky Case in New York

January 18, 2016

US Appeals Court to Hear Emer­gency Motion on Dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of Lawyer John Moscow in the Mag­nit­sky Case in New York

 

18 Jan­u­ary 2016 – The Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Sec­ond Cir­cuit has agreed to an emer­gency hear­ing to be held at 10 am on Fri­day, 22 Jan­u­ary 2016, on an appli­ca­tion from Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment seek­ing to sus­pend the case of US vs Pre­ve­zon, to hear an appeal which will deter­mine whether lawyers with a seri­ous con­flict of inter­est should be allowed to remain on the case.

 

Hermitage’s appli­ca­tion aris­es out of U.S. law firm Bak­er Hostetler and its part­ner, John Moscow, switch­ing sides in the Russ­ian mon­ey laun­der­ing case from rep­re­sent­ing the vic­tim – Her­mitage, to rep­re­sent­ing the ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the crime – Pre­ve­zon Holdings.

 

Her­mitage said in sup­port of its motion for stay in the legal proceeding:

 

“A stay pend­ing appeal is in the pub­lic inter­est. A lawyer’s oblig­a­tion to pre­serveclient con­fi­dences “touch­es upon vital con­cerns of the legal pro­fes­sion and the public’s inter­estin the scrupu­lous admin­is­tra­tion of justice.”

 

Hermitage’s motion is sup­port­ed by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, who said to the Appeals Court that the con­duct of Bak­er Hostetler rep­re­sents an “unheard of”, “extreme­ly rare” and “egre­gious” case of con­flict of inter­est giv­en that the law firm not only switched sides but went fur­ther by accus­ing Her­mitage, its for­mer client, of the crime of which Her­mitage has been the victim.

 

“The egre­gious sit­u­a­tion seen here, where an attor­ney for a vic­tim attempts to switch sides to rep­re­sent a ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the offense, is extreme­ly rare, and it is unheard of that such attor­ney would go fur­ther and accuse his for­mer client, the vic­tim, of com­mit­ting the offense. Accord­ing­ly, courts have sel­dom been called upon to rule on such an extreme con­flict, often because it is sim­ply not done,” said the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice in their affir­ma­tion of Hermitage’s motion.

 

On 18 Decem­ber 2015, the dis­trict court judge Thomas Griesa in the South­ern Dis­trict of New York grant­ed Hermitage’s motion to dis­qual­i­fy Bak­er Hostetler and John Moscow, find­ing it would be improp­er for Bak­er Hostetler to con­tin­ue to rep­re­sent defen­dants Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings because of Bak­er Hostetler’s pri­or rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Her­mitage. How­ev­er, on 8 Jan­u­ary 2016, Judge Griesa reversed his deci­sion rul­ing that Prevezon’s right to the choice of lawyers was more impor­tant than Hermitage’s right to not be betrayed by for­mer counsel.

 

Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings is owned by the son of a senior Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cial and, accord­ing to the U.S. Depart­ment of Justice’s law­suit, has been involved in laun­der­ing pro­ceeds from the US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Hermitage’s late lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, hav­ing traced pro­ceeds stolen in Rus­sia to Prevezon’s real estate prop­er­ties in Man­hat­tan, filed a civ­il law­suit seek­ing mon­ey laun­der­ing fines and for­fei­ture of US$14 mil­lion in Prevezon’s US assets. After the assets were frozen, Pre­ve­zon sought the ser­vices of John Moscow and Bak­er Hostetler. In spite of the obvi­ous con­flict of inter­est, John Moscow and Bak­er Hostetler agreed to rep­re­sent alleged ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the US$230 mil­lion crime – ignor­ing the fact that they had been pre­vi­ous­ly hired by Her­mitage to iden­ti­fy and bring to jus­tice per­pe­tra­tors and ben­e­fi­cia­ries of this crime.

 

On 13 Jan­u­ary 2016, Her­mitage filed an emer­gency motion to sus­pend the pro­ceed­ings in the asset for­fei­ture case against Pre­ve­zon until the issue of John Moscow and Bak­er Hostetler’s dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion is resolved.

 

In sup­port­ing the Hermitage’s motion, the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice stated:

 

“After tak­ing almost $200,000 of Hermitage’s mon­ey to attempt to pre­vent Her­mitage from being accused of com­mit­ting the fraud, [Bak­er Hostetler’s part­ner] Moscow is now tak­ing the mon­ey of an alleged ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the very same fraud to him­self accuse Her­mitage of com­mit­ting the fraud.”

 

“Allow­ing the tri­al to take place in this fash­ion, and to expose Her­mitage to such irrepara­ble injury at the hands of its for­mer coun­sel, would be a mis­car­riage of jus­tice set­ting a prece­dent that would severe­ly harm crime vic­tims’ inter­ests and could chill the coop­er­a­tion of vic­tims with law enforce­ment,” said the US Jus­tice Depart­ment in its filing.

 

The US$230 fraud and mon­ey laun­der­ing case was uncov­ered by Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who was tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody after he had giv­en tes­ti­mo­ny impli­cat­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials in the scheme. To per­pe­trate the US$230 mil­lion fraud, the Russ­ian crim­i­nal organ­i­sa­tion stole three Russ­ian com­pa­nies belong­ing to the Her­mitage Fund and then sought an ille­gal refund of US$230 mil­lion of tax­es pre­vi­ous­ly paid by those companies.

 

When Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyers report­ed the offi­cials involved, the lawyers them­selves became sub­ject of retal­i­a­tion from Russ­ian author­i­ties. In 2008, Her­mitage hired Bak­er Hostetler’s part­ner John Moscow to pro­tect Her­mitage and its lawyers and exec­u­tives from the retal­i­a­tion. Mr. Moscow had pre­vi­ous­ly been a spe­cial­ist in com­bat­ing Russ­ian organ­ised crime and cor­rup­tion in the New York Dis­trict Attorney’s office. He assist­ed Her­mitage with the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the US$230 mil­lion fraud and liais­ing with the US law enforce­ment in bring­ing those ben­e­fi­cia­ries to jus­tice. Sev­er­al years lat­er the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice traced some of the US$230 mil­lion pro­ceeds to Man­hat­tan prop­er­ties owned by Pre­ve­zon and filed a law­suit in which John Moscow and Bak­er Hostetler appeared for Prevezon.

 

The hear­ing will take place in New York in the Thur­good Mar­shall U.S. Cour­t­house, 17^th floor, Room 1703 lat­er this week, on 22 Jan­u­ary 2016.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact: 

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Campaign

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

 

 

Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Demands Answers from Russia’s General Prosecutor Chaika About False Statements Against Her Son

December 22, 2015

Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s Moth­er Demands Answers from Rus­si­a’s Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka About False State­ments Against Her Son

 

22 Decem­ber 2015  – Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er has demand­ed answers from Russ­ian Gen­er­al pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka over his hys­ter­i­cal let­ter con­tain­ing false infor­ma­tion about Sergei Mag­nit­sky pub­lished last week in Russ­ian news­pa­per Kom­m­er­sant. Chaika’s let­ter was a response to Russ­ian blog­ger Alex­ei Naval­ny’s explo­sive video about the cor­rup­tion and abuse of office involv­ing Chaika’s two sons and senior pros­e­cu­tors in the country.

 

In Chaika’s14 Decem­ber 2015 let­ter to Kom­m­er­sant, he claimed that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had nev­er inves­ti­gat­ed the $230 mil­lion theft from the Russ­ian budget.

 

In Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er’s appli­ca­tion to the Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor’s office which was filed at the end of last week, she refut­ed Chaika’s false state­ments and placed the respon­si­bil­i­ty on Chai­ka him­self for the cov­er up of the $230 mil­lion theft and its per­pe­tra­tors impli­cat­ed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky in sworn testimony.

 

“The infor­ma­tion you have dis­sem­i­nat­ed inflicts pain on a moth­er who lost her son, it is not based on facts, it has not been cor­rob­o­rat­ed by courts, and it is refut­ed by doc­u­ments, includ­ing the crim­i­nal case files about Mag­nit­sky’s death,” said Ms. Mag­nit­skaya to Pros­e­cu­tor Chaika.

 

“Thanks to Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s inves­ti­ga­tion which he con­duct­ed on instruc­tion from his client — the Her­mitage Fund — the theft of 5.4 bil­lion rubles [$230 mil­lion] was uncov­ered, and report­ed to you on 25 July 2008 in an appli­ca­tion seek­ing to inves­ti­gate the fraud and pros­e­cute its per­pe­tra­tors. In response your senior aid Bumazhkin replied that the inves­ti­ga­tion had been ter­mi­nat­ed …due to the lack of crime. Your aid also report­ed that the out­comes of this inves­ti­ga­tion were under con­trol of the Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office,” said the appli­ca­tion from Ms. Magnitskaya.

 

“It fol­lows that under the con­trol and with knowl­edge of the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office head­ed by you, per­pe­tra­tors who com­mit­ted a grandiose theft of 5.4 bil­lion rubles from the bud­get, remained for a long time free, had oppor­tu­ni­ty to destroy evi­dence of their crime and con­tin­ue it unhin­dered through laun­der­ing the pro­ceeds stolen from the Russ­ian peo­ple via bank wire trans­fers,” said Ms. Mag­nit­skaya’s application.

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er’s appli­ca­tion asks Chai­ka whether the infor­ma­tion he had dis­sem­i­nat­ed was his per­son­al opin­ion, or his offi­cial con­clu­sion as Gen­er­al pros­e­cu­tor of Rus­sia tasked by Russ­ian pres­i­dent to per­son­al­ly over­see all cas­es con­nect­ed to Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The reply from Pros­e­cu­tor Chai­ka to Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er appli­ca­tion is yet not known.

 

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

 

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

www.billbrowder.com

New York Federal Court Disqualifies Lawyer John Moscow and BakerHostetler in Magnitsky Money Laundering Case

December 21, 2015

New York Fed­er­al Court Dis­qual­i­fies Lawyer John Moscow and Bak­er­Hostetler in Mag­nit­sky Mon­ey Laun­der­ing Case

 

21 Decem­ber 2015 – The fed­er­al court in New York has dis­qual­i­fied lawyer John Moscow and his firm, Bak­er­Hostetler, who rep­re­sent­ed the alleged Russ­ian recip­i­ents of mon­ey laun­der­ing pro­ceeds from the US$230 mil­lion Russ­ian fraud that Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered, in a civ­il for­fei­ture case brought by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice. The case alleges mon­ey laun­der­ing of pro­ceeds of Russ­ian fraud into mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar Man­hat­tan real estate by Pre­ve­zon, a com­pa­ny owned by a son of for­mer Vice-pre­mier of the Moscow Region and the cur­rent Vice-pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways Pyotr Katsyv.

 

John Moscow and Bak­er­Hostetler had orig­i­nal­ly worked for Her­mitage in 2008 to defend Her­mitage against unfound­ed accu­sa­tions relat­ing to the fraud, includ­ing (among oth­er projects) by track­ing the stolen US$230 mil­lion and its recip­i­ents, and bring­ing the evi­dence of this com­plex Russ­ian fraud which vic­timised Her­mitage, to the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice. On Her­mitage’s behalf, John Moscow per­son­al­ly pre­sent­ed the find­ings from the Her­mitage’s and Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s inves­ti­ga­tions of the $230 mil­lion fraud to the U.S. Attor­ney’s Office.

 

On 25 Novem­ber 2008, one day after Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s arrest by cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials on false charges, John Moscow also became involved in Her­mitage’s legal actions to free Sergei Mag­nit­sky from Russ­ian deten­tion. Pri­or to his arrest, Sergei Mag­nit­sky gave tes­ti­mo­ny to Russ­ian author­i­ties impli­cat­ing Russ­ian offi­cials in the theft of Her­mitage’s Russ­ian com­pa­nies and of US$230 mil­lion the Her­mitage’s com­pa­nies had paid to the Russ­ian government.

 

One year lat­er, on 16 Novem­ber 2009, Sergei Mag­nit­sky was killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody before he could tes­ti­fy in an open trial.

 

In 2013, John Moscow and Bak­er­Hostetler switched sides, and went from rep­re­sent­ing Her­mitage to rep­re­sent­ing Russ­ian-owned Pre­ve­zon, an alleged ben­e­fi­cia­ry of the US$230 mil­lion fraud, that Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s inves­ti­ga­tion had led to after his death. The US Depart­ment of Jus­tice has traced to Pre­ve­zon near­ly US$2 mil­lion of the US$230 mil­lion fraud pro­ceeds and more funds in false and ques­tion­able trans­ac­tions.  The US court has frozen about US$14 mil­lion in Pre­ve­zon’s assets, includ­ing bank accounts and sev­er­al Man­hat­tan properties.

 

In Novem­ber 2015, John Moscow and Bak­er­Hostetler made fil­ings on Pre­ve­zon’s behalf in which they explic­it­ly accused Her­mitage of com­mit­ting the US$230 mil­lion fraud that they orig­i­nal­ly have been hired to defend against.

 

On 15 Decem­ber 2015, Her­mitage filed a motion to dis­qual­i­fy Bak­er­Hostetler and John Moscow.

 

In Judge Griesa’s opin­ion, issued on 18 Decem­ber 2015, the U.S. Court for South­ern Dis­trict of New York ordered:

 

“The court is now con­vinced that it would be improp­er for Bak­er­Hostetler and Moscow to con­tin­ue as coun­sel to defen­dants. …Her­mitage’s motion to dis­qual­i­fy Bak­er­Hostetler and Moscow as coun­sel to defen­dants is granted.”

 

Her­mitage Cap­i­tal’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive said of the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of John Moscow and Bak­er­Hostetler:

 

“This dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion is a stark reminder that lawyers can’t switch sides just because there is mon­ey being offered to them.”

 

Under Rule 1.9 of the New York Rule of Pro­fes­sion­al Con­duct, lawyers are not allowed to betray their for­mer clients. In par­tic­u­lar, the rule says:

 

“A lawyer who has for­mer­ly rep­re­sent­ed a client in a mat­ter shall not there­after rep­re­sent anoth­er per­son in the same or a sub­stan­tial­ly relat­ed mat­ter in which that person’s inter­ests are mate­ri­al­ly adverse to the inter­ests of the for­mer client unless the for­mer client gives informed con­sent, con­firmed in writing.”

 

Her­mitage became the vic­tim of the US$230 mil­lion fraud in 2007 when a Russ­ian crim­i­nal organ­i­sa­tion, com­pris­ing FSB, Inte­ri­or Min­istry and tax offi­cials and head­ed by a con­vict­ed fraud­ster Dmit­ry Klyuev, raid­ed offices of Her­mitage and its law firm in Moscow, unlaw­ful­ly seized statu­to­ry and finan­cial doc­u­ments for its cor­po­rate Russ­ian sub­sidiaries. Using those doc­u­ments, the Russ­ian crime group forged con­tracts and pow­ers of attor­ney, fraud­u­lent­ly re-reg­is­tered the stolen Her­mitage com­pa­nies to felons pre­vi­ous­ly con­vict­ed for vio­lent crimes, and through sham court pro­ceed­ings obtained about US$1 bil­lion judg­ments against the stolen Her­mitage com­pa­nies, in order to claim US$230 mil­lion in pur­port­ed­ly “over­paid” taxes.

 

The fraud­u­lent US$230 mil­lion tax refund was grant­ed by Russ­ian tax offi­cials, who were mem­bers of the crime group, in one day, and paid out two days lat­er to two small Russ­ian banks, where fraud­sters had opened bank accounts, and then laun­dered through Russ­ian banks and around the world.

 

Through efforts of Her­mitage and law enforce­ment author­i­ties around the world, about US$40 mil­lion con­nect­ed to the US$230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky have been iden­ti­fied and frozen.

 

Bak­er­Hostetler is an “Am Law 100 law firm” with more than 900 attor­neys and 14 offices. John Moscow is a for­mer New York pros­e­cu­tor and a part­ner at Bak­er Hostetler.

 

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

www.billbrowder.com

Суд Нью-Йорка отстранил юристов компании Дениса Кацыва в связи с нарушением адвокатского кодекса в деле об отмывании средств от раскрытого Сергеем Магнитским преступления

December 21, 2015

Суд Нью-Йорка отстранил юристов компании Дениса Кацыва в связи с нарушением адвокатского кодекса в деле об отмывании средств от раскрытого Сергеем Магнитским преступления

 

21 декабря 2015 года – Федеральный суд Нью-Йорка отстранил юридическую фирму “БэйкерХостетлер” и ее сотрудника Джона Москоу от участия  в судебном процессе на стороне кипрской компании “Превезон”, принадлежащей сыну российского чиновника Денису Кацыву.

 

Суд нашел, что юридическая фирма “БэйкерХостетлер” и ее партнер Джон Москоу нарушили адвокатский кодекс, выступив  на стороне “Превезон” Дениса Кацыва после того, как ранее эти же адвокаты выступали на стороне Her­mitage, выполняя ряд юридических задач, в том числе оказывали правовую помощь в поисках лиц, получивших доходы от хищения 5,4 миллиардов рублей, и защите Her­mitageот сфабрикованных российскими чиновниками обвинений.

 

“Превезон” подозревается прокуратурой США в легализации 5,4 миллиардов рублей, похищенных у российских налогоплательщиков в ходе преступления, раскрытого Сергеем Магнитским.

 

Действуя на нынешнем процессе в интересах “Превезон”,  “БэйкерХостетлер” подала заявление, в котором повторила обвинения российских чиновников против Hermitage.

 

В связи с этим Her­mitage была подана жалоба в суд США. 18 декабря 2015 года после внимательного изучения федеральный суд Нью-Йорка принял решение отстранить  “БэйкерХостетлер” и Джона Москоу от дальнейшего участия в процессе.

 

“Суд теперь убежден, что продолжение деятельности “БэйкерХостетлер” и адвоката Москоу в качестве адвокатов ответчиков будет неправильным…  Ходатайство Her­mitage об отстранении “БэйкерХостетлер” и Москоу в качестве адвокатов ответчиков подлежит удовлетворению”, — говорится в решении суда южного округа штата Нью-Йорк.

 

Компания “Превезон” обвиняется прокуратурой США в отмывании средств через покупку недвижимости в Нью-Йорке. Хищение средств из российского бюджета было раскрыто Сергеем Магнитским в ходе расследования им хищения у его клиента — фонда Her­mitage — трех компаний той же группой чиновников и криминальных элементов.

 

В 2008 году Her­mitageнанял юридическую фирму “БэйкерХостетлер” и ее партнера Джона Москоу для поиска получателей похищенных из бюджета 5,4 миллиардов рублей.

 

В конце 2008 года Джон Москоу по поручению Her­mitage передал в прокуратуру США первые результаты расследования Сергея Магнитского и Her­mitage о деятельности преступной группы, включающей российских чиновников, похитившей миллиарды из госказны и легализовавшей их через международную банковскую систему.

 

25 ноября 2008 года, на второй день после ареста Сергея Магнитского Джон Москоу также стал участвовать в правовой защите Сергея Магнитского от сфабрикованных обвинений.

 

Однако в 2013 году Джон Москоу и юридическая фирма “БэйкерХостетлер” согласились представлять интересы компании Дениса Кацыва, обвиняемой в отмывании денег, полученных от кражи компаний Her­mitage и 5,4 миллиардов рублей уплаченных компаниями Hermitageналогов.

 

Свод правил профессиональной этики юристов Нью-Йорка запрещает им действовать против интересов своих бывших клиентов, за исключением случаев предварительного письменного согласия со стороны последних. В частности, правило 1.9 профессионального поведения юристов Нью-Йорка гласит:

 

“Юрист, ранее представлявший клиента по делу не может впоследствии представлять иное лицо в том же или по существу связанном деле, в котором интересы этого лица материально противоположны интересам бывшего клиента, за исключением случаев, когда бывший клиент, информированный об этом, дает на это согласие, подтвержденное в письменном виде”.

 

Справка: Юридическая фирма “БэйкерХостетлер”  — одна из ведущих фирм Нью-Йорка, основанная в 1916 году, со штатом в 900 адвокатов. У фирмы имеется 14 офисов в США. Джон Москоу — партнер  “БэйкерХостетлер”, в прошлом — сотрудник прокуратуры США.

 

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:
Программа «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского»

+44 207 440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

www.billbrowder.com

 

 

 

Cенат США одобрил Глобальный закон Магнитского

December 18, 2015

Cенат США одобрил Глобальный закон Магнитского

 

18 декабря 2015 года –  Сенат США единогласно принял глобальный законопроект “Ответственность за права человека имени Сергея Магнитского”.

 

Новому законопроекту присвоен номер “S.284”. Законопроект принят в развитие закона Магнитского 2012 года, действие которого распространяется на нарушителей прав человека в России.

 

“Новый законопроект предполагает  последствия для нарушителей прав человека по всему миру, а не только в России. То, что глобальный законопроект носит имя Сергея Магнитского, — это дань памяти россиянину, отдавшему жизнь за закон и право”, — сказал Уильям Браудер, автор книги “Красный циркуляр”.

 

Законопроект в Сенат был внесен сенатором Кардином, автором закона Сергея Магнитского 2012 года. Он был поддержан республиканцами и демократами.

 

Следующий шаг — голосование по глобальному законопроекту в Палате представителей США.

 

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:
Программа «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского»

+44 207 440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

www.billbrowder.com

 

 

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