Bill Browder’s Statement on the Murder of Boris Nemtsov

February 28, 2015

Last night Rus­sia entered a new and dark phase in its slide toward total­i­tar­i­an dic­ta­tor­ship with the mur­der of Boris Nemtsov. Pre­vi­ous­ly, the Putin regime relied pri­mar­i­ly on impris­on­ment and exile to silence oppo­si­tion politi­cians.  Now, they have start­ed mur­der­ing them. I’m sure this won’t be the last.

Boris Nemtsov was one of the few peo­ple in Rus­sia who was­n’t afraid to stand up to the cor­rup­tion, ille­git­i­ma­cy and impuni­ty of the Putin regime and for that he paid with his life. I will always remem­ber how Boris went around the world call­ing for jus­tice for the mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and demand­ing West­ern sanc­tions against his killers. It is now our duty to do the same for Boris.

I have no con­fi­dence in any Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tion into his death because the Putin regime proved its inca­pac­i­ty to do this with the cov­er up of the Mag­nit­sky murder.

I can only hope that Boris Nemtsov’s lega­cy will ulti­mate­ly bring about the demo­c­ra­t­ic change in Rus­sia he worked his whole life to achieve.

May Boris rest in peace.

Magnitsky Amendment to Serious Crime Bill Introduced in the British Parliament

February 23, 2015

Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment to Seri­ous Crime Bill Intro­duced in the British Parliament

 

23 Feb­ru­ary 2015 – Dominic Raab MP and a group of 22 mem­bers of the British par­lia­ment from across all par­ties have sub­mit­ted an amend­ment to the Seri­ous Crime Bill, enti­tled the ‘Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment’. Co-spon­sors of the Mag­nit­sky amend­ment include no less than sev­en cur­rent Com­mit­tee Chairs includ­ing Rt Hon Kei­th Vaz MP (Home Affairs Com­mit­tee), Rt Hon Mar­garet Hodge MP (Pub­lic Accounts Com­mit­tee) and Rt Hon Sir Mal­colm Rifkind MP (Intel­li­gence & Secu­ri­ty Committee).

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/20142015/0160/amend/seriouscrimeaddednames.pdf

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment will require the gov­ern­ment to pub­lish the names of for­eign cit­i­zens who are not allowed to enter the UK due to their involve­ment in mon­ey laun­der­ing, seri­ous orga­nized crime, tor­ture and gross human rights abuses.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment aims to ensure greater trans­paren­cy con­cern­ing indi­vid­u­als who have been denied entry to the Unit­ed King­dom. It builds on the rec­om­men­da­tion adopt­ed by the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee of the British Par­lia­ment in its report review­ing the government’s human rights poli­cies, which urged the pub­li­ca­tion of names of indi­vid­u­als banned from enter­ing the UK due to their involve­ment in the Mag­nit­sky case.

(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmfaff/116/116.pdf ).

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment is also aimed to har­mo­nize British leg­is­la­tion with the U.S. Mag­nit­sky Act of 2012, which requires the US Gov­ern­ment to pub­lish a list of per­sons banned from entry to the Unit­ed States because of involve­ment in cor­rup­tion, includ­ing the cor­rupt crim­i­nal con­spir­a­cy uncov­ered by late Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s tor­ture and death in Russ­ian cus­tody, and oth­er gross human rights abus­es. At the moment, the US gov­ern­ment has named 32 indi­vid­u­als banned from enter­ing the Unit­ed States under the U.S. Mag­nit­sky Act.

 

Explain­ing the Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment, Esh­er & Wal­ton MP Dominic Raab said:

 

“The British pub­lic doesn’t want the hench­men of mur­der­ers and tor­tur­ers, or their bag­men, slip­ping through UK bor­der con­trols, buy­ing up lux­u­ry apart­ments in Kens­ing­ton, send­ing their kids to pub­lic school here and gen­er­al­ly enjoy­ing the high life. Par­lia­ment has a chance to make sure peo­ple know who is being banned from enter­ing Britain, ensure basic moral prin­ci­ple trumps expe­di­en­cy, and send a mes­sage that we’re an open and tol­er­ant coun­try – but not for those with blood on their hands or dirty mon­ey in their pock­ets.”

 

Rt Hon Sir Men­zies Camp­bell QC MP, said: “This amend­ment would put paid to those whose seri­ous crim­i­nal acts abroad do not pre­vent them from vis­it­ing the Unit­ed King­dom. It is intol­er­a­ble that peo­ple whose behav­iour falls so far short of a prop­er respect for the sanc­ti­ty of life and demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples should be able to vis­it Great Britain with­out hin­drance.”

 

William Brow­der, leader of the Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign and author of the best-sell­ing book, ‘Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s Num­ber One Ene­my’ said, “At the moment we can’t pros­e­cute the peo­ple who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky and com­mit oth­er abus­es in Rus­sia because Putin pro­tects them, but Britain should­n’t let these peo­ple into the UK and the gov­ern­ment should make it pub­licly known that they are not wel­come here.”

 

The full list of co-spon­sors of the amendment:

 

Dominic Raab MP
Rt Hon Kei­th Vaz MP, Chair­man, Home Affairs Committee

Rt Hon Sir Mal­colm Rifkind MP, Chair, Intel­li­gence & Secu­ri­ty Committee
Rt Hon Mar­garet Hodge MP, Chair, Pub­lic Accounts Committee
John Wit­ting­dale MP, Chair, Cul­ture, Media & Sport
Dr Sarah Wol­las­ton MP, Chair, Health Committee
Charles Walk­er MP, Chair, Pro­ce­dure Committee
David Davies MP, Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee

Rt Hon Sir Men­zies Camp­bell QC MP
Sir Edward Gar­nier QC MP
RT Hon Nor­man Bak­er MP
Rt Hon Ben Brad­shaw MP
Tes­sa Munt MP
Steve Bar­clay MP
Sir Peter Bot­tom­ley MP
Andrew Rosin­dell MP
Tim Loughton MP
Nick de Bois MP
Zac Gold­smith MP
Dr Julian Lewis MP
Dr Phillip Lee MP
Jacob Rees-Mogg MP

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, the largest for­eign port­fo­lio investor in Rus­sia. In 2008, he uncov­ered how a group of Russ­ian offi­cials and crim­i­nals stole three invest­ment com­pa­nies from his client and $230 mil­lion they had paid in tax­es to the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment. Russ­ian offi­cials exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky had him arrest­ed on false charges. He was kept in deten­tion for 358 days and killed on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Russ­ian offi­cials involved in his case were pro­mot­ed and giv­en state hon­ours in Rus­sia. In the Unit­ed States, they have been sanc­tioned under the Unit­ed States Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act, which denies them U.S. visa and blocks their assets in U.S. finan­cial institutions.

 

The strug­gle for jus­tice in Mag­nit­sky case is described in the thriller by Bill Brow­der, Red Notice, which has reached No 8 on New York Times best-sell­er list in the first two weeks since its launch and No 9 on the Sun­day Times best sell­er list in the UK.

 

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

+44 2074401777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

 

Bill Browder Issues ‘Red Notice’ on Putin’s Russia Today With Simon & Schuster

February 3, 2015

Bill Brow­der, once the largest inter­na­tion­al investor in Rus­sia, lifts the lid on Krem­lin cor­rup­tion and describes in a dev­as­tat­ing new book titled “Red Notice” how Putin and his regime will stop at noth­ing for the crim­i­nal acqui­si­tion of wealth, includ­ing mur­der. The book is released today, 3 Feb­ru­ary 2015, by Simon & Schuster.

 

This is the first insider’s descrip­tion of what real­ly hap­pens in Rus­sia today.

 

Described as “jaw-drop­ping” and “heart-in-your-throat page turn­er,” ‘Red Notice’ destroys every myth that Putin regime has cre­at­ed that it is any oth­er than a mafia state.

 

“Browder’s busi­ness saga mesh­es well with the sto­ry of cor­rup­tion and mur­der in Vladimir Putin’s Rus­sia, mak­ing Red Notice an ear­ly can­di­date for any list of the year’s best books,” says Nor­man Pearl­s­tine in Fortune.

 

“The cut and thrust, and the high stakes, make for a zesty tale… It’s a Hol­ly­wood end­ing, right down to the stand­ing ova­tion giv­en by more than 700 Euro­pean mem­bers of Par­lia­ment after pass­ing the leg­is­la­tion,” writes William Grimes in the  New York Times.

 

“Bill Brow­der writes the way he talks — which is always a good strat­e­gy,” says Nick Cohen in Dai­ly Beast.

 

“This was a ter­rif­ic book. Part biog­ra­phy, his­to­ry, and thriller it looks at the author’s career in the world of invest­ment and finance,” says G.I Gur­d­ji­eff, one of Amazon’s top 500 review­ers in his 5‑star review.

 

Among oth­er com­ments on Amazon.com:

 

“I stayed up way too late read­ing this book…”

 

“If you only read one book this year, read Red Notice. You won’t regret it a bit.”

 

“It’s thrilling and it’s real.”

 

“Excel­lent.”

 

To learn more, vis­it the ‘Red Notice’ web­site: http://billbrowder.com

 

 

US Congress Introduces Ground-breaking Global Magnitsky Human Rights Bill To Fight Impunity All Over the World

February 2, 2015

Both cham­bers of the US Con­gress have intro­duced the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty bill, a deter­rent for klep­to­crats and human rights abusers around the world. The new bill expands and glob­al­izes the Mag­nit­sky Act of 2012, which cre­at­ed tar­get­ed visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights vio­la­tors in Russia.

 

“This is a poignant lega­cy for Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a man who gave his life for his ideals, to have his name on a piece of leg­is­la­tion which will fight impuni­ty of human rights abusers and cor­rupt offi­cials around the world,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice movement.

 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill has been intro­duced in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by Chris Smith, Chair­man of the U.S. Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion   (http://www.csce.gov/), and Jim McGov­ern, Co-Chair­man of the Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion (http://tlhrc.house.gov/),  and in the Sen­ate by U.S. Sen­a­tors John McCain and Ben Cardin, with co-spon­sors U.S. Sen­a­tors Dick Durbin (D‑Ill.), Roger Wick­er (R‑Miss.), Jeanne Sha­heen (D‑NH), Mar­co Rubio (R‑Fla.), Ed Markey (D‑Mass.), Mark Kirk (R‑Ill.) and Richard Blu­men­thal (D‑Conn.) (http://www.cardin.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/cardin-mccain-reintroduce-global-magnitsky-human-rights-accountability-act).

 

The House ver­sion of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill (H.R. 624) con­tains stronger lan­guage, in par­tic­u­lar, direct­ing rather than per­mit­ting the U.S. Pres­i­dent to impose sanc­tions on klep­to­crats and gross human rights vio­la­tors. It also assigns the U.S. Comp­trol­ler Gen­er­al to exam­ine and report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the leg­is­la­tion. The House ver­sion of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill also requires the sanc­tions list to be pub­lished annu­al­ly on 10 Decem­ber, which marks the Human Rights Day in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the adop­tion by the Unit­ed Nations of the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights in 1948.

 

The pre­vi­ous Mag­nit­sky Act of 2012 was a prece­dent set­ting piece of leg­is­la­tion requir­ing the U.S. gov­ern­ment to con­front impuni­ty, and cre­ate con­se­quences for those involved in human rights atroc­i­ties in Rus­sia, includ­ing the tor­ture and killing of Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered. The tar­get­ed sanc­tions includ­ed visa bans and asset freez­ing, as well as a mech­a­nism through which the sanc­tioned indi­vid­u­als are pub­licly named, cre­at­ing a real con­se­quence for human rights abusers in Russia.

 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill extends these tools to for­eign gov­ern­ment offi­cials and their senior asso­ciates respon­si­ble for or com­plic­it in order­ing, con­trol­ling or direct­ing “acts of sig­nif­i­cant cor­rup­tion, …bribery, or trans­fer of the pro­ceeds of cor­rup­tion to for­eign juris­dic­tions” and those who “mate­ri­al­ly assist­ed, spon­sored, or pro­vid­ed finan­cial, mate­r­i­al, or tech­no­log­i­cal sup­port” for such activities.

 

The gen­e­sis of the 2012 Mag­nit­sky Act and the extra­or­di­nary sto­ry of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, whose name now lives in the U.S. law, are fea­tured in the explo­sive new book by William Brow­der, “Red Notice,” which will be pub­lished on 3 Feb­ru­ary 2015.

 

U.S. Sen­a­tor McCain said ahead of the book launch this week:

 

“In ‘Red Notice’, Bill Brow­der tells the har­row­ing and inspir­ing sto­ry of how his fight for jus­tice in Rus­sia made him an unlike­ly inter­na­tion­al human rights leader and Vladimir Putin’s num­ber-one enemy.”

 

To learn more about ‘Red Notice,’ vis­it the book web­site: http://billbrowder.com

 

В Конгресс внесен Глобальный Закон о правах человека имени Магнитского

February 2, 2015

 

Глобальный закон «Об ответственности за нарушения прав человека имени Сергея Магнитского» (The­Glob­al­Mag­nit­sky­Hu­man­Right­sAc­count­abil­i­ty­Bill) внесен в Конгресс США.

 

Инициаторами законопроекта в Палате представителей выступили конгрессмены от штатов Нью-Джерси и Массачусетс Крис Смит и Джим Макгаверн, а в Сенате – сенаторы Бен Кардин и Джон Маккейн, со-авторы «Закона Магнитского», введшего впервые в 2012 году режим персонифицированных публичных санкций в отношении лиц, причастных к делу Магнитского и другим нарушениям прав человека в России.

 

Глобальный законопроект о правах человека имени Магнитского распространяет режим этих санкций на нарушителей прав человека во всем мире, а также на государственных чиновников, их помощников, ответственных либо причастных к решениям, связанным с «коррупцией, …взятками, либо переводом доходов от коррупции в иностранные юрисдикции», а также всех тех, кто оказал им в этом «финансовое, материальное либо технологическое содействие».

 

«Имя Сергея Магнитского увековечено в уже принятом в США антикоррупционном законе, а теперь и новом глобальном законопроекте о правах человека. Россияне могут гордиться тем, что подвиг их соотечественника сегодня стал символом борьбы с несправедливостью во всем мире», — сказал представитель программы «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского».

 

В настоящий момент в список санкций Магнитского правительством СШАвключены 32 человека, включая 28 российских чиновников и частных лиц, имеющих отношение  к делу Магнитского и раскрытому им хищению из бюджета 5,4 миллиардов рублей.

 

 

О новом Глобальном законопроекте Магнитского читайте на сайте Хельсинкской Комиссии США: http://www.csce.gov/

 

 

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »

• Link