Latvian Regulator Imposes Largest Possible Fine on a Latvian Bank involved in Money Laundering Connected to the Magnitsky Case

June 19, 2013

Fol­low­ing a probe into six Lat­vian banks, Latvia’s finan­cial mar­kets reg­u­la­tor, the Finan­cial and Cap­i­tal Mar­ket Com­mis­sion, has imposed a fine of 100 thou­sand Lats (around $191,000) the max­i­mum fine pos­si­ble on one Lat­vian bank for its role in laun­der­ing the $230 mil­lion stolen from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment direct­ly con­nect­ed to the Mag­nit­sky case.

The probe was based on a com­plaint filed by Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment with the Lat­vian author­i­ties in July 2012 nam­ing six banks (Aizkrauk­les Bank, Baltic Inter­na­tion­al Bank, Baltic Trust Bank, Pri­vat­Bank, Rietu­mu Bank and Trasta Komer­cbank) that received funds direct­ly or indi­rect­ly from the $230 mil­lion ille­gal tax refund exposed by the late Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Read more

Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Calls for a Public Hearing on the Role that Moscow Judges Played in Her Son’s Death

June 13, 2013

The moth­er of Sergei Mag­nit­sky wrote an open let­ter to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil of Russ­ian Judges call­ing for a pub­lic hear­ing on the role that the Moscow judges played in her son’s death and an exam­i­na­tion of the facts behind their inclu­sion in the US Mag­nit­sky List. 

“I ask you to con­duct an open hear­ing on the rea­sons for the inclu­sion of Moscow city judges in the Mag­nit­sky list at the ses­sion of the Coun­cil of Judges of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion with my par­tic­i­pa­tion,” said Mrs Mag­nit­skaya in an open let­ter pub­lished by Novaya Gaze­ta in Rus­sia (see in Russ­ian: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/columns/58555.html).
The appeal from Mrs Mag­nit­skaya comes after the 22 April 2012 decree issued by the pre­sid­i­um of the Moscow Coun­cil of Judges “con­demn­ing” the adop­tion of the Mag­nit­sky law in the Unit­ed States and the inclu­sion of four Moscow judges on the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list (link to the decree of the Moscow Coun­cil of Judges in Russ­ian: http://www.mos-gorsud.ru/files/pdf/sovet_sudei.pdf) The decree was adopt­ed secret­ly from the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly, but then broad­cast on all Russ­ian state TV chan­nels on 27 April 2013 by the head of the Moscow City Judges Coun­cil Gali­na Aga­fono­va (see a report on Rossiya 24 Vesti pro­gram in Russ­ian: http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=1079711). Read more

Russia Ignores Interpol’s Ruling and Re-Applies to Interpol for a Red Notice for William Browder to Block Magnitsky Justice Campaign

June 5, 2013

Today, Russ­ian author­i­ties have announced they are re-apply­ing to Inter­pol to seek a Red Notice to arrest William Brow­der in spite of the Interpol’s ear­li­er deci­sion reject­ing Russ­ian requests for him as ille­git­i­mate and polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed. Read more

European Parliamentarians Plan to Veto EU-Russia Agreement on Visa-Free Travel for Russian Officials Unless EU Implements Magnitsky Sanctions

June 4, 2013

As the EU-Rus­sia Sum­mit gets under way in Yeka­ter­in­burg today, 47 mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment said they will veto the agree­ment for the visa-free trav­el for Russ­ian offi­cials cur­rent­ly under nego­ti­a­tion between the EU and Rus­sia unless the EU imple­ments Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions. Euro­pean par­lia­men­tar­i­ans have stat­ed their posi­tion in a writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­tion to the for­eign affairs min­is­ters of all 27 EU mem­ber states. The Euro­pean Parliament’s con­sent is required for any such EU-Rus­sia visa agree­ment to come into force.

“Under cur­rent cir­cum­stances we will be unable to sup­port any visa facil­i­ta­tion agree­ments with Rus­sia and will advo­cate the Par­lia­ment to refuse its con­sent, unless the Coun­cil adopts an EU ‘Mag­nit­sky law’ as pro­posed in the Parliament’s rec­om­men­da­tion of Octo­ber 2012,” said Euro­pean par­lia­men­tar­i­ans in their letter.

The let­ter (http://www.donskis.lt/p/en/1/1_/1495) was signed by a num­ber of influ­en­tial mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, includ­ing Edward McMil­lan-Scott MEP, Mem­ber of the Bureau of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Guy Ver­hof­s­tadt MEP, for­mer Prime Min­is­ter of Bel­gium, Vytau­tas Lands­ber­gis MEP, For­mer Pres­i­dent of Lithua­nia, Kris­ti­ina Oju­land MEP, for­mer For­eign Min­is­ter of Esto­nia, Mario David MEP, for­mer Por­tuguese Sec­re­tary of State for Euro­pean Affairs, and Bar­bara Lochbih­ler MEP, Chair of the Euro­pean Parliament’s Human Rights Sub­com­mit­tee, among others.

The let­ter comes amidst the lack of reac­tion from the EU Coun­cil to the Euro­pean Parliament’s call for sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case and oth­er human rights vio­la­tions. In the res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed last Octo­ber 2012 (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2012 – 0369&language=EN&ring=A7-2012 – 0285 ), the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment rec­om­mend­ed to the EU Coun­cil to impose visa bans and asset freezes on those Russ­ian offi­cials who were respon­si­ble for Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest, tor­ture and death, as well as oth­er gross human rights abusers from Rus­sia. In the eight months since that res­o­lu­tion was passed, the EU Coun­cil has tak­en no action.

In the mean­time, the Euro­pean Coun­cil has begun active nego­ti­a­tions with Rus­sia to allow visa-free trav­el for Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials with­in the EU under demands from Rus­sia. Giv­en that under this agree­ment, the same per­sons who were respon­si­ble for Sergei Magnitsky’s death, as well as oth­er gross human rights abus­es would be pro­vid­ed visa-free trav­el in the EU, the Euro­pean par­lia­men­tar­i­ans felt com­pelled to use their veto pow­er over the pro­posed EU-Rus­sia agree­ment to pre­vent Russ­ian human rights abusers from slip­ping into Europe through this visa waiv­er program.

This devel­op­ment fol­lows reports last week from an EU source (http://euobserver.com/foreign/120333) indi­cat­ing that the EU lead­er­ship will bow to Russ­ian pres­sure and back down from call­ing for jus­tice in the Mag­nit­sky case. The EU source stat­ed that the tor­ture and killing of the young whis­tle-blow­ing Russ­ian lawyer is a mat­ter of Russia’s “inter­nal legal sys­tem.”  The posi­tion espoused by an EU offi­cial comes in con­tra­dic­tion to the OSCE/Helsinki human rights pro­to­cols signed in the 1980s by both Rus­sia and EU mem­ber states, which specif­i­cal­ly assert that human rights is a mat­ter for the legit­i­mate inter­na­tion­al con­cern, and is not to be viewed as an inter­nal mat­ter of each state.

Appen­dix

List of Sig­na­to­ries to the Letter:

Interpol Rejects Russia’s Politically Motivated Warrant and Rules in Favour of William Browder

May 24, 2013

Inter­pol has reject­ed Russia’s attempt to mis­use Inter­pol sys­tems against William Brow­der, the leader of the world­wide cam­paign for jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky, by delet­ing its request from the Interpol’s channels.
“The deci­sion by Inter­pol to delete the Russ­ian “all points bul­letin” for William Brow­der from the Inter­pol sys­tem is a clear sign that a deeply cor­rupt regime will not be allowed to freely per­se­cute whis­tle-blow­ers who have exposed it. We hope that one day those respon­si­ble for Sergei Magnisky’s tor­ture and mur­der will be brought to jus­tice, with help from Inter­pol,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Read more

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