In European Parliament Testimony, William Browder Exposes 10 Facts Proving the Russian Government Cover-Up of Sergei Magnitsky’s Murder

May 27, 2011

Tes­ti­fy­ing yes­ter­day at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, pre­sent­ed ten facts which showed the mas­sive, insti­tu­tion­al cov­er-up engi­neered to pro­tect the gov­ern­ment offi­cials who were respon­si­ble for the tor­ture and mur­der in state cus­tody of his Russ­ian lawyer, 37-year old Sergei Magnitsky.

Mr. Brow­der tes­ti­fied before a meet­ing of the Euro­pean Par­lia­men­t’s Del­e­ga­tion to the EU-Rus­sia Par­lia­men­tary Coop­er­a­tion Com­mit­tee. Mr. Brow­der also tes­ti­fied before the Euro­pean Parliament’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Human Rights.

Address­ing the Euro­pean law­mak­ers, Mr. Brow­der said:

“It is a clear and emblem­at­ic case study of the depth and reach of cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia. The jus­tice sys­tem is bro­ken and crim­i­nalised. Offi­cials steal from their own country’s cof­fers with impuni­ty, unabashed­ly mur­der the inno­cent peo­ple who stand in their way, and use the very sys­tem that is meant to pro­tect ordi­nary cit­i­zens to pro­tect them­selves in their crimes. Giv­en the involve­ment of the most senior gov­ern­ment offi­cials in the pros­e­cu­tion of Mag­nit­sky, and in the cov­er-up and pro­tec­tion since his death, it is incon­ceiv­able that an inves­ti­ga­tion by Russ­ian author­i­ties alone could be just, fair, unbi­ased and free from the inter­fer­ence of those same senior state offi­cials.” Read more

US Senator Cardin Submits Unprecedented Legislation Dramatically Expanding the Magnitsky Sanctions in Russia

May 20, 2011

Today, Sen­a­tor Ben­jamin Cardin (D‑Md.) sub­mit­ted a new ver­sion of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion which would impose sanc­tions against Russ­ian offi­cials who per­pe­trate human rights abus­es and face no accountability.

The new bill enti­tled: “The Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2011” fol­lows on from the pre­vi­ous “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010” which was sub­mit­ted in the 111^th Con­gress. Like the pre­vi­ous bill, this law will specif­i­cal­ly can­cel visas and deny entry into the US to all those who played a role in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and those involved in the cor­rup­tion and thefts of pub­lic funds that he had exposed. The new ver­sion of the law also applies sanc­tions to Russ­ian offi­cials who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the cov­er-up of those indi­vid­u­als who tor­tured and killed Mr. Magnitsky.

In addi­tion, the new Mag­nit­sky Act takes a dra­mat­ic step for­ward and will apply sanc­tions to all those who are involved in killings, gross abuse and tor­ture of human rights activists, jour­nal­ists, anti cor­rup­tion whistle­blow­ers and oth­er fight­ers for democ­ra­cy and rule of law. Specif­i­cal­ly, the visa ban will affect all indi­vid­u­als in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion who are:

“respon­si­ble for extra­ju­di­cial killings, tor­ture, or oth­er gross vio­la­tions of human rights com­mit­ted against indi­vid­u­als seek­ing to expose ille­gal activ­i­ty car­ried out by offi­cials of the Gov­ern­ment of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion; or to obtain, exer­cise, defend, or pro­mote inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized human rights and free­doms, such as the free­doms of reli­gion, expres­sion, asso­ci­a­tion, and assem­bly and the rights to a fair tri­al and demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions.” Read more

William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital, summoned for questioning in Moscow by Investigator Implicated in Magnitsky Murder

May 12, 2011

Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tor Oleg Silchenko, who was respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der in cus­tody of Her­mitage Fund’s lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, has issued a sum­mons to ques­tion the CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, William Brow­der, in Moscow.

The sum­mons came by fax from Silchenko just two days before the date of the intend­ed ques­tion­ing. Silchenko’s notice was print­ed on Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry let­ter­head and was faxed to Hermitage’s Lon­don office on 10 May, invit­ing William Brow­der to appear in Moscow two days lat­er on May 12, at 11 am at the Min­istry of Inte­ri­or Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee: Office 71, ¹⁰⁄₂ B Nikit­skaya, Moscow, Russ­ian Federation.

“The notice from Silchenko is absurd. Silchenko is well aware that William Brow­der was banned from enter­ing the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion on “nation­al secu­ri­ty” grounds. Silchenko is clear­ly retal­i­at­ing against Mr Browder’s glob­al cam­paign to get jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky and efforts to intro­duce sanc­tions against Silchenko and oth­er Russ­ian offi­cials who played a role in Sergei’s, tor­ture and death,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Silchenko faxed three copies of the same sum­mons, one after the oth­er, at the same time, chang­ing the date on each fax head­er, to make it appear that they were sent at dif­fer­ent dates and times. How­ev­er, the receipt details from the fax­es all show that they were sent on the same day and with­in min­utes of each other.

The notice states Silchenko’s inten­tion to give to Mr Brow­der the text of an “accu­sa­tion” and to ques­tion Mr Brow­der. How­ev­er, none of Mr Browder’s Russ­ian lawyers have been noti­fied of this action in breach of Russ­ian law, which requires the inves­ti­ga­tor to advise lawyers of any such sum­mons. In his sum­mons, Silchenko has also ignored the Russ­ian legal norms stip­u­lat­ed for ques­tion­ing UK nation­als through the Russ­ian / UK mutu­al legal assis­tance treaties.

“The fact that the sum­mons from Moscow to Lon­don was sent by fax and with only two days notice, is sim­ply laugh­able. Silchenko keeps demon­strat­ing his incom­pe­tence and inabil­i­ty to work with­in the law. If  Silchenko has any legal ques­tions, we would be delight­ed to see him in Lon­don where we have some legal ques­tions of our own for him,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Last week, Silchenko also issued an arrest war­rant for anoth­er Her­mitage Cap­i­tal exec­u­tive, Ivan Cherkasov. It is being appealed by Mr Cherkasov’s lawyers as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed, retal­ia­to­ry and illegitimate.

Silchenko has become famous across Rus­sia and the world for his role in the tor­ture of Mr Mag­nit­sky which includ­ed: fal­si­fy­ing evi­dence, deny­ing him med­ical care, with­hold­ing food and clean water and for­bid­ding him access to his fam­i­ly. These actions were tak­en in an attempt to force Mr. Mag­nit­sky to retract his tes­ti­monies against cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials who he had accused of mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing three Her­mitage Fund com­pa­nies, and embez­zling $230 mil­lion of pub­lic tax­es. Based on com­plaints filed by Mr Mag­nit­sky, Silchenko also tried to pres­sure Mr. Mag­nit­sky to sign a false con­fes­sion to impli­cate him­self as well as his client, Mr Brow­der. Three days before his death, Mr. Mag­nit­sky filed a com­plaint with the courts stat­ing his deter­mi­na­tion to bring Silchenko, and oth­er offi­cials who fal­si­fied his case, to trial.

Since Sergei Magnitsky’s death in cus­tody a year and a half ago, the Moscow Helsin­ki Group, an inde­pen­dent Russ­ian human rights organ­i­sa­tion, has filed crim­i­nal com­plaints against Silchenko for his role in the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of Mr Mag­nit­sky and the cov­er up of gov­ern­ment offi­cials exposed by Mag­nit­sky in corruption.

Last year, Silchenko also fal­si­fied evi­dence against anoth­er of Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyers, Alexan­der Antipov, in an attempt to arrest him and have him dis­barred. These actions were pub­licly con­demned by the Moscow Bar Association.

Last month, mem­bers of the Russ­ian president’s Human Rights Coun­cil released part of their find­ings on the Mag­nit­sky case which stat­ed that Mr. Mag­nit­sky was impris­oned by Silchenko on false grounds and that the Inte­ri­or Min­istry and the Russ­ian Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (FSB), had fab­ri­cat­ed the case against him. This is the same case for which Mr Brow­der is being sought for ques­tion­ing today.

In spite of Oleg Silchenko’s pub­lic record and involve­ment in the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, last year Russ­ian author­i­ties pro­mot­ed Silchenko and gave him top state hon­ours on the one year anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death.

In 2009, the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe con­clud­ed in their report on ‘Alle­ga­tions of Polit­i­cal­ly-Moti­vat­ed Abus­es of the Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Sys­tem in Coun­cil of Europe Mem­bers States’, that:

“the pro­ceed­ings in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion against Her­mitage exec­u­tives and lawyers were polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed and as such, any request from Rus­sia for mutu­al legal assis­tance must be reject­ed as being con­trary to the estab­lished legal norms”.

Silchenko’s notice comes weeks after the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor opened, on appli­ca­tion from Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, an inves­ti­ga­tion into mon­ey laun­der­ing by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and their fam­i­lies. These offi­cials were impli­cat­ed in the theft of Her­mitage Fund’s invest­ment com­pa­nies and $230 mil­lion stolen from pub­lic funds – crimes uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and which inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko played a key role in concealing.

Swiss Authorities Freeze Accounts of Russian Government Officials Implicated in $230 Million Fraud Uncovered by Hermitage Lawyer Magnitsky

May 6, 2011

Accord­ing to Barron’s, Swiss author­i­ties have frozen the bank accounts and assets of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials exposed for their role in car­ry­ing out the largest ille­gal tax refund in Russ­ian history.

The asset freez­ing was tak­en as an emer­gency mea­sure by Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor as part of their crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion opened on March 7, 2011 in response to a com­plaint filed by Her­mitage Cap­i­tal against the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the theft of $230 million.

“The net around the cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials is tight­en­ing. Their access to illic­it wealth is being cut off step by step. Trag­i­cal­ly, Sergei Mag­nit­sky did not live to see the first results of his inves­ti­ga­tion — the freez­ing of assets stolen from the Russ­ian state. He would have want­ed to see all the stolen mon­ey returned to the Russ­ian peo­ple where it right­ly belongs after he had so brave­ly exposed the cor­rupt offi­cials who per­pe­trat­ed the crime,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The offi­cials exposed by Her­mitage Fund lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky for orches­trat­ing the theft of $230 mil­lion of gov­ern­ment funds, have since acquired $47 mil­lion in Swiss bank accounts, sports cars and lux­u­ry prop­er­ties around the world. These offi­cials who were impli­cat­ed as per­pe­tra­tors in the theft, were then appoint­ed by Russ­ian author­i­ties to con­duct the inves­ti­ga­tion into the stolen funds. Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tors appar­ent­ly “can­not” locate the stolen funds because the truck car­ry­ing the bank records “explod­ed”, accord­ing to Iri­na Duduk­i­na, press sec­re­tary to the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry.

To date, not a sin­gle offi­cial has been pros­e­cut­ed for this theft in Rus­sia. Instead, the same inves­ti­ga­tor who false­ly arrest­ed Sergei Mag­nit­sky and kept him in deten­tion with­out tri­al for 358 days in order to pres­sure him to with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny against gov­ern­ment offi­cials, was put in charge of the inves­ti­ga­tion into the theft. Mag­nit­sky died as a result of his tor­ture in cus­tody at the age of 37, leav­ing a wife and two children.

Two weeks ago, as part of the cam­paign seek­ing jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky, his for­mer col­leagues released a third video on YouTube in the “Russ­ian Untouch­ables” series. This video shows the huge wealth acquired by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and their fam­i­lies short­ly after the ille­gal tax refund was approved. The video expos­es mon­ey trans­fers into Swiss bank accounts and the use of those same Swiss accounts to pur­chase lux­u­ry real estate in Dubai and Mon­tene­gro. The video also shows how offi­cials of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry aid­ed the fraud­u­lent refund and sub­se­quent­ly silenced the whis­tle blow­er, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, by slow­ly killing him in detention.

This week, Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials retal­i­at­ed against the video exposé and the Swiss crim­i­nal com­plaint by issu­ing an unlaw­ful arrest war­rant for a Lon­don-based exec­u­tive of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, Ivan Cherkasov. Judge Kovalevskaya of the Moscow Tver­skoi court approved the peti­tion based on mate­ri­als shown to be fal­si­fied. In breach of the judi­cial pro­ce­dure, the judge also refused every one of the two dozen com­plaints filed by Mr Cherkasov’s lawyers to ver­i­fy the mate­ri­als sub­mit­ted by inves­ti­ga­tors and to review doc­u­ments request­ed by the defense.

The inves­ti­ga­tion by the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor continues.

Magnitsky Act Reintroduced and Expanded in the US Congress

April 19, 2011

The ‘Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2011’ (the “Mag­nit­sky Act”) has been intro­duced for con­sid­er­a­tion by the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by Con­gress­man James McGov­ern, Co-Chair of the U.S. Con­gres­sion­al Tom Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mis­sion. The Mag­nit­sky Act impos­es visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on Russ­ian state offi­cials who are respon­si­ble for human rights abus­es, tor­ture and the death in cus­tody of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Novem­ber 2009. The Mag­nit­sky Act also extends US sanc­tions to those Russ­ian offi­cials who are involved in the sub­se­quent cov­er-up of Magnitsky’s ille­gal deten­tion and tor­ture. The Mag­nit­sky Act is now slat­ed for mark-ups by House Com­mit­tees and for con­sid­er­a­tion in the larg­er Congress.

In intro­duc­ing the Mag­nit­sky Act in the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on 15 April 2011, Con­gress­man McGov­ern tes­ti­fied that the facts of the case

“make Sergei Mag­nit­sky an emblem­at­ic vic­tim of much larg­er human rights prob­lems in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion, the utter cor­rup­tion and the com­plete lack of the rule of law in that coun­try. This is what makes the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act not just an urgent inter­ven­tion and attempt to estab­lish account­abil­i­ty in an indi­vid­ual case, but it makes this Act a true Russ­ian Human Rights Act.” Read more

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