// In The Press - English Press

The Daily Telegraph: Law society warning over Russia’s ‘state-sponsored intimidation’

September 11, 2008

 
By Philip Aldrick

A lead­ing inter­na­tion­al law soci­ety has con­demned Rus­sia for the “state-spon­sored intim­i­da­tion” of lawyers rep­re­sent­ing HSBC and the hedge fund Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment after they uncov­ered a large alleged tax fraud.

In com­ments that will add to grow­ing unease about oper­at­ing in Rus­sia, the Inter­na­tion­al Bar Asso­ci­a­tion warned of a “dete­ri­o­ra­tion in the rule of law” after offi­cers at the Inte­ri­or Min­istry raid­ed the offices of lawyers work­ing for Her­mitage and HSBC and issued sum­mons for them to appear as wit­ness­es on cas­es in which they are acting.

Mark Ellis, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the IBA, said: “Respect for the role of lawyers and the inde­pen­dence of the judi­cia­ry rep­re­sent an essen­tial fea­ture of the rule of law. When gov­ern­ment agents inter­fere with the work of lawyers, it is not only the legal pro­fes­sion that is threat­ened, but the over­all legal order in the state.”

Her­mitage claims to have been under attack by sophis­ti­cat­ed crim­i­nals with con­nec­tions in Rus­si­a’s Inte­ri­or Min­istry. The Min­istry last month raid­ed four law firms in Moscow, includ­ing Fire­stone Dun­can of the US.

(more…)

The New York Times: An Investment Gets Trapped in Kremlin’s Vise

July 24, 2008

William F. Brow­der was one of the most promi­nent for­eign investors here, a cor­po­rate provo­ca­teur who brought the tac­tics of Wall Street share­hold­er activists to the free-for-all of post-Sovi­et cap­i­tal­ism. Until, that is, the Krem­lin expelled him in 2005.

Mr. Brow­der then focused on pro­tect­ing his bil­lions of dol­lars of stakes in major Krem­lin-con­trolled com­pa­nies, like Gazprom, and on fight­ing to return to a land where he had deep and unusu­al fam­i­ly ties. So when he ran into Dmitri A. Medvedev, the coun­try’s future pres­i­dent, at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum in Davos last year, he saw his chance.

In a brief con­ver­sa­tion at a din­ner at the Swiss resort, he pressed Mr. Medvedev for help in regain­ing his Russ­ian visa. Mr. Medvedev, then a top aide to Pres­i­dent Vladimir V. Putin, agreed to pass along his request.

(more…)

The Financial Times: Hermitage in Russia fraud claim

April 4, 2008

By Neil Buck­ley and Cather­ine Bel­ton in Moscow

Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, whose man­ag­er William Brow­der has been barred from Rus­sia for more than two years, alleged yes­ter­day that it and HSBC bank had been vic­tims of an elab­o­rate attempt in Rus­sia to defraud them of hun­dreds of mil­lions of dollars.

A legal com­plaint to Russ­ian pros­e­cu­tors sent by lawyers rep­re­sent­ing Her­mitage and HSBC Man­age­ment Ltd in Guernsey, which is trustee and man­ag­er of the Her­mitage fund, said the com­pa­ny’s Russ­ian assets had been the tar­get of a “large-scale crim­i­nal conspiracy”.

Accord­ing to the com­plaint, the attempt­ed fraud began with an inves­ti­ga­tion by an inte­ri­or min­istry unit into alleged tax eva­sion by Her­mitage last year.

(more…)

« Previous Page

• Link