// In The Press

The Huffington Post: Open Season on Lawyers in Russia

February 19, 2010

Rus­sia has become a pret­ty scary place for lawyers to work, and not for any lack of pow­er lunch­es, major deal­mak­ing, or lux­u­ry retail­ers. While we most often hear about the scores of jour­nal­ists who pay a high price for their crit­i­cism of the Krem­lin, the legal pro­fes­sion has come under attack as well, in both polit­i­cal cas­es as well as run-of-the-mill cor­rup­tion. In recent years, dozens of lawyers have been forced into prison, out of the coun­try, or worse.

The most famous lawyers to fall vic­tim to these prey­ing forces would be Stanislav Markelov, the human rights lawyer who was shot dead on a Moscow side­walk; Vasi­ly Alex­anyan, the Yukos gen­er­al coun­sel who was refused med­ica­tion for AIDS and tuber­cu­lo­sis; and Sergei Mag­nistky, the cor­po­rate lawyer who most recent­ly died in prison fol­low­ing abu­sive treat­ment in rela­tion to the Her­mitage case.

The most recent name to make the head­lines is Jami­son Fire­stone, the 44-year-old Amer­i­can found­ing part­ner of the law firm Fire­stone Dun­can in Moscow, who has been forced to flee Rus­sia for his own safe­ty. Fire­stone was the for­mer employ­er of Mag­nit­sky, and rep­re­sent­ed Her­mitage in their recent tra­vails against state corruption.

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Bloomberg: Firestone Flees Moscow ‘Mafia’ Police as Browder Affair Widens

February 19, 2010

Jami­son Fire­stone, who spent 18 years help­ing U.S. com­pa­nies nav­i­gate Russia’s legal sys­tem, said he fled the coun­try because he’s the next tar­get of “mafia” law-enforce­ment offi­cials he says were respon­si­ble for the death of his col­league Sergei Magnitsky.

Fire­stone, 44, a U.S. cit­i­zen and for­mer board mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce in Rus­sia, said Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials made two attempts to obtain $21 mil­lion in tax­es that a com­pa­ny he’s a direc­tor of paid to the gov­ern­ment. He said the per­pe­tra­tors forged his sig­na­ture and cor­po­rate seals to seek tax rebates, sim­i­lar to the $230 mil­lion in claims made by funds expro­pri­at­ed from Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, a $1 bil­lion invest­ment firm run by his client William Browder.

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Ведомости: Юрист убежал от налогов

February 19, 2010

Схема похищения налогов из бюджета, использованная в нашумевшем деле Her­mitage, была применена снова, утверждает директор Fire­stone Dun­can Джемисон Файерстоун, на которого работал погибший в тюрьме Сергей Магнитский. Опасаясь за свою свободу, он покинул Россию

Основатель юркомпании Fire­stone Dun­can Джемисон Файерстоун в интервью Bloomberg обвинил ряд сотрудников органов внутренних дел в попытке незаконно возместить из бюджета $21 млн с помощью управляемой им самим компании, а Генпрокуратуру и МВД — в нежелании реагировать на эти факты.

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Businessweek: Deadly Business in Moscow

February 19, 2010

An Amer­i­can lawyer’s expe­ri­ence under­scores the law­less­ness out­siders oper­at­ing in Rus­sia can face.

Jami­son Fire­stone was at his desk when the com­mo­tion began. On the morn­ing of June 4, 2007, the Amer­i­can attor­ney heard loud voic­es com­ing from the recep­tion area of his law firm, Fire­stone Dun­can, on Krasno­pro­le­tarskaya Street in Moscow. He went out to inves­ti­gate and was greet­ed by two dozen offi­cers from the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry.

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Bloomberg: Jamie Firestone Calls Russian Police System ‘Corrupt’

February 18, 2010

Jami­son Jamie Fire­stone, man­ag­ing part­ner of the law firm Fire­stone Dun­can, talks with Bloombergs Deirdre Bolton and Erik Schatzk­er about his alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion with­in Rus­si­a’s police force and the death of his employ­ee, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who was arrest­ed and died in jail after tes­ti­fy­ing against police offi­cers. Fire­stone also dis­cuss­es his rea­sons for flee­ing the coun­try. (Source: Bloomberg)

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