// Press Releases (in English)

Russian Official Offers to Become FBI Informant to Assist Son Allegedly Involved in Money Laundering Scandal in Magnitsky Case

December 10, 2015

Russ­ian Offi­cial Offers to Become FBI Infor­mant to Assist Son Alleged­ly Involved in Mon­ey Laun­der­ing Scan­dal in Mag­nit­sky Case

Pyotr Kat­syv, for­mer Min­is­ter of Trans­port for Moscow Region, Vice Pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Railways

10 Decem­ber 2015 – Doc­u­ments filed in the US court in the first US civ­il mon­ey laun­der­ing case involv­ing the $230 mil­lion crime that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had uncov­ered, show that Pyotr (also spelled Petr) Kat­syv, a senior Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cial, offered to become an FBI infor­mant to help set­tle the mon­ey laun­der­ing action brought against his son’s com­pa­ny in the Mag­nit­sky case.

Accord­ing to court doc­u­ments, Pyotr Kat­syv, cur­rent­ly Vice Pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways, and for­mer Vice Pre­mier of the Moscow Region­al Gov­ern­ment, offered the US Gov­ern­ment to meet to pro­vide infor­ma­tion on “crim­i­nal activ­i­ty in Rus­sia.” This offer was pre­ced­ed by a meet­ing between his son, Denis Kat­syv, and FBI Spe­cial Agent in Rome, Italy.

Fol­low­ing the offer from Pyotr Kat­syv, plans were made by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice to meet him in Hun­gary in Sep­tem­ber 2014. How­ev­er, he did not show up at the meeting.

One month lat­er, in Octo­ber 2014,  it was announced that Pyotr Kat­syv was appoint­ed vice pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways, the Russ­ian state com­pa­ny, whose for­mer chair­man Vladimir Yakunin is a close ally of Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin and sub­ject of US sanc­tions. Pyotr Kat­syv then informed the US Gov­ern­ment that that he want­ed to “nego­ti­ate a set­tle­ment” in the case of his son, Denis Katsyv.

Denis Kat­syv

Denis Katsyv’s com­pa­ny, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings, is defen­dant in the civ­il for­fei­ture and mon­ey laun­der­ing case brought by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice in 2013. The US court froze US$14 mil­lion of Pre­ve­zon assets in real estate and bank accounts pend­ing tri­al in this action.

In addi­tion to the US pro­ceed­ing, assets of Denis Kastyv and Pre­ve­zon have been frozen by the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor under the crim­i­nal mon­ey laun­der­ing inves­ti­ga­tion con­nect­ed to the same $230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. In 2005, anoth­er com­pa­ny of Denis Kat­syv, Mar­tash, had 35 mil­lion shekels (U.S. $8 mil­lion) con­fis­cat­ed as part of set­tle­ment of a sep­a­rate mon­ey laun­der­ing inves­ti­ga­tion by the Gov­ern­ment of Israel.

Accord­ing to the US Gov­ern­ment, Katsyv’s com­pa­ny was involved in laun­der­ing into Man­hat­tan real estate pro­ceeds con­nect­ed to the $230 mil­lion crime. The US Gov­ern­ment has traced over US$4.2 mil­lion in false and ques­tion­able wire trans­fers to Pre­ve­zon, described as pay­ments for “bath tubs,” “auto spare parts,” video equip­ment” and oth­er goods, while Pre­ve­zon is a real estate com­pa­ny that has noth­ing to do with man­u­fac­tur­ing or trad­ing goods. Near­ly $2 mil­lion of those trans­fers have been traced by the US Gov­ern­ment to the $230 mil­lion crime in Rus­sia uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

Accord­ing to court fil­ings, Denis Kat­syv met with FBI Spe­cial Agent Pen­za in Rome on 12 Feb­ru­ary 2014. He was accom­pa­nied to the meet­ing by his Russ­ian attor­ney. The meet­ing, accord­ing to Denis Katsyv’s lawyers, was held at the rec­om­men­da­tion of an unnamed Israeli “con­sul­tant.”

Explain­ing the orig­i­nal meet­ing with FBI, Denis Katsyv’s lawyers said:

“Mr Kat­syv was approached by an Israeli gen­tle­man who rep­re­sent­ed that he was a con­sul­tant in for­fei­ture cas­es and could assist Mr Kat­syv in this case. This indi­vid­ual con­vinced Mr Kat­syv to meet with FBI agents in Rome.”

After the Rome meet­ing, the FBI informed the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, that Denis Kat­syv and his father, Pyotr Kat­syv, want­ed to meet again “to pro­vide infor­ma­tion about crim­i­nal activ­i­ty in Rus­sia.”

After learn­ing that Kat­syv senior want­ed to “act as an arguable inter­me­di­ary” for Kat­syv junior, the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice ter­mi­nat­ed plans to meet with him.

Born in 1953, Denis Katsyv’s father, Pyotr Kat­syv, has been a long-stand­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cial. For twelve years, dur­ing 2000 – 2012, he served as Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion of the Moscow region, while his son’s com­pa­ny was award­ed trans­porta­tion con­tracts from the Moscow region­al bud­get. Dur­ing 2012 – 2013, Pyotr Kat­syv was head of the Moscow Region­al Government’s Depart­ment in charge of rela­tions with fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. In Octo­ber 2014, Pyotr Kat­syv was appoint­ed vice pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways. Kat­syv senior is also mem­ber of the devel­op­ment com­mit­tee of the Trans­porta­tion Ministry.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about the $230 mil­lion fraud in Rus­sia. He was arrest­ed by some of the same Russ­ian offi­cials he had impli­cat­ed in his tes­ti­mo­ny. Sergei Mag­nit­sky was tor­tured and killed in police cus­tody after 358 days in pre-tri­al deten­tion on 16 Novem­ber 2009. In 2012, the US Con­gress passed Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act impos­ing sanc­tions on those involved in Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and death, and their cov­er up.

The tri­al in the USA vs Pre­ve­zon is due to begin on 6 Jan­u­ary 2016. This US action is one in mul­ti­ple facets of the $230 mil­lion fraud, uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Pro­ceeds from that crime have pre­vi­ous­ly been traced to Swiss banks and real estate in Dubai owned by Russ­ian offi­cials and their relatives.

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

Alleged Money Launderers in the Magnitsky Case to Be Brought to Trial in New York on January 6, 2016

December 3, 2015

Alleged Mon­ey Laun­der­ers in the Mag­nit­sky Case to Be Brought to Tri­al in New York on Jan­u­ary 6, 2016

3 Decem­ber 2015 – On Jan­u­ary 6, 2016, the US fed­er­al court in the South­ern Dis­trict of New York, will hear the mon­ey laun­der­ing and civ­il for­fei­ture case — Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca ver­sus Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings Ltd (No 1:13-cv-06326).  This will be the first US legal action con­nect­ed to the $230 mil­lion cor­rupt scheme uncov­ered and exposed by the late Sergei Magnitsky.

The tri­al is based on one facet of a $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud, whose pro­ceeds pre­vi­ous­ly have been traced to Swiss banks and real estate in Dubai.

Accord­ing to the com­plaint filed by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings Ltd received near­ly two mil­lion dol­lars con­nect­ed to the $230 mil­lion fraud scheme exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and invest­ed comin­gled pro­ceeds in mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar prop­er­ties in Manhattan.

The com­plaint alleges that short­ly after the $230 mil­lion fraud was per­pe­trat­ed, Pre­ve­zon received sev­er­al wire trans­fers from the fraud through shell com­pa­nies stat­ing fic­ti­tious rea­sons. For exam­ple, some of the wire trans­fers were described as pay­ments for bath sets and auto parts, while Pre­ve­zon is a real estate com­pa­ny that has noth­ing to do with man­u­fac­tur­ing or trad­ing either of these goods.

Pre­ve­zon is a com­pa­ny owned by Denis Kat­syv, the 38-year old son of the vice pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways and for­mer Trans­porta­tion Min­is­ter of the Moscow Region for­mer Trans­porta­tion Min­is­ter of the Moscow Region in Rus­sia Petr Katsyv.

The US Depart­ment of Justice’s fil­ing says: “Russ­ian crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tion includ­ing cor­rupt Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials defraud­ed Russ­ian tax­pay­ers of approx­i­mate­ly 5.4 bil­lion rubles, or approx­i­mate­ly $230 mil­lion in Unit­ed States dol­lars, through an elab­o­rate tax refund fraud scheme. After per­pe­trat­ing this fraud, mem­bers of the Orga­ni­za­tion have under­tak­en ille­gal actions in order to con­ceal this fraud and retal­i­ate against indi­vid­u­als who attempt­ed to expose it. As a result of these retal­ia­to­ry actions, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian attor­ney who exposed the fraud scheme, was false­ly arrest­ed and died in pre­tri­al detention.” 

“Mem­bers of the Orga­ni­za­tion, and asso­ciates of those mem­bers, have also engaged in a broad pat­tern of mon­ey laun­der­ing in order to con­ceal the pro­ceeds of the fraud scheme. This mon­ey laun­der­ing activ­i­ty has includ­ed the pur­chase of pieces of Man­hat­tan real estate with funds com­min­gled with fraud pro­ceeds,” says the filing.

Specif­i­cal­ly, a month after $230 mil­lion were stolen from the Russ­ian Trea­sury, over $857,000 of stolen funds were wired from Rus­sia via Moldovan shell com­pa­nies to Prevezon’s account in Switzer­land. The wire trans­fers were described as pay­ments for acrylic bath sets “Doc­tor Jet”, Sicil­ia (Italy), with dimen­sions of 190 x ¹²⁰⁄₉₅ x 65, when Pre­ve­zon did not sell these bath sets.

Bath “Doc­tor Jet”

http://doctor-jet.ru/catalog/rectangular/sicilia/

The first wire to Pre­ve­zon of $410,000 came on 6 Feb­ru­ary 2008, pur­port­ed­ly for 280 bath­tubs. The sec­ond wire to Pre­ve­zon of $447,354 on 13 Feb­ru­ary 2008 pur­port­ed­ly for 306 bath­tubs. Both came from shell Moldovan com­pa­nies, Buni­con Impex and Ele­nast Com, that did not engage in any legit­i­mate activity.

In addi­tion to these wires, Pre­ve­zon received $1,108,090.55 dur­ing Feb­ru­ary and March of 2008 in pro­ceeds from the $230 mil­lion fraud scheme, accord­ing to the US Government’s complaint.

These addi­tion­al trans­fers came from a BVI com­pa­ny, described in the US Government’s fil­ing as “Company‑1,” as pur­port­ed pay­ments for “auto spare parts.” The BVI com­pa­ny, in turn, accu­mu­lat­ed funds from the same Moldova’s Buni­con Impex via two inter­me­di­ary shell com­pa­nies, Mega­com Tran­sit and Castle­front, who both had the same nom­i­nee admin­is­tra­tor, a Lat­vian cit­i­zen Volde­mar Spatz, who was list­ed as direc­tor of over 200 New Zealand companies.

“As of March 20, 2008, the real estate com­pa­ny Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings had received a total of at least $1,965,444.55 in pro­ceeds from the $230 Mil­lion Fraud Scheme from three dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies, Buni­con, Ele­nast, and Company‑1, in wire trans­fers describ­ing the funds as pre­pay­ment for san­i­tary equip­ment or for auto­mo­tive spare parts.”

The US Government’s fil­ing iden­ti­fies six fur­ther pay­ments to Pre­ve­zon made between Feb­ru­ary and June 2008 that it iden­ti­fies as “false and questionable”:

1. On Feb­ru­ary 14, 2008, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings Ltd received $70,000 from the Belize com­pa­ny Mobin­er Trade Ltd. pur­port­ed­ly for “tech­ni­cal equipment.”

2. On May 12, 2008, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings received 93,717.03 euros from British Vir­gin Islands com­pa­ny Gen­e­sis Trad­ing Invest­ments Ltd. pur­port­ed­ly for “com­put­er equipment.”

3. In two trans­fers on May 29 and June 4, 2008, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings received $697,408.30 from the Belize com­pa­ny Cefron Invest Ltd. pur­port­ed­ly for “com­put­er equipment.”

4. On May 30, 2008, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings received $272,400 from Apa­sit­to Ltd. pur­port­ed­ly for “video equipment.”

5. On June 4, 2008, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings received $292,039.18 from the Cyprus com­pa­ny Nysorko Ltd. pur­port­ed­ly for “home appliances.”

6. On June 13, 2008, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings received $779,128.80 from the Cyprus com­pa­ny Wel­dar Hold­ings Lim­it­ed pur­port­ed­ly for “goods.”

 “At all rel­e­vant times, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings was not in the busi­ness of sup­ply­ing san­i­tary equip­ment, auto spare parts, tech­ni­cal equip­ment, com­put­er equip­ment, video equip­ment, home appli­ances, or oth­er goods. Dur­ing this time peri­od, these false and ques­tion­able pay­ments rep­re­sent­ed the sub­stan­tial major­i­ty of the inflows into the Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings,” says the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice in their civ­il for­fei­ture and mon­ey laun­der­ing complaint.

Pre­ve­zon said in their defence that the funds came from Moldo­va to their Swiss account from a Russ­ian investor called Mr Petrov, accord­ing to a PR rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Denis Kat­syv, cit­ed in the US Government’s com­plaint: “Representative‑1 stat­ed that the funds involved in the Feb­ru­ary 2008 Buni­con and Ele­nast Trans­fers derived from a deal between Krit [asso­ciate of Denis Kat­syv] and “his friend, a Mr. Petrov.” Representative‑1 claimed that “Mr. Petrov” and Krit “agreed joint­ly to devel­op a busi­ness based on invest­ments in and man­age­ment of prop­er­ty. Under the agree­ment Mr. Petrov was to trans­fer funds to Pre­ve­zon for this pur­pose.”

The US Government’s com­plaint also asserts that Denis Kat­syv, the own­er of Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings Ltd, had pre­vi­ous issues con­nect­ed to mon­ey laun­der­ing in the State of Israel. In the Israeli pro­ceed­ings, a com­pa­ny whol­ly owned by Kat­syv, had 35 mil­lion shekels (worth approx­i­mate­ly U.S. $8 mil­lion in 2005) con­fis­cat­ed by the State of Israel as part of a set­tle­ment based on the State of Israel’s alle­ga­tions that the com­pa­ny had vio­lat­ed Israel’s Pro­hi­bi­tion of Mon­ey Laun­der­ing Law.

The US Gov­ern­ment seeks in this action to seize the Man­hat­tan prop­er­ties and US assets of Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings and impose mon­ey laun­der­ing penalties.

The case was brought to the atten­tion of the US Gov­ern­ment by the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky cam­paign in Decem­ber 2012. It is one of many inves­ti­ga­tions around the world into the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the $230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

A year before the US Gov­ern­ment launched its suit against Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings in the US court, in Sep­tem­ber 2012, the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor froze the accounts of Denis Kat­syv, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings and relat­ed per­sons in con­nec­tion with the same $230 mil­lion fraud. When Denis Kat­syv sought to unfreeze his accounts in the Swiss courts, his appli­ca­tion was rejected.

Today, about US$40 mil­lion have been frozen world­wide in the legal pro­ceed­ings con­nect­ed to the $230 mil­lion fraud and mon­ey laun­der­ing, includ­ing in Switzer­land, France, Lux­em­bourg and Monaco.

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky cam­paign has been assist­ing the pros­e­cut­ing author­i­ties to seek jus­tice and iden­ti­fy ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the crime exposed by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and those who ben­e­fit­ed from his mur­der in Russ­ian police cus­tody six years ago, in Novem­ber 2009, after he tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials in the largest known tax refund fraud in Russ­ian history.

“Since the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Russ­ian offi­cials involved in his wrong­ful arrest, tor­ture and mur­der, have been exon­er­at­ed, hon­oured and pro­mot­ed. As it has proven impos­si­ble to get jus­tice inside Rus­sia today, we are look­ing out­side of Rus­sia for infor­ma­tion on who ben­e­fit­ed from the crime Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered so that they face jus­tice,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian lawyer, uncov­ered the largest pub­licly-known cor­rup­tion case in Rus­sia involv­ing the theft of $230 mil­lion, and tes­ti­fied about it nam­ing com­plic­it Russ­ian offi­cials. He was arrest­ed by some of the impli­cat­ed offi­cials, held in pre-tri­al deten­tion for 358 days, and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody on 16 Novem­ber 2009.  After Sergei Magnitsky’s death, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment pro­mot­ed and hon­oured offi­cials involved in his deten­tion and death.

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

Сотрудники МВД, посмертно преследующие Сергея Магнитского, оперируют на Кипре как дома

December 1, 2015

Сотрудники  МВД, посмертно преследующие Сергея Магнитского, оперируют на Кипре как дома

1 декабря 2015 года – Сотрудники Следственного департамента МВД, ведущие посмертное преследование Сергея Магнитского, совершили поездку на Кипр. Ее целью являлось получение документов и опрос сотрудников юридической фирмы, обслуживающей в Никосии компании фонда Hermitage.

Для получения разрешения властей Кипра на предоставление правовой помощи, сотрудники МВД России прибегли к обману, сообщив, что они якобы ведут расследование мошенничества, умолчав при этом, что в нем они посмертно обвиняют убитого ими Сергея Магнитского.

С помощью обмана попав на Кипр, начальник управления по расследованию организованной преступной деятельности МВД РФ Сергей Петряшов (https://35.mvd.ru/news/item/2577609/) и подполковник МВД РФ Артем Ранченков (http://artprotest.org/cgi-bin/news.pl?&id=5739), получивший скандальную известность за “церковно-уголовное” преследование PussyRi­othttp://mizugadro.mydns.jp/t/index.php/File:Ranchenkov0001wbxx.jpeg) получили на Кипре радушный прием.

«Единственной целью посмертного преследования Сергея и возбуждения политически мотивированных уголовных дел против Her­mitage является остановка глобальной кампании по расследованию российской коррупции и отмыванию 5.4 млрд. рублей, хищение которых было раскрыто Сергеем Магнитским. Сотрудники МВД на Кипре должны понимать, что помогая российским правоохранительным органам в этом деле, они способствуют прежде все укрывательству следов хищения 5.4 млрд. рублей, а также посмертному обвинению Сергея Магнитского, который отдал жизнь в борьбе с российской коррупцией. Сегодня коррумпированная российская власть, пренебрегающая международными нормами, тем не менее  продолжает использовать международные соглашения в незаконных целях, преследуя неугодных людей даже после их гибели», — сказал представитель компании «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского».

Данные действия входят в прямое противоречие с договором об оказании правовой помощи между Кипром и Россией и Европейской конвенцией о правовой помощи по уголовным делам, запрещающим ее предоставление в случаях, несоответствующих общепринятым фундаментальным ценностям, к которым относятся уважение прав человека и противодействие коррупции.

Начальник управления Следственного департамента МВД РФ Сергей Петряшов ранее отказал матери Сергея Магнитского в доступе к документам уголовных дел, в которых содержится информация о лицах, «отмывших» похищенные у российских граждан 5,4 миллиардов рублей в рамках преступления, раскрытого Сергеем Магнитским, сообщив, что она «не имеет права знакомиться и получать копии» этих дел.

Аналогичным отказом на запрос матери Сергея Магнитского ответил подполковник МВД РФ Артем Ранченков. Необоснованными отказами чиновники МВД Петряшов и Ранченков блокируют усилия матери Магнитского по установлению справедливости в отношении погибшего сына.

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:
Программа «Справедливость для Сергея Магнитского»

+44 207 440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Для информации:

1. Российский налоговый юрист Сергей Магнитский раскрыл хищение 5.4 млрд. руб. налогов из российского бюджета, осуществленное путем одобрения налоговыми инспекциями №25 и №28 г.Москвы незаконного возврата налогов, и дал показания о роли сотрудников МВД  в данном преступлении.
2. Расследование Сергея Магнитского выявило, что преступная группа с участием госчиновников на протяжении многих лет занималась незаконным возвратом налогов из бюджета.
3. После публикации информации о предыдущих незаконных возвратах из бюджета, Сергей Магнитский был арестован по вымышленному обвинению теми же сотрудниками МВД, которых он обвинял в причастности к хищению 5.4 млрд. рублей.
4. Сергей Магнитский провел в предварительном заключении почти год, его 21 раз переводили из камеры в камеру, создавая ему пыточные условия содержания и лишая доступа к медицинской помощи, как установил Совет по правам человека при Президенте РФ. 16 ноября 2009 г. его внезапно перевели якобы для лечения  в СИЗО Матросская тишина, где его избивали в изоляционном боксе с применением резиновых дубинок, пока он не умер в возрасте 37 лет.
5. 12 ноября 2010 года на годовом конгрессе международной организации «Транспаренси Интернешионал» Сергей Магнитский был посмертно удостоен премии «За вклад в борьбу за справедливость».
6. Июль 2012 года. Парламентская Ассамблея ОБСЕ приняла резолюцию Магнитского, призывающую ввести визовые санкции в отношении лиц, причастных к незаконному задержанию, пыткам и убийству Сергея Магнитского.
7. В декабре 2012 года Президент США подписал Закон о правосудии имени Сергея Магнитского, который позволяет вводить финансовые санкции и запрещать въезд на территорию США российским официальным и частным лицам, причастным к незаконному преследованию борцов с коррупцией и нарушению прав человека.
8. 12 апреля 2013 года, 20 мая 2014 года и 30 декабря 2014 года Департамент по контролю за активами Федерального казначейства США внес 34 человека в списки запрещенных лиц, в соответствии с Законом о правосудии имени Сергея Магнитского.
9. 2 апреля 2014 года Европейский парламент принял рекомендацию Магнитского, призывающую страны-члены Евросоюза принять меры, аналогичные введенным в США в отношении лиц, причастных к преступлению против Сергея Магнитского и раскрытому им хищению государственных средств.
10. 28 января 2014 года Парламентская Ассамблея Совета Европы абсолютным большинством голосов одобрила доклад о деле Сергея Магнитского и резолюцию, которая напрямую обвинила власти Российской Федерации в крупномасштабном укрывательстве следов раскрытого Сергеем Магнитским хищения и призвала страны, участвующие в расследовании отмывания похищенных 5.4 млрд. рублей, объединить усилия для привлечения к ответственности лиц, получивших выгоду от этого преступления.

Cypriot Police Assist Russian Interior Ministry in the Raid in the New Posthumous Case against Sergei Magnitsky

December 1, 2015

Cypri­ot Police Assist Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry in the Raid in the New Posthu­mous Case against Sergei Magnitsky

1 Decem­ber 2015 – Last week, two senior Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials, Sergei Petryashov (https://35.mvd.ru/news/item/2577609/) and Artem Ranchenkov (http://artprotest.org/cgi-bin/news.pl?&id=5739), along with Cyprus police offi­cers raid­ed the offices of the Her­mitage Fund’s cor­po­rate law firm in Cyprus.

They inter­ro­gat­ed employ­ees and left a 41-point request for cor­po­rate documents.

The raid in Nicosia was con­duct­ed under the legal assis­tance request to Cyprus from Rus­sia, where the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry is advanc­ing new posthu­mous crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings against Sergei Mag­nit­sky and in absen­tia against William Brow­der, leader of ‘Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky’ cam­paign, pro­ceed­ings which have been denounced as improp­er and polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed by the Coun­cil of Europe, Euro­pean Union, OSCE, and INTERPOL.

“It is remark­able that the law enforce­ment author­i­ties in Cyprus, a coun­try that is a mem­ber of the Euro­pean Union, would agree to become direct­ly involved in assist­ing the Russ­ian offi­cials in a case that has been uni­ver­sal­ly con­demned around the world,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign.

The Cyprus raid was autho­rised by the Cyprus Min­istry of Jus­tice, and Cyprus police offi­cers Lieu­tenant Chr. Christodoulou and Christi­na Papaavraam. These same Cypri­ot police offi­cers are also in charge of inves­ti­gat­ing Hermitage’s com­plaints about the role of Cyprus in the $230 mil­lion fraud scheme and laun­der­ing of pro­ceeds through Cyprus, in which Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry had been impli­cat­ed. The pro­ceed­ings in Cyprus became nec­es­sary after Russ­ian gov­ern­ment pro­tect­ed the per­pe­tra­tors, and exon­er­at­ed all its offi­cials from responsibility.

 “Instead of pros­e­cut­ing those respon­si­ble for the mas­sive Russ­ian fraud, which also vic­timised Cypri­ot com­pa­nies of the Her­mitage Fund, and for the laun­der­ing of the mil­lions in fraud pro­ceeds through Cyprus, Cypri­ot gov­ern­ment bod­ies have now joined cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials in the cov­er up of the fraud,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign.

“The same Cyprus offi­cials who are inves­ti­gat­ing the crim­i­nal com­plaints from Her­mitage about the fraud and the com­plic­i­ty of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, are now help­ing Russ­ian offi­cials to attack the vic­tim of the crime out­side of Rus­sia,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign.

In addi­tion to their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Cyprus raid, Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials Petryashov and Ranchenkov have blocked efforts of Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er to chal­lenge the posthu­mous pro­ceed­ings and iden­ti­fy those who ben­e­fit­ed from her son’s death.

Under the new Russ­ian pro­ceed­ings, inves­ti­ga­tors Petryashov and Ranchenkov are accus­ing Sergei Mag­nit­sky and William Brow­der of orga­niz­ing the $230 mil­lion fraud that the two had in fact uncov­ered and report­ed, and have refused all appli­ca­tions from Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er who is seek­ing jus­tice for her mur­dered son.

In par­tic­u­lar, they refused her requests to review charges, update her on the progress of the inves­ti­ga­tion, and dis­close evi­dence on which her son is posthu­mous­ly named a per­pe­tra­tor of the $230 mil­lion fraud he had uncov­ered, find­ing that she has “no rights to access the doc­u­ments or take their copies.”

Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tor Artem Ranchenkov was pre­vi­ous­ly an inves­ti­ga­tor in the Pussy Riot case.

Since 2007, when Her­mitage dis­cov­ered the fraud against its three Russ­ian and two Cypri­ot com­pa­nies, it has filed crim­i­nal com­plaints seek­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion of the role of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials in the fraud. The crim­i­nal com­plaints were filed in Rus­sia on 3 Decem­ber 2007, and in Cyprus on 5 June 2008. The Russ­ian gov­ern­ment respond­ed by exon­er­at­ing all its offi­cials, and mount­ing an attack on Hermitage’s Russ­ian lawyers. One of them – Sergei Mag­nit­sky — was false­ly arrest­ed, tor­tured for 358 days in deten­tion, and ulti­mate­ly killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody in Novem­ber 2009.

Giv­en the impuni­ty in Rus­sia, Her­mitage start­ed the “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky” move­ment, to iden­ti­fy those respon­si­ble and ben­e­fit­ing from his death, seek­ing inter­na­tion­al inves­ti­ga­tions by law enforce­ment author­i­ties around the world, and the impo­si­tion of per­son­alised sanc­tions on them.

As a result of the glob­al cam­paign­ing, in Decem­ber 2012, the US Con­gress passed a law, Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act, which impos­es visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on those involved in the cov­er up of Sergei Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and death, and the crim­i­nal con­spir­a­cy he had uncovered.

In 2013, the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice filed a civ­il for­fei­ture and mon­ey laun­der­ing com­plaint in rela­tion to mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar prop­er­ties in New York bought by com­pa­nies owned by the son of ex Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion of the Moscow Region, with alleged­ly comin­gled pro­ceeds of the $230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

In 2011, the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor opened a mon­ey laun­der­ing inves­ti­ga­tion in response to an appli­ca­tion from Her­mitage, who was rec­og­nized as plain­tiff, and froze mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar assets belong­ing to rel­a­tives of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials, some of whom pur­chased high-end real estate in Dubai using funds from Swiss accounts sus­pect­ed to be con­nect­ed to the $230 mil­lion fraud.

Russ­ian author­i­ties have retal­i­at­ed by seek­ing assis­tance from for­eign coun­tries and from INTERPOL, the inter­na­tion­al police organ­i­sa­tion, to seek the arrest of the lead­ers of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign abroad, includ­ing William Browder.

The Coun­cil of Europe has issued two defin­i­tive reports on the Her­mitage and Mag­nit­sky case, find­ing that the Russ­ian pro­ceed­ings against them were polit­i­cal­ly-moti­vat­ed, dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, and abu­sive, and as such legal assis­tance to Rus­sia must be refused by mem­ber states.

The UK author­i­ties, who have received Russ­ian legal assis­tance requests, have refused them as con­trary to UK’s pub­lic pol­i­cy. INTERPOL has also refused the Russ­ian requests in rela­tion to William Brow­der, find­ing them to be pre­dom­i­nant­ly polit­i­cal and con­trary to INTERPOL’s Constitution.

“In con­trast to oth­er coun­tries and inter­na­tion­al bod­ies, Cyprus seems to be wil­ful­ly ignor­ing the inter­na­tion­al con­dem­na­tion of this case and work­ing direct­ly with the Russ­ian per­pe­tra­tors to go after their vic­tims abroad,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice campaigner.

Under Arti­cle 12 of the Mutu­al Legal Assis­tance Treaty between Rus­sia and Cyprus, Cyprus can refuse the pro­vi­sion of legal assis­tance to Rus­sia where it con­tra­dicts fun­da­men­tal pub­lic pol­i­cy principles.

“Cyprus is a mem­ber of Coun­cil of Europe, and a sig­na­to­ry to the Euro­pean Con­ven­tion on Mutu­al Assis­tance in Crim­i­nal Mat­ters which con­tains safe­guards for refus­ing legal assis­tance in polit­i­cal­ly-moti­vat­ed cas­es, and it should be urged to do so now”, said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign.

This is the sec­ond time this month that the Cypri­ot author­i­ties have coop­er­at­ed with the Russ­ian author­i­ties on polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed cas­es. Ear­li­er this month, Natalia Kono­val­o­va, a for­mer asso­ciate of a Yukos Oil sub­sidiary, was extra­dit­ed from Cyprus to Rus­sia to face polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed con­vic­tion in con­nec­tion with Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s case dat­ing from some ten years ago.

Assis­tance by nation­al judi­cial author­i­ties in polit­i­cal­ly-moti­vat­ed crim­i­nal cas­es breach­es a set of inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tions, includ­ing the UN Human Rights Con­ven­tion and the Euro­pean Human Rights Convention.

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

Boris Nemtsov Posthumously Awarded Sergei Magnitsky 2015 Human Rights Prize for Democracy

November 17, 2015

16 Novem­ber 2015 – Tonight Boris Nemtsov, the Russ­ian politi­cian who was assas­si­nat­ed near the Krem­lin in late Feb­ru­ary this year, was posthu­mous­ly award­ed the Sergei Mag­nit­sky 2015 Human Rights Prize for Democracy. 

“Boris Nemtsov was a coura­geous man, and a true friend of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign. He was a stead­fast sup­port­er of our ini­tia­tive to impose tar­get­ed West­ern sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials involved in human rights abuse and cor­rup­tion. Boris shamed weak West­ern diplo­mats who tried to appease the Russ­ian leader, because he was con­vinced that the sanc­tions are the nec­es­sary, effec­tive and moral­ly right way to stand up to Russ­ian offi­cial impuni­ty,” said William Brow­der, leader of the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign. 

“Both Boris and Sergei were opti­mists and believed in a brighter future for Rus­sia. They show us that Rus­sia pro­duces great peo­ple with human­i­ty and integri­ty. Their loss is a tragedy for Rus­sia and the world. The fact that both were killed in cold blood, and in both cas­es those respon­si­ble have not been brought to account, is the call for action. We can­not bring Boris and Sergei back, but we owe it to them to car­ry on with our cause, to seek jus­tice in the form of fur­ther Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions on cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights vio­la­tors by coun­tries around the world,” said William Browder.

The Sergei Mag­nit­sky awards cer­e­mo­ny was held tonight in Lon­don on the 6^th anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s mur­der in Russ­ian police custody.
Oth­er win­ners of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky 2015 Human Rights Awards include promi­nent pol­i­cy mak­ers, jour­nal­ists, and human rights activists, who have worked in the spir­it of Sergei Mag­nit­sky — with faith, strength and integri­ty, to rein­force and advance his lega­cy, and bring about sig­nif­i­cant change in the inter­na­tion­al jus­tice and human rights field.

The win­ners of the 2015 ‘Sergei Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Awards’ are:

1) Boris Nemtsov (posthu­mous­ly and accept­ed by his daugh­ter Zhan­na Nemtso­va), Russ­ian oppo­si­tion leader (Spe­cial Award for Cam­paign­ing for Democracy);
2) Guy Ver­hof­s­tadt, Mem­ber of Euro­pean Par­lia­ment (Cam­paign­ing Euro­pean Politi­cian Award), co-author of Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Res­o­lu­tion in the Euro­pean Parliament;
3) Jim McGov­ern, U.S. Con­gress­man (Cam­paign­ing US Politi­cian Award), co-author of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act adopt­ed by the US Congress;
4) The Organ­ised Crime and Cor­rup­tion Report­ing Project, an anti-cor­rup­tion and inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism NGO (Out­stand­ing Inves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ism Award, accept­ed by Paul Radu and Roman Anin) who inves­ti­gat­ed and pub­li­cised the transna­tion­al mon­ey laun­der­ing trail from the $230 mil­lion theft uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky;
5) Andrew Rettman, Euro­pean jour­nal­ist with EU Observ­er (Out­stand­ing Euro­pean Cov­er­age of Mag­nit­sky Case Award) who cov­ered polit­i­cal aspects of the Mag­nit­sky case in the EU;
6) James O’Brien, British jour­nal­ist, tele­vi­sion and radio pre­sen­ter, and a show host on LBC talk sta­tion (Out­stand­ing British Cov­er­age of Mag­nit­sky Case Award) who shamed the British gov­ern­ment in their weak response to the Mag­nit­sky case;
7) Geof­frey Robert­son QC, inter­na­tion­al lawyer (Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion to Human Rights Law Award), author of pub­li­ca­tions on Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions legislation;
8) The Oslo Free­dom Forum, a human rights con­fer­ence plat­form (Best Human Rights NGO Award, accept­ed by Thor Halvorssen) who pro­mot­ed pol­i­cy debate on Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions and human rights; and
9) The Hon. Irwin Cotler, for­mer Attor­ney Gen­er­al and Jus­tice Min­is­ter of Cana­da (Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion to Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Cam­paign), author of the Mag­nit­sky bill in the Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment, and chair of the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Inter-Par­lia­men­tary Group.

The organ­is­ing com­mit­tee of the Glob­al Sergei Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Awards this year con­sists of activists from major inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, The Hen­ry Jack­son Soci­ety, Fair Tri­als Inter­na­tion­al, the Cen­tral and East­ern Euro­pean Coun­cil of Cana­da, and the British Par­lia­men­t’s All-Par­ty Group on Anti-Corruption.

The Sergei Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Awards, a new­ly-launched inter­na­tion­al human rights prize, are advanced by the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly as a “bea­con of sup­port” for all those who fight injus­tice around the world, and pro­mot­ed by the Jus­tice for Mag­nit­sky campaign. 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian lawyer, uncov­ered the largest pub­licly-known cor­rup­tion case in Rus­sia involv­ing the theft of $230 mil­lion, and tes­ti­fied about it nam­ing com­plic­it offi­cials. He was arrest­ed by some of the impli­cat­ed offi­cials, held for 358 days in pre-tri­al deten­tion in tor­tur­ous con­di­tions, and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody on 16 Novem­ber 2009. 

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__
www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

« Previous Page — Next Page »

• Link