Hedge fund’s legal adviser dies in Moscow detention centre

The Guardian, by Elena Moya

A hedge fund’s four-year fight against an alleged Russian tax scam has taken a tragic twist with the death in prison of one of its legal advisers. .

Sergey Magnitskiy, who had been advising Hermitage Capital, died on Monday night in Matrosskaya Tishina detention centre in Moscow, where he was held for almost a year.

“Sergey Magnitskiy was refused bail and kept in detention for a year without trial,” Hermitage said in a statement. “He was denied the ability to see his mother and his wife and speak to his children for the entire time of his detention.”

The lawyer, a father of two, had written a 40-page complaint describing a serious medical condition that developed during his time in prison, but received no response, Hermitage said.

“He believed that law and order could exist in Russia and he died for that belief,” said Hermitage Capital chief executive Bill Browder.

The US-born, British naturalised boss has fought the Russian authorities since 2005 over claims that his firm was the victim of a $230m (£146m) state-sponsored scam. But he said Magnitskiy’s death would only increase his determination to fight his cause. “The most important part of this struggle now is to determine who’s responsible for the death – and holding them to account,” he said.

Hermitage has filed law suits and sent letters to Russian anti-corruption authorities, naming top-ranked officials and their role in the alleged tax scam. Browder’s Russian visa was revoked in 2005 despite his company having once been the country’s largest foreign investor.

The Russian interior ministry is seeking to have Browder returned to Russia for questioning. The executive was placed on the ministry’s international wanted list on charges of tax evasion.

According to the fund, criminals used a network of corrupt lawyers, police and judges to fake transactions making it appear that three profit-making Hermitage subsidiaries had turned a profit into losses – for which they demanded a tax rebate. The new owners of the stolen companies received Russia’s biggest ever rebate within two days, Hermitage says.

Hermitage’s case is “real daily life” in Russia, said David Clark, former special advisor at the Foreign Office and chairman of the Russia Foundation, a UK-based organisation that promotes a deeper understanding of Russian affairs. займы на карту срочно займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php срочный займ