Russia may close case against Hermitage Capital CEO
A criminal case against the head of the British hedge fund Hermitage Capital, William Browder, accused of tax evasion, may soon be closed, the Russian Kommersant business daily said on Monday.
Kommersant said that the documents on Browder’s case were sent to the head police department of Moscow’s central administrative district and Browder was removed from the international wanted list.
These changes are believed to be linked with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to look into the case against Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage Capital’s lawyer who had died nine months after being placed in pre-trial detention in 2008.
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Russian political system needs “some modification” says new party leader
BBC Monitoring
Businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, who was today elected leader of the Right Cause party, has said the least his party is aiming for is to get in the State Duma and the most is to get about 15 per cent of the vote.
At a news conference following his election as the party leader, Prokhorov said he had a negative attitude to the One Russia ruling party. At the same time, Prokhorov said, Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister and the leader of One Russia, must have become more critical of his party too, otherwise he would not have set up the All-Russia People’s Front.
“Had things been going well for One Russia, one would not have set up People’s Front,” Prokhorov said in an interview to the “Vesti on Saturday” programme on the official Rossiya 1 TV channel on the same day.
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Hermitage Moves Criminal Complaint Forward
Lawyers acting on behalf of Hermitage Capital filed a new criminal complaint today with the Russian State Investigative Committee demanding the prosecution of officials from Moscow Tax Offices 25 and 28, who had perpetrated the theft of US$107 million through a fraudulent tax refund scheme in 2006.
The complaint implicates Olga Stepanova, head of Moscow Tax Office 28, and Elena Khimina, head of Moscow Tax Office 25. They are the same two officials who a year later approved an identical US$230 million fraudulent tax refund. After Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky exposed the schemes, he was arrested, tortured, and killed in Russian police custody.
A Hermitage Capital spokesman said, “This US$107 fraudulent tax refund case has direct relevance to the case that led the arrest, torture and death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky. If the Russian government is in any way serious about investigating the death of Sergei Magnitsky, or indeed about fighting corruption and instituting the rule of law, they must investigate this crime.”
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WTO: Wish, Trouble, Opportunity
Regardless of the optimism Obama’s administration radiates, it is still uncertain whether Russia will join the World Trade Organization by the end of the year. Too many problems are in one knot to be untangled in such a short time.
The first and, to a large extent, the key factor is Russia’s willingness to pursue this goal.
The most recent factor sounded during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, when Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov expressed his confidence that the remaining issues would be resolved within a few weeks. He warned that otherwise Russia’s accession to the WTO could be drawn out.
Following him, Russia’s Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina echoed this sentiment and added that authorities responsible for the negotiations “are doing their best to reach an agreement.”
However, it seems that in reality Russia is willing to enjoy the benefits of the world trade network while not ready to give any rebates required of such a multilateral membership.
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Empty Words
When are Westerners going to learn that reform talk is cheap in the Kremlin?
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — Russia’s Davos — opened with a speech by President Dmitry Medvedev. It was a frank speech, a tough speech. “It is incorrect to focus on calm, slow growth. It is a mistake,” he said. “This infamous stability can hide another period of stagnation…. This is why we must quickly and deliberately change everything that hampers breakthrough development.” After listing some of Russia’s achievements since the collapse of the Soviet Union, he laid out his vision: privatizing government assets, overhauling the legal system, lifting visa restrictions, lowering taxes, and fighting corruption. Or, as Medvedev so kindly put it, “The squeeze of the noose on the neck of corruptioneers must be constant and merciless.”
The praise from Western writers was instant. It was “a blueprint for changing Russia,” Medvedev’s were “bold comments,” he had “Set a Goal to Reform, Modernize and Decentralize Russia as Quickly as Possible,” he had left investors “inspired” and “enthusiastic.”
I bet he had. Such tough-love speeches are common and often heard at economic conferences from other high-ranking Kremlin liberals. They work because they’re delivered by very smart, very persuasive people, people like First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov or privatization legend Anatoly Chubais, people who sound like they get it. And they do.
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Russian Lawyer Who Died in Jail Uncovered $107M Tax Rebate Fraud, Hedge Fund Alleges
As an investigation apparently has stalled concerning what some claim to have been Russian government wrongdoing in a massive tax rebate fraud case related to the death of a jailed Russian lawyer, a Russia-focused hedge fund for which Sergei Magnitsky did legal work is seeking a new criminal investigation.
Hermitage Capital filed a complaint on Friday with Russia’s State Investigative Committee, contending that a similar $107 million tax rebate fraud, also uncovered by attorney Magnitsky before his death in 2009 at age 37, occurred in 2006, reports Barron’s.
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New Complaint Alleges Theft of $107 Million in Russia
Hermitage Capital filed a new criminal complaint, alleging Moscow tax officials helped steal $107 million through an earlier fraudulent tax-refund scheme in 2006.
Bill Browder, founder of the Russia-focused hedge fund Hermitage Capital, continues to seek justice from a seemingly corrupt system. “We hope to thoroughly embarrass the Russian government into action,” said Browder in a phone interview this morning.
On Friday, Hermitage Capital filed its latest criminal complaint with Russia’s State Investigative Committee, demanding that prosecutors investigate the second massive tax rebate fraud exposed by the late Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer working for Hermitage before his death in the custody of Russian cops he’d accused of corruption. Before his arrest, Magnitsky had helped Hermitage file a detailed criminal complaint in July of 2008 that provided evidence of a $230 million tax-refund scheme in 2007 (later described by Barron’s in “Crime and Punishment in Putin’s Russia,” April 16).
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Hermitage Capital calls for Russian inquiry into $330m ‘tax frauds’ uncoverred by Sergei Magnitsky
Lawyers for the London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management have applied to the Russian authorities for an inquiry to be opened into the alleged involvement of a senior state official in suspected tax frauds worth more than $330m (£204m).
The alleged frauds were uncovered in 2008 by Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage’s investigative lawyer whose death in custody while awaiting trial on allegedly trumped-up charges has become a national scandal.
Mr Magnitsky’s colleagues have unearthed new evidence that they claim shows the same two tax officials, Olga Stepanova and Elena Khimina green-lighted the rebates for both alleged frauds. Ms Stepanova has since been promoted to a senior post in the Russian defence ministry.
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Russia short of long-term capital despite windfall oil revenues
Russia, which has accrued large international reserves from windfall oil revenues, is short of long-term capital to stimulate economic growth, experts said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week.
“Russia really has a shortfall in long-term domestic capital that will support issues along with foreign capital,” Renaissance Insurance Group head Boris Jordan said at a roundtable discussion at the forum.
Russia has long been seeking to diversify its economy away from a dependence on on oil and gas exports, the largest source of budget revenue.
“It is quite easy to raise capital from everything connected to raw materials, oil, gas production and local monopolies,” President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Roman Trotsenko said. “It is very difficult for companies working on the open market, in a completely competitive environment, to raise capital.”
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
