Posts Tagged ‘stepanova’
Hermitage Capital: Tax Officials Stole $33M
Hermitage Capital Management on Thursday released a new exposé about officials implicated in the death of its lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, accusing them of siphoning off 1 billion rubles ($33 million) of state money through illegal tax refunds.
The complaint, filed with the Investigative Committee, says a Moscow district tax inspection office, headed at the time by Olga Stepanova, authorized the refunds in seven tranches to a small company called TekhProm in 2007 and 2008.
This is the same tax inspection office that Magnitsky accused of separately embezzling 5.4 billion rubles in a similar scheme in 2006 and 2007.
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
UK firm presents fresh justification for EU sanctions on Russian officials
News in Brief: UK investment firm Hermitage Capital says it has evidence of a fresh $42 million tax fraud committed by the same Russian official it believes orchestrated the murder of its former employee, Sergei Magnitsky. The news comes amid the company’s push for the EU to impose sanctions on Magnitsky’s killers. быстрые займы на карту hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php займ онлайн на карту без отказа
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
US visa ban on Russian officials poses questions for EU
The US has quietly imposed a visa ban on senior Russian officials believed to have played a part in the murder of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, posing questions about EU handling of the affair.
A state department memo confirms that most or all of the 60 officials implicated in the Magnitsky conspiracy have been red-flagged in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), a database used to grant or refuse visas.
The non-public memo, dated 22 July, says: “[US secretary of state Hilary] Clinton has applied existing laws and authorities to implement the visa limitations on multiple individuals associated with the wrongful death of Sergey Magnitsky.” It adds: “Individuals included on the list … are already flagged in the visa adjudication (known as CLASS) system used by visa officers.”
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Colonel Natalya Vinogradova
Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry colonel Natalya Vinogradova, who participated in the investigation of investment fund Hermitage Capital of lawyer Magnitsky may be involved in receiving a bribe of 40 thousand dollars for the renewal of terminating the criminal case, said Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov, in his statement sent to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin.
In 2008, the bribe, divided into tranches, Vinogradova, who had the name of Shcherbakova and then worked in a methodical control of the Interior Ministry met with the member of the “Guild of Lawyers of Moscow,” Vladimir Podolyakin. In 2003, the lawyer involved in client assets under the Moscow factory “Stekloagregat.” The case of forgery in the privatization was investigating at the police department of the Southern District, and to achieve the seizure of the plant, Podolyakina requsted Vinogradova to help him. After giving her a total of 40 thousand dollars, the case was sent to the main investigation department of the Moscow police, but the property has not been arrested. Then Vladimir Podolyakin asked Natalya Vinogradova to back money. After refusing, he went to the police. According to Kirill Kabanov, this is not the only accusation against N.Vinogradova.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Jail Officials Targeted Over Magnitsky
Investigators said Monday that a criminal case has been opened into two prison officials in connection with the death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and that they face possible charges of negligence.
Larisa Litvinova, former medical official at Moscow’s Butyrskaya pretrial prison, faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted of unintentional manslaughter by breach of professional duty, the Investigative Committee said.
Her former superior, Dmitry Kratov, may be jailed for five years if charged with negligence that resulted in death, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, Interfax reported.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
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.”
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
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).
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
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.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
After Swiss Freeze Millions, Stepanov Swings Back
An abbreviated version of this story ran in May 28 edition of Barron’s Magazine.
Swiss prosecutors have frozen Eur. 8 million in Credit Suisse bank accounts of Vladlen Stepanov, a subject of our story about a $230 million tax scam in Russia that victimized the hedge fund firm Hermitage Capital and led to the death in police custody of Hermitage’s whistle blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky (“Crime and Punishment in Putin’s Russia,” April 16).
Stepanov isn’t taking the Swiss action lying down. Last week he placed a self-justifying advertisement in a Russian newspaper, and this week he appeared for a video-taped interview at the Russian financial daily Vedomosti. In both forums, Stepanov denies that the Swiss bank money, and other riches detailed in our article, were illicitly obtained or derived from the hundreds of millions in dubious Russian tax refunds doled out by Olga Stepanova, a former tax official from whom Stepanov says he’s been divorced since 1992.
The evidence of corruption amongst police and other officials involved in the Magnitsky case has created enough of a stink that President Dmitry Medvedev called a press conference last week to discuss an independent inquiry into the scandal.
“I do not want to be a wood chip,” is the headline of Stepanov’s May 17th ad in the RBK Daily newspaper – an allusion to a Russian proverb suggesting that he sees himself as an innocent victim who’s been ground up in the chainsawing of a forest. He dismisses as “recreational arithmetic,” the estimates of his wealth presented in “horror videos” about the Magnitsky case produced by Hermitage Capital’s founder William F. Browder (see www.russian-untouchables.com).
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
