Posts Tagged ‘surrey’
Have Russia’s poison assassins struck in Surrey?
Surrounded by high walls, with closed circuit TV cameras monitoring all entrances and guards constantly on patrol, the electronically gated enclave of St George’s Hill in Surrey has long attracted the rich and famous.
Dubbed Britain’s Beverly Hills, the exclusive area has been home to stars such as Sir Cliff Richard, Kate Winslet and Ringo Starr, as well as footballers including Frank Lampard and the motor-racing driver Jenson Button.
It is billed as the perfect spot for ‘high achievers looking for a secure and private location’ and the smallest properties cost £6 million on the 964-acre estate — which has a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, spa and restaurant.
But such exclusive delights are no longer of interest to one resident. Alexander Perepilichny, 44, who rented a luxury property on the estate for £12,500 a month, was found dead three weeks ago in the strangest of circumstances outside his home inside this gated community.
A fit, energetic businessman with no history of medical problems, he had, it seems, simply dropped dead in the one-acre grounds of his seven-bedroom home. Yet exactly how he died remains shrouded in mystery.
His body was discovered soon after 5pm on a Saturday by a member of his staff. He had last been seen out jogging that morning. He was still in his running gear when he was found.
‘The death is being treated as unexplained,’ a police spokesman said. ‘A post-mortem examination was carried out, which was inconclusive. Further tests are being carried out.’
And there is nothing routine about these further tests — forensic experts are searching for traces of poison. Amid growing fears among associates that this wealthy individual was the victim of a sophisticated professional assassin, forensic experts are working to identify any lethal substance in the dead man’s organs or bloodstream.
The extra tests were ordered — following a routine autopsy — after Surrey police were informed that the dead man had fled from Russia to Britain three years ago and had turned supergrass against members of a feared Russian crime syndicate.
Yesterday, it emerged that Perepilichny had been warned via a Russian police official that his name was on a hit list discovered in the possession of a known Chechen hitman in Russia, who had details of his former addresses.
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Mary Dejevsky: Britain should pass its own Magnitsky Act
It is possible that a 44-year-old Russian, whose body was found outside his house in Weybridge two weeks ago, died of natural causes. Such things happen. But this does not alter the fact that Alexander Perepilichnyy’s death is mighty convenient. Who benefits? Other Russians whose nefarious activities stood to be exposed by his cooperation with Swiss banking investigators. Nor would they be just any other Russians, but state officials, police, tax officers and others implicated in the case of Sergei Magnitsky.
A self-taught lawyer, Magnitsky worked for a law firm representing Hermitage Capital, one of the largest foreign investors in post-Soviet Russia. After Bill Browder, the company’s US-born chief executive was suddenly declared persona non grata, Magnitsky tracked a vast tax scam to which Hermitage had fallen victim. His mistake was to have had the courage to name names – specifically those of certain officials in the Interior Ministry. He was arrested in 2008, held in prison without charge, denied medical treatment for serious stomach illnesses and beaten. He lived only a year.
Browder has made strenuous efforts to secure posthumous justice for his lawyer. One of his main lines of activity has been lobbying the US Congress to pass a Magnitsky Act, which would allow the authorities to refuse visas and freeze the assets of individuals implicated in the case. The notion that one person might lobby the US Congress successfully for something that might be seen as marginal to the US national interest almost beggars belief. Browder’s own persuasive force was surely a factor, along with his deep pockets. But so did some fortunate timing. The measure was passed 10 days ago.
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Death of a Russian supergrass: is it too late for new tests to establish truth of Alexander Perepilichnyy’s death?
Toxicology tests have been ordered by police investigating the sudden death of the Russian supergrass Alexander Perepilichnyy, a wealthy businessman who collapsed outside his luxury Surrey mansion two weeks ago.
The revelation came as the Conservative MP who campaigned for sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky – another whistleblower linked to Mr Perepilichnyy – called on the Home Secretary to ensure that every step was taken to uncover whether “foul play” might have been involved.
Mr Perepilichnyy, a seemingly healthy 44-year-old man, was pronounced dead on 10 November outside his home in St George’s Hill, a private estate on the outskirts of Weybridge which is home to dozens of celebrities, footballers, City financiers and Russian tycoons.
The Independent revealed yesterday that the Russian businessman was helping Swiss investigators uncover a series of accounts used by Moscow tax officials who became exceedingly wealthy following a massive tax fraud. Alongside Mr Magnitsky, who originally exposed the fraud in 2008, Mr Perepilichnyy is the fourth person linked to the case to have died in mysterious circumstances.
Although it is possible that the wealthy businessman might have died from natural causes, there is pressure on Surrey Police and local Coroners to ensure a full investigation is carried out, given the role Mr Perepilichnyy played in helping Swiss prosecutors and the growing concern over the murder of Russians on British soil.
This month is the sixth anniversary of the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB spy turned political dissident who was poisoned by tea laced with radioactive polonium. Russian banker German Gorbuntsov narrowly avoided death earlier this year when he was shot by a hitman outside his home in London’s Isle of Dogs.
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Whitehall fears ‘another Litvinenko’ as police probe businessman’s death
Ministers were warned six months ago about the activities of Russian officials linked to a “whistleblower” businessman who was mysteriously found dead outside his Surrey mansion.
Police are investigating after the body of Alexander Perepilichny was discovered in the grounds of his home in Weybridge. Mr Perepilichny, 44, had passed vital documents to campaigners fighting to expose a massive tax fraud in Russia that had led to the death of an anti-corruption lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
The businessman, who is said to have sought refuge in Britain three years ago after falling out with a crime syndicate, had been helping Swiss prosecutors to investigate a money-laundering scheme involving Russian government tax officials.
He is the fourth person linked to the Magnitsky case to have died in unexplained circumstances. Surrey Police said that a post-mortem examination had been “inconclusive” and that further tests were being carried out before an inquest.
Mr Magnitsky, 37, died in agony in Matrosskaya Tishina prison in Moscow in November 2009 after being held for a year in pre-trial detention and denied medical treatment for serious illnesses. He repeatedly complained that he was tortured in prison to try to force him to withdraw testimony against a group of Interior Ministry police who he had accused of stealing $230 million from businesses owned by Hermitage Capital, a British investment company.
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London Rules; Russians and Russian money are welcome in Britain, subject to British laws
In late 1991 Russia transformed itself from a country where entrepreneurs were outlaws to one of entrepreneurs without laws. A new statute book was written, but two decades on its enforcement is a joke — or would be if the spillover effect of Russian lawlessness were not so serious.
The death of Alexander Perepilichnyy on a Surrey cul-de-sac outside his rented mansion may turn out to have been from purely natural causes; a fit 44-year-old cut down in his prime by an unexpected heart attack, for instance. Alternatively, it may be linked to his apparent role as a supergrass in a long-running Swiss investigation of money-laundering and tax fraud by a ruthless and extremely well-connected Moscow-based crime syndicate known as the Klyuev Group.
In Russia, the odds against such a death being properly investigated would be vanishingly high. At least in Britain Mr Perepilichnyy’s next of kin will be able to request the results of his post mortem and find out what other tests are being carried out to learn the cause of death. But they may not be enough to close the case.
British police and security officials have so far shown little interest in the evidence Mr Perepilichnyy is said to have been providing to the Swiss; nor in the Klyuev Group’s alleged involvement in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer hired by a well-known British investor to investigate a £140 million tax fraud in Moscow in 2007.
Not so the United States Congress. Earlier this month, after years of lobbying by William Browder, the British chief executive of Hermitage Capital Management, the House of Representatives passed a Bill to freeze the assets of Klyuev Group members and stop them travelling to America. Dominic Raab, the Conservative MP, has tabled a House of Commons motion seeking similar measures by the British Government.
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Second postmortem on Russian whistleblower found dead in Surrey
Surrey police are carrying out a second postmortem on a Russian whistleblower found dead outside his Surrey home, three years after he fled to the UK to escape a Russian crime syndicate.
Detectives said they were awaiting the results of toxicology tests on 44-year-old Alexander Perepilichnyy. An earlier postmortem was “inconclusive”, they said. The Russian businessman, who had appeared in good health, was found collapsed earlier this month outside his luxury mansion in Weybridge. He was discovered at 5.15pm and pronounced dead 25 minutes later. Witnesses said he was wearing shorts and running shoes. According to his wife, he had been for a run.
Police are so far describing the death as “unexplained”. But Perepilichnyy was a man with enemies. He had accused Russian government officials of complicity in one of the biggest tax scandals in Russian history. The case involved the interior ministry and the alleged theft of $230m (£144m) in taxes paid by the Hermitage investment fund to the Russian government. A Russian lawyer who uncovered the scam, Sergei Magnitsky, was jailed by the authorities and died in prison three years ago.
According to Hermitage, Perepilichnyy was a key witness against one of Russia’s most notorious criminal gangs, the “Klyuev group”. The group’s members include Russian officials in law enforcement, the FSB spy agency, the tax agency and senior judges. Its members are allegedly responsible for a series of multimillion dollar tax frauds, dating back over a decade and including the Magnitsky case. They are said to have siphoned off $800m. Perepilichnyy is the fourth person linked to the group to have died a sudden death.
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