Those documents were then used by officers from the interior ministry to stage a $230m (£175m) tax rebate scam. That meant putting a stop to Browder’s busy-bodying by deporting him from Russia in 2005.Įighteen months later, Hermitage’s offices were raided by the Russian authorities and its paperwork removed. Then in 2003 Putin jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, at the time the richest oligarch in Russia, and instead of opposing corruption, began putting the squeeze on the duly intimidated oligarchy. There’s something deeply offending to our sense of justice about an innocent man framed by powerful forces His big innovation was shareholder activism, in which he targeted corrupt practices in some of the biggest companies, such as Gazprom, and by doing so raised their share price. In these years, Browder made a fortune, turning Hermitage into the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia.
When Putin came to power on New Year’s Eve 1999, promising to stamp out corruption, Browder was a relieved man.Īnd he remained pro-Putin for the next three years, as the new Russian leader imposed state order on capitalist anarchy. Business feuds were regularly settled by bullets, and the life expectancy of bankers was radically shortened.
The Court thus rejected the applicants' complaint about Mr Magnitskiy's arrest and subsequent detention as being manifestly ill-founded.It was a time of wild profiteering, as post-Soviet state assets were sold off on the cheap, and a venal oligarchy was created. The list of reasons given by the domestic court to justify his subsequent detention had been specific and sufficiently detailed. Furthermore, the evidence against him, including witness testimony, had been enough to satisfy an objective observer that he might have committed the offence in question. The decision to arrest him had only been made after investigators had learned that he had previously applied for a UK visa, had booked tickets to Kyiv, and had not been residing at his registered address. The Court appeared to reject Browder's claim that Magnitsky was detained and killed for blowing the whistle on alleged fraud by Russian officials, determining that "the enquiry into alleged tax evasion which had led to Mr Magnitskiy's arrest had begun long before he had complained of fraud by officials. The Court ordered Russia to pay €34,000 in damages to Magnitsky's wife and mother for Magnitsky's "ill-treatment" in prison.
The Government of Russia at the European Court of Human Rights. News Release & Judgment in Sergey Magnitsky, deceased, an auditor charged with tax evasion regarding USA-born, London-based hedge fund principal Bill Browder Magnitsky's widow, Nataliya Zharikova, and his mother, Natalia Magnitskiya v.
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