29 April 2016 – Two Russians on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky Sanctions List were welcomed at the European parliament for the premiere of a film by a Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, defaming the memory of Sergei Magnitsky.
Among those present in the audience in Brussels on April 27th were ex police officer Pavel Karpov, named in Sergei Magnitsky’s testimony for his role in the custody of documents and files, used in the fraud to steal $230 million from the Russian government, and Andrei Pavlov, the lawyer who took part in sham court proceedings, described in Sergei Magnitsky’stestimony as part of that same crime.
Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov are No 7 and No 15 on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky list, which recommends the European Council to impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on those who were involved in the crimes against Sergei Magnitsky.
#7: KARPOV, Pavel, born 27 August 1977;
#15: PAVLOV, Andrey (a.k.a. Pavlov, Andrei), born 7 August 1977;
In his testimony on the fraud, Sergei Magnitsky described the roles of both Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov. In particular, Sergei Magnitsky said in his 5 June 2008 testimony:
“Many times the lawyer of Firestone Duncan (CIS) Limited and the company’s representatives requested Investigator P.A. Karpov to return the seized documents that were not related to the case investigated by P.A. Karpov, but the investigator kept delaying the return of the documents saying that there were many documents and it took him much time to finish examining them.”
“I can confirm that the seized folders, which I also used in my work, contained the originals of the latest editions of the Articles of Association of LLC Kameya, LLC Parfenion, LLC Rilend and LLC Makhaon, the original certificates of the tax registration, the original certificates of the legal entity state registration, the original Minutes of meetings and resolutions of the sole participants of the companies, the original legalized certificates confirming the residency of the companies’ participants and some other documents,” testified Sergei Magnitsky.
In his testimony Sergei Magnitsky described fictitious claims filed against Hermitage’s companies in Russia and the appearance of Pavlov in those sham court proceedings:
“Almost at once it became clear that the filing and consideration of the said claims were associated with fraudulent actions because as it followed from the decisions of the Arbitration Court of Saint-Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated 3 and 7 September 2007, the court hearings had been attended by the LLC Makhaon representative Yu.M. Maiorovaand the LLC Rilend representative A.A. Pavlov, who presented Powers of Attorney said to be issued by those companies and dated 24 August 2007. It means the Powers of Attorney were forged ones because the companies’ seals had been seized and were kept at the Main Investigative Department of the Main Internal Affairs Department of Moscow.”
Four months later, on 7 October 2008, Sergei Magnitskyconfirmed his 5 June 2008 testimony and added in his testimony the discovery of “the embezzlement of budget funds that took place in excess of Five Billion rubles, which was obviously committed by the same group of persons that used illegal re-registration of Parfenion LLC, Makhaon LLC, and Rilend LLC and filing claims against those companies as a tool for embezzling money from the state treasury.”
At the event held in the European Parliament seven and half years later, on 27 April 2016, Pavel Karpov was giving interviews to Russian TV stations, and Andrei Pavlov was able to approach Heidi Hautala, MEP from Finland, who hosted the event.
Lithuanian MEP Petras Austrevicius interrupted proceedings in the European Parliament the following day, on 28 April 2016, to draw attention to the fact that two Russian citizens whose names were placed on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky list, had been allowed access to the parliament the previous day.
Mr Austrevicius, MEP, said:
“I deplore this happening within the walls of the European Parliament,” it was, he went on, “an issue of the integrity of our own decisions.”
For more information, please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
