Hermitage Capital Press Release
Originally Sent April 11, 2012

In an extraordinary statement issued on his political website, former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin explained how it was not his fault that $1 billion was stolen from the Russian treasury on his watch between 2006 and 2010 through a corrupt scheme uncovered by Hermitage Fund’s Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky (http://akudrin.ru/news/otvety-na-voprosy.html#.T4Szz3lJri8.twitter).

In his statement referring to the illegal approvals of tax refunds for millions of dollars, Mr. Kudrin said: “Employees of the Treasury cannot challenge the appropriateness of such a decision. Neither the leadership of the Treasury, nor, especially, the leadership of the Ministry of Finance interfere in this process.”

This statement came in response to a series of 7 public questions to Kudrin from Andrei Illiarionov, an opposition politician, posted in his blog  on ‘Echo of Moscow’ website (http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/aillar/875912-echo/), challenging Alexei Kudrin after an independent investigation by a Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, uncovered that the same officers from the Federal Tax Service and the same organized criminals who were involved in the $230m theft that Sergei Magnitsky discovered, stole a further 11.4 billion Rubles in ($444 m) in 2009 and 2010. These thefts were in addition to another $240m that were stolen under the guise of “tax refunds” by the same group of officials and criminals in 2006 and 2007.

“It is remarkable that the man whose responsibility was to protect the finances of the Russian state could say that he shouldn’t interfere when crimes were going on under his nose, in which $1 billion was stolen directly from the Russian treasury,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

Mr. Kudrin was also asked what he did when he learned about the theft of the $230m that Magnitsky discovered. He said: “I did not have this information in my possession then, but based on what I learned from the media reports at the time, I verbally asked the leadership of the Interior Ministry, if they were looking into it, and received an affirmative response… Neither the Ministry of Finance, nor I, at that time as Minister of Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, had the authority [to investigate the thefts].”

In fact, his statements about his lack of knowledge are directly contradicted by a series of petitions from Hermitage Capital seeking his intervention immediately after the illegal refunds were uncovered in 2008 and 2009. Hermitage Fund’s representatives wrote to Minister Kudrin providing detailed evidence of the involvement of tax officials in the thefts,  including 15 August 2008 (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/D410.pdf) and again on 13 October 2009 (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/D411.pdf). The first letter described evidence of the theft of $230 million via tax inspections No 25 and 28 in Moscow which took place within one day, on 24 December 2007. The second letter described 10 transactions used by the same tax inspections in Moscow to steal a total of $470 million from the Russian budget during 2006-2008. There was no answer to the first letter. The reply to the second letter signed by Deputy Finance Minister Shatalov on 28 October 2009 (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/D412.pdf) said: “The Finance Ministry does not have authority to investigate the facts of budget thefts stated in your application.”This letter was sent 19 days before Sergei Magnitsky was killed in custody after exposing the officials perpetrating these thefts.

“It is notable that Alexei Kudrin fails to mention that not a single government employee had been charged or prosecuted for these successive crimes totaling $1 billion of budget funds over 4 years since they were discovered. It beggars belief that he thinks it is an acceptable explanation and he did nothing to stop the situation when he learned about it,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

“This is further evidence that the Russian budget is no longer functioning for the Russian people, but is now an unrestrained source of financing for corrupt officials and organized crime,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital

Phone:             +44 207 440 17 77
E-mail:             info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter:           @KatieFisher__
Livejournal:     http://hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

Hermitage Capital Press Release
Originally Sent April 6, 2012

On the eve of April 8^th, which would have been the 40^thbirthday of the late Russian whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Amnesty International has publicly called on the Russian Government to stop his posthumous prosecution, and to bring his oppressors and those pressuring his family to justice.

“On 8 April 2012, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky would have turned forty. He died over two years ago, after months of ill-treatment and having suffered multiple human rights violations. For many in Russia and beyond, his death in custody in November 2009 has come to symbolize the injustices associated with Russia’s malfunctioning criminal justice system and widespread corruption,” said Amnesty International in its public statement. (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR46/015/2012/en/6f21ef79-67fe-4014-a084-0f3e8fe8e95f/eur460152012en.pdf).

Amnesty International stressed in its statement that the Russian justice system has consistently failed to protect Sergei Magnitsky and his family from gross rights abuses.

“The [Russian] justice system has not only failed to uphold and protect his rights, but it has also been abused since to continue to violate his, and now his family’s rights in the form of his posthumous criminal prosecution, and by trying to force his close relatives to take part in this process,” said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International described the posthumous prosecution of a dead lawyer as a violation of international and national laws, and demanded that the Russian government stop the posthumous prosecution and stop pressuring his family.

“Amnesty International is calling on the Russian authorities to take immediate steps to rectify these injustices and stop the posthumous criminal prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, and bring all those responsible for his death to justice,” said Amnesty International in its statement.

Amnesty International went on to say:

“Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives…and Russian and international human rights law regard him as innocent in virtue of the principle of the presumption of innocence, and no court decision is needed to confirm this…The posthumous criminal prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky must stop, and the pressure on his family in connection with their objections to this must cease.”

The Magnitsky family has been unable to stop his posthumous prosecution through the Russian legal system in spite of over 25 petitions filed with the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office, the Russian Interior Ministry and the Moscow courts protesting the illegality of the prosecution. All  petitions have been denied by the authorities. Earlier this week, on 3 April 2012, Judge Yulia Bobrova of the Ostankinsky District Court of Moscow approved the decision of the prosecutors to open a case against Sergei Magnitsky after his death in spite of the fact that he can’t defend himself. Judge Bobrova also sided with prosecutors allowing them to continue to treat Magnitsky’s mother and widow as defendants in this case.

The Russian court system has denied Sergei Magnitsky and his family any measure of justice. Last year, 14 Russian judges, including the chair of the Moscow City Court, Olga Egorova, refused all petitions from the Magnitsky family seeking access to his case file and to his tissue samples for an independent medical examination. When Sergei Magnitsky was still alive, 11 Russian judges rejected his 40 petitions about his unlawful arrest and repression by the officers he had accused of $230 million corruption.

In spite of the findings of gross human rights violations by the Russian President’s Human Rights Council, the Russian Interior Ministry and General Prosecutor’s Office “established no wrong-doing” in the actions of law enforcement officials who arrested and tortured Sergei Magnitsky to death in custody.

Amnesty International is now demanding that the allegations of the arbitrary criminal prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky made by the human rights activists are investigated “immediately, effectively and impartially”, and that “all those found responsible brought to justice”.

So far all Russian investigations in this case remain under control of Viktor Grin, Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia and Number 33 on the U.S. Helsinki Commission list of Russian officials involved in the torture and murder of Sergei Magnitsky and the corruption he had uncovered. Viktor Grin ordered the posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky on 30 July 2011, which was three days after he and other Russian officials were banned by US State Department for their role in the Magnitsky case, and was seen as an act of personal retaliation.

The case is also controlled by first deputy chief of the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department Tatiana Gerasimova, who was named by the U.S. Senators last November for her role in the Magnitsky case in a petition to the U.S. State Department seeking to ban her U.S. visa.

“In pursuing the posthumous case against Sergei Magnitsky, Russian authorities have rejected the conclusions from the Russian President’s Human Rights Council. It is clear that no justice is possible and no investigation can be impartial and independent as long as it remains controlled by the same officials and bodies who committed crimes against him. To recognise that Magnitsky was right for them, means to recognise that they themselves had been wrong and committed grave crimes,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital

Phone:             +44 207 440 17 77

E-mail:             info@lawandorderinrussia.org

Website:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twitter:           @KatieFisher__

Livejournal:     http://hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

Statement on Sergei Magnitsky on Amnesty International’s website:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR46/015/2012/en/6f21ef79-67fe-4014-a084-0f3e8fe8e95f/eur460152012en.pdf