Switzerland froze the accounts of Russian officials exposed by Magnitsky

The Switzerland authorities froze the bank accounts of Russian officials and members of their families involved in 5.4 billion rubles involved in the country's illegal return from the country's budget. This was done in the framework of the investigation conducted by the prosecutor's office of the Switzerland at the appeal of Hermitage Capital, the fund’s press release reported.

"The arrest of accounts in Swiss banks is only the first step in the investigation of the activities of corrupt Russian officials. Unfortunately, Sergey Magnitsky did not live to see this day when his investigation gave the first results and led to the arrest of funds stolen from the Russian budget," said the representative of Hermitage Capital.

The decision of the Swiss authorities is reported by the American publication Barrons . The names of officials who have fallen under the sanctions of Switzerland are not reported. Earlier, the results of the journalistic investigation of the publication in respect of the officials convicted by Magnitsky in the embezzlement of budget funds of officials - on the acquisition of real estate around the world and receiving millions of dollars in accounts in the Swiss bank, were published.

Last week, it became known that at the statement of Hermitage Capital, the Switzerland prosecutor’s office began an investigation into money laundering by officials and other persons, exposed to 5.4 billion rubles exposed to the Magnitsky Foundation from the budget.

After that, the investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleg Silchenko drew up a petition for the absentee arrest of the partner of Hermitage Capital and colleagues of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky Ivan Cherkasov. On Wednesday, the judge of the Tver District Court of Moscow Kovalevskaya authorized the absentee arrest of Cherkasov. The case was instituted under part 2 of Article 199 of the Criminal Code (tax evasion), the sanction of which provides for up to six years in prison. The Investigative Committee at the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that Cherkasov is suspected of evading paying income taxes with Kamea LLC more than 2 billion rubles.

Cherkasov himself called the actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the judge "a direct and direct reaction to the investigation of the Swiss prosecutor's office in relation to Russian officials, whose material interests were directly affected."

The chief manager of Hermitage Capital Management, William Brauder, has also been put on the international wanted list. He is also accused of tax evasion, Silchenko said in court. "One of the leaders of the Foundation, British citizen, Bill Browner, is accused of evading taxes from two companies located in Kalmykia, but under Hermitage, totaling 500 million rubles," Silchenko said.

Previously, the defense of the Hermitage employee, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in the pre -trial detention center, sent a request to Silchenko to participate in the investigation of the circumstances of the death of a company lawyer at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to protection, Silchenko may have personal interest in the outcome of the case. An application for the withdrawal of the investigation group was rejected.

According to the representatives of the Fund, Silchenko organized the illegal arrest and torture of Magnitsky in the pre -trial detention center, trying to force him to abandon the accusatory testimony, and at the same time exempted from the criminal liability of all officials involved in the division of the fund companies and budget money. The petition of the investigator Silchenko on the arrest of Cherkasov was the response of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the video “Uncarked Caste. Part 3”, widespread two weeks earlier, the Fund said.

According to Hermitage Capital, taxes from the Russian treasury were carried out with the participation of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kuznetsov and Karpov, who organized the criminal prosecution of Ivan Cherkasov. The fabricated nature of the case against Kamey LLC and Cherkasov in order to steal the companies of the Hermitage Foundation and the taxes paid by them were stated in their indications by Sergei Magnitsky.

The case against Kamey LLC, one of the customers of Hermitage Capital, the general director of which was Ivan Cherkasov, was initiated in May 2007 in the absence of any claims of the tax authorities for the FSB to the report on allegedly non-payment of taxes for 2006, the fund’s press release reports. In the framework of this case, Lieutenant Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Kuznetsov conducted searches in the office of Hermitage Capital and the Firestone Duncan legal company with the aim of illegally withdrawing title documents of the Hermitage Foundation, which had nothing to do with Kame LLC. Soon, these documents stored by the investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Karpov were used to re -register the three companies of the Hermitage Foundation for familiar to the police Kuznetsov and Karpov previously convicted by Markelov, Kurochkin and Khlebnikov and the subsequent theft of 5.4 billion rubles of state money, they say in Hermitage Capital.

According to representatives of the Fund, Silchenko recognized the head of the tax inspectorate No. 28 for Moscow Olga Stepanov, who approved a refund from the tax budget for billions of rubles, "victim" in one day. Although the total annual income of Stepanova and her wife Vladlen since 2007 amounted to about 38 thousand dollars, in recent years, the couple became more than $ 39 million, without declaring these funds in Russia. According to representatives of Hermitage Capital, Stepanova illegally at the end of December 2007 approved a refund of 5.4 billion rubles from the state budget, as allegedly overheled in 2006 by the company's income tax.

Last week, members of the Presidential Council of Human Rights distributed a conclusion that stated that the criminal case against Sergei Magnitsky was “completely fabricated by the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB,” and called one of the main guilty for the death of Sergey Magnitsky Silchenko.

Sergei Magnitsky died in the investigative insulator on November 16, 2009. Shortly before his death, he revealed the facts of mass embezzlement from the Russian budget totaling 5.4 billion rubles committed by representatives of law enforcement agencies. Immediately after that he was accused of tax evasion.

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