Lawyers representing the interests of the Hermitage Capital fund filed an application with the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia about the theft of 3 billion rubles by officials of tax inspectorates No. 25 and No. 28 in Moscow, according to a press release received by Gazeta.Ru on Monday.

“The theft was carried out in November 2006 - March 2007 by approving the refund of income taxes previously paid by the Russian LLC Financial Investments and Selen Securities, which belonged to the Rengaz investment fund, which was advised by Renaissance Capital - Financial Consultant CJSC. All the stolen funds were accumulated in the Universal Savings Bank,” Hermitage Capital said in a statement.

“The theft of 3 billion rubles was discovered by the lawyer of the Hermitage Foundation Sergei Magnitsky and was committed by officials of the same Federal Tax Service No. 25 and No. 28 of Moscow, who a year later, in December 2007, approved the transfer of 5.4 billion rubles from the Russian budget in one day, paid in the form of income tax by companies of the Hermitage fund, to the accounts of previously convicted criminals in the same “Universal Savings Bank”. It was Sergei Magnitsky’s disclosure of these systematic thefts of budget funds, carried out under the guise of tax “refunds” by a group of corrupt officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs , the Federal Tax Service and criminals, that became the reason for his illegal arrest and death,” the press release says.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday , recalled that he had given instructions to thoroughly investigate the Magnitsky case. “I gave instructions not so long ago to both the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to deal with this issue. So I’m waiting for answers from them on this matter,” the president said.

Hermitage filed a statement with the Investigative Committee about the theft of 3 billion rubles by tax authorities - Gazeta.Ru