How to “finish off” corrupt officials who have fled to a “safe haven”. Letter to US Ambassador Michael McFaul

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
United States of America
In Russian federation
Mr. M. McFaul

Your Excellency!

The passing of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act by the US Congress marked an important milestone in the so far limited efforts made by the US government in the fight against global corruption. This law, according to public opinion polls, is supported by the majority of ordinary citizens of Russia. They understand that this is not about an “anti-Russian action”, but a desire to punish scammers and corrupt “werewolves in uniform” who participated in the theft of billions of rubles from the state budget and went unpunished. This is what Sergei Magnitsky investigated at the cost of his life. I can only regret the reaction of the Foreign Ministry and the State Duma of Russia, although I am sure that in a similar case the American reaction would also be emotional and not logical. This is the legacy of the Cold War “superpower complex”, which it is time for our countries to abandon.

It should be recognized that the “Magnitsky case” is just one of the numerous episodes of the activities of national, international and Russian swindlers and corrupt officials, and far from being the largest. According to the international organization Tax Justice Network, business swindlers in conjunction with high-ranking officials with business interests (abbreviated as DolBins) have stolen and withdrawn from Russia at least 700 billion dollars over the past 15 years. But this is no more than 5% of the 25 trillion. dollars stolen and laundered all over the world. This amount, on which the global financial oligarchy parasitizes, is approximately 50 percent of the planet's GDP!

The most resonant "cases" of recent years in Russia and the CIS are the withdrawal of funds from the Bank of Moscow (more than 4 billion dollars), BTA Bank (6 billion dollars), Mezhprombank (3 billion dollars), VTB, banks " Globex and Sviaz-bank (about $3 billion), the EEFC group of banks (more than $1 billion), Converse Bank (more than $0.7 billion), the Universal Savings Bank (about $1 billion) , Urina Bank Group (more than $0.5 billion), Financial Leasing Company (about $0.4 billion), Elektronika Bank ($0.4 billion), RosUkrEnergo (about $4 billion). dollars), Rosselkhozbank, Oboronservis (about 0.25 billion dollars), Rosagroleasing (about 1 billion dollars), Russian Capital Bank (0.2 billion dollars), etc. These are complex scams like those of B.Maidoff and A.Stanfond, Kervel of Societe General and Ghanaian Kweku Ado of UBS, Subprime debt scams, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Goldman Sachs, etc.

Attempts by the media, the public and law enforcement agencies around the world to stop illegal activities and return the stolen goods each time run into the same obstacle: corrupt officials and scammers withdraw stolen funds to foreign jurisdictions, after which they go abroad, where they often declare themselves no less political refugees. They receive "krysha" from leading lawyers, offshore jurisdictions and investment banks. The courts against them cost a minimum of 15 percent of what was stolen, and many years of litigation, the result of which is not guaranteed. The swindlers claim that they are persecuted in their homeland for their political views, although their views were either not known before, or they fully supported the course of the current government (the case of A. Borodin, former Mayor of Moscow Yu. Luzhkov and his wife).

Unfortunately, the United States of America itself has become one of the “safe havens”. So, it was in the United States that the former Finance Minister of the Moscow Region Alexei Kuznetsov found refuge, who, together with his wife Jeanne Bullock, organized multi-billion dollar embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the construction of social infrastructure facilities, including schools and kindergartens, and murders appear in this case. Kuznetsov and Bullock are US citizens (Bullock acquired citizenship in the 1990s by having a fictitious marriage with an American, and Kuznetsov naturalized by becoming her husband), which is an obstacle to their extradition. But what prevents the use of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act against these scammers? Materials about the illegal activities of this couple are published in leading publications. Or another example - Ashot Yeghiazaryan, a former deputy of the State Duma, a fugitive from justice in the United States. This citizen led an organized criminal group engaged in blackmail and extortion, and later became the organizer of numerous scams in the construction market. Today he lives in California and is trying to get political refugee status. Why not apply RICO - The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in this case? I personally became a victim of his criminal activities in my time and I am ready to testify in an American court.

Separately, I will touch on the investigation of the New York Times newspaper (Pulitzer Prize winner David Kosienevsky) regarding the tricks with taxes in the United States of General Electric. With a net income of $10 billion in 2010, instead of a 35 percent tax, GE achieved… a tax deduction of $3.4 billion. This is a global (read - offshore) corporation, which is considered an icon of US business! Of course, with such a fiscal approach, the country's budget will burst at the seams from the deficit. You and the administration of the country will be surprised at what interesting activities are carried out by numerous great-grandchildren of this global company in offshore jurisdictions (for example, its subsidiaries in Russia and Latvia).

Let's put the question more broadly, because we are talking not only and not so much about criminals from Russia. Corruption and fraud on an international scale would not be possible if the whole industry for the withdrawal, concealment and laundering of "dirty money" did not work in the interests of malefactors. Numerous offshore jurisdictions, "harbors", special "investment banks", tens of thousands of the best lawyers, nominee directors of firms are at their service. The British The Guardian recently wrote about this industry.

If a person stole more than 1 billion dollars and left such a "haven", it becomes almost impossible to bring him to justice. The more you steal, the less chance of inevitability of punishment.

Imagine that the American mega-swindler Bernard Madoff would take care of the “alternate airfield” in time, withdraw the money stolen from the investors of his fake fund to offshore companies in Kalmykia, and at the moment of bankruptcy fled to one of the countries unfriendly to the United States, where he declared himself a political refugee and opponent US regime. Do you have any doubts that with such a development of events, he would not be serving a 140-year sentence in a North Carolina prison now? He lived in grand style, without denying himself anything, like the former leader of Kyrgyzstan Bakiyev (Belarus), the former owner of Mezhprombank Pugachev (Monaco-UK), the famous "developer" Polonsky (Cambodia) or the fraudulent banker Ablyazov (UAE).

I repeat, the mentioned Tax Justice Network estimates the amount of "dirty money" stolen in different countries of the world and hidden in secret accounts at 25 trillion. dollars - half of world GDP. This is a time bomb under the global financial system. According to the European Commission, only in Europe last year found shelter 1.2 trillion. euros of criminal proceeds (“illegal proceeds”), of which Italian - 150 billion dollars. The financial oligarchy is a huge threat to the stability of the world economy. It "protects" global corruption, which deprives the whole peoples of Asia, Europe and America of the future, like apartheid. This comparison was politely borrowed from our newspaper not so long ago for her speech at one of the universities by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But is this speech really all that can be done?

In my opinion, this "new apartheid" can be resisted only by the joint efforts of the advanced powers, some of which, alas, have themselves become the promised land for corrupt officials and swindlers from all over the world. It is necessary to stop the practice of providing a safe haven for dirty capital and clean up the Augean stables of offshore, making the practice of nominal ownership illegal. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke about this in 2009 at the G8 summit. That's what the G20 Seoul "Global Corruption Commission" should be doing, isn't it? Why doesn't the new US "illegal proceeds" law passed in 2010 work? And what was the result of the efforts of the UN? Why hasn't the relevant EU directive been ratified yet?

It is necessary to initiate the creation at the interstate level of an organization endowed with broad powers to investigate crimes in the field of corruption and fraud related to the cross-border movement of defendants and their capital. It is necessary to shorten and reduce the cost of the way to return the stolen and laundered money - after all, the US Department of Justice has not been able to return the stolen money stolen by the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko to the Ukrainian people for 10 years! I believe that these proposals could be included in the agenda of the next G20 G20 summit. And the Russian side is preparing them.

I ask you to bring my opinion to the State Department and the US Department of Justice.

Hoping for an answer.

Sincerely,

Alexander Lebedev

Doctor of Economics, publisher of independent newspapers

From the editor . The editorial staff of Novaya Gazeta supports the proposal of its shareholder.