Translated material
SK: there were no thefts from the budget of 5.4 billion rubles that Magnitsky spoke about
The Investigative Committee of Russia has denied the version of the tax and legal consultant of the Hermitage Capital fund, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a pre-trial detention center in 2009, about the involvement of police officers in the theft of 5.4 billion rubles from the budget, according to the department’s website.
“The allegations made in numerous appeals about the criminal prosecution of Magnitsky in connection with his attempt to expose law enforcement officers of involvement in the theft of 5.4 billion budget funds have been verified investigatively and are refuted by the evidence obtained,” the Investigative Committee said in a press release.
“Magnitsky’s statements about the commission of such a crime cannot be used as the basis for anyone’s criminal prosecution,” the department adds.
On Tuesday it became known that the Investigative Committee closed the criminal case into the death of Sergei Magnitsky . The Investigative Committee stated that the criminal prosecution of the lawyer was carried out in the “procedure established by law”; no pressure was exerted on him, and no physical violence or torture was used against him. According to the conclusion of forensic experts, Magnitsky’s death was caused by acute heart failure, edema of the brain and lungs with acute hemorrhages that developed in connection with fibrillation of the ventricles of the heart.
In 2008, Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, accused of tax evasion from the organization, was imprisoned in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center, where he spent a year in torture conditions and died in November 2009. The investigation established that Magnitsky died due to the fact that he was not provided with medical assistance in a timely manner. After the death of the lawyer, the case against him was closed, but two years later it was restored.
According to investigators, Sergei Magnitsky developed a fraudulent scheme in which, as a result of criminal manipulations with tax returns, he withdrew hundreds of millions of rubles from taxes. William Browder, head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, is also involved in this case.
Hermitage Capital, in turn, states that the persecution of the auditor was due to the fact that he uncovered a scheme to steal 5.4 billion rubles in taxes from the budget by employees of the tax service and law enforcement agencies.