A Russian court on Thursday sentenced U.S.-born fund manager William Browder in absentia to nine years in prison for tax evasion and posthumously returned a guilty verdict on similar charges against his lawyer, in a case that Kremlin critics say has come to symbolize Russia's abuse of the legal process. The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after revealing evidence he said showed how police and security officials in Russia had committed a $230 million fraud, allegedly by stealing taxes that Mr. Browder's fund had paid to the government. Russian authorities subsequently revived a previously-closed tax evasion case against Messrs. Magnitsky and Browder that led to Thursday's verdict. Moscow's Tverskoi Court, which opted to continue hearings in the case against Mr. Magnitsky even after his death at age 37, didn't issue a sentence for the late lawyer on Thursday.
Mr. Browder's experience for many has become a symbol of corruption and lawlessness in Russia and has fueled tension with the U.S. and other Western countries, which have rallied behind the fund manager and frequently criticized the Kremlin's handling of the case. The posthumous verdict against Mr. Magnitsky "is a symbolic act showing the level of human rights violations in Russia and the deteriorating situation of ensuring human rights in Russia," Dalia Grybauskait, president of Lithuania, which took up the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union this month, said in a news conference in Vilnius. It "gives a disturbing message to those who fight corruption in Russia," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs. In a statement, she said the verdict "does not provide any answer to the real questions regarding the death of Mr. Magnitsky." Mr. Magnitsky's death became the basis for the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law passed by Congress late last year banning Russian officials allegedly involved in Mr. Magnitsky's death or other human-rights violations from entering the U.S. or holding American assets.
The law ratcheted up tensions between the U.S. and Russia, particularly after Russia responded by banning Americans from adopting Russian children and releasing its own list of U.S. officials barred from Russia on account of alleged human-rights abuses. A 2011 Kremlin human-rights commission report said Mr. Magnitsky died during pretrial detention after being beaten with rubber batons and denied medical treatment for pancreatitis. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an April TV interview that there was "neither evil intent nor criminal negligence" involved in Mr. Magnitsky's death. He and other officials have denied allegations of judicial abuses in the case, instead casting Mr. Browder as a tax evader. Mr. Browder, a U.K. citizen now living in London, decried the verdict in a statement, saying it "will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Joseph Stalin."
"The worst part of today's verdict is the malicious pain the Russian government is ready to inflict on the grieving family of a man who was killed for standing up to government corruption and police abuse," Mr. Browder said. He said he would keep fighting for justice on Mr. Magnitsky's behalf. The verdict caps a trial during which Messrs. Browder and Magnitsky were accused of evading 522 million rubles ($16 million) of taxes by falsifying returns and misusing special preferences for those who employ the disabled. In an email, Mr. Browder said he didn't believe the verdict against him would have a material impact on his movements due to the "clear illegitimacy and political motivation of this case." He and Mr. Magnitsky's family withdrew from the court process so as not to "dignify an illegitimate prosecution," Mr. Browder said. The two men were represented instead by court-appointed lawyers. The grandson of Communist Party U.S.A.
leader Earl Browder, Mr. Browder became one of the largest foreign investors in the Russian stock market through his $4 billion fund, Hermitage Capital Management, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He pressured powerful state companies to improve performance, often defending the argument for One style each line, program picks one randomly during posting. Russian court on Thursday sentenced U.S.-born fund manager William Browder in absentia to nine years in prison for tax evasion and posthumously returned a guilty verdict on similar charges against his lawyer, in a case that Kremlin critics say has come to symbolize Russia's abuse of the legal process. The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after revealing evidence he said showed how police and security officials in Russia had committed a $230 million fraud, allegedly by stealing taxes that Mr. Browder's fund had paid to the government. Russian authorities subsequently revived a previously-closed tax evasion case against Messrs. Magnitsky and Browder that led to Thursday's verdict. Moscow's Tverskoi Court, which opted to continue hearings in the case against Mr. Magnitsky even after his death at age 37, didn't issue a sentence for the late lawyer on Thursday.
Mr. Browder's experience for many has become a symbol of corruption and lawlessness in Russia and has fueled tension with the U.S. and other Western countries, which have rallied behind the fund manager and frequently criticized the Kremlin's handling of the case. The posthumous verdict against Mr. Magnitsky "is a symbolic act showing the level of human rights violations in Russia and the deteriorating situation of ensuring human rights in Russia," Dalia Grybauskait, president of Lithuania, which took up the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union this month, said in a news conference in Vilnius. It "gives a disturbing message to those who fight corruption in Russia," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs. In a statement, she said the verdict "does not provide any answer to the real questions regarding the death of Mr. Magnitsky." Mr. Magnitsky's death became the basis for the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law passed by Congress late last year banning Russian officials allegedly involved in Mr. Magnitsky's death or other human-rights violations from entering the U.S. or holding American assets.
The law ratcheted up tensions between the U.S. and Russia, particularly after Russia responded by banning Americans from adopting Russian children and releasing its own list of U.S. officials barred from Russia on account of alleged human-rights abuses. A 2011 Kremlin human-rights commission report said Mr. Magnitsky died during pretrial detention after being beaten with rubber batons and denied medical treatment for pancreatitis. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an April TV interview that there was "neither evil intent nor criminal negligence" involved in Mr. Magnitsky's death. He and other officials have denied allegations of judicial abuses in the case, instead casting Mr. Browder as a tax evader. Mr. Browder, a U.K. citizen now living in London, decried the verdict in a statement, saying it "will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Joseph Stalin."
"The worst part of today's verdict is the malicious pain the Russian government is ready to inflict on the grieving family of a man who was killed for standing up to government corruption and police abuse," Mr. Browder said. He said he would keep fighting for justice on Mr. Magnitsky's behalf. The verdict caps a trial during which Messrs. Browder and Magnitsky were accused of evading 522 million rubles ($16 million) of taxes by falsifying returns and misusing special preferences for those who employ the disabled. In an email, Mr. Browder said he didn't believe the verdict against him would have a material impact on his movements due to the "clear illegitimacy and political motivation of this case." He and Mr. Magnitsky's family withdrew from the court process so as not to "dignify an illegitimate prosecution," Mr. Browder said. The two men were represented instead by court-appointed lawyers. The grandson of Communist Party U.S.A.
leader Earl Browder, Mr. Browder became one of the largest foreign investors in the Russian stock market through his $4 billion fund, Hermitage Capital Management, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He pressured powerful state companies to improve performance, often defending the argument for One style each line, program picks one randomly during posting. [ Cheap Air Jordans Shoes for Sale http://cheapjordansgoogle.weebly.com/ ] investing in Russia and, at times, the early policies of Mr. Putin. But in 2005, Mr. Browder was abruptly denied entry to Russia and saw criminal accusations filed against him, setting off an odyssey that has transformed the one-time Russia investor into one of Mr. Putin's fiercest and most influential foreign critics. Mr. Browder had lobbied for the passage of the Magnitsky Act in the U.S. and has been pushing for similar restrictions in Europe, where Russian officials have more interests. Russian authorities filed new fraud charges against Mr. Browder in early March, a move the U.S.-born investor has described as retaliation for his anti-Putin campaigning. A Russian Interior Ministry spokesman denied any such motivations at the time.