BANKRUPT BANKER
Police Implicate Magnitsky in Fraud News The Moscow Times: "Amid swelling international pressure over lawyer Sergei Magnitsky's death, the Interior Ministry struck back Monday by accusing Magnitsky of participating in a Hermitage Capital scheme to embezzle 5.4 billion rubles in federal funds — and of not even being a lawyer.
The Interior Ministry's announcement came on the eve of the first anniversary of Magnitsky's death on Nov. 16, 2009, in a Moscow pretrial detention center. Magnitsky, who represented Hermitage Capital, once Russia's biggest foreign investment fund, was arrested on tax charges in 2008 after he accused senior Interior Ministry officials of embezzling the 5.4 billion rubles (worth $230 million at the time) in federal funds.
No arrests have been made in Magnitsky's death, even though President Dmitry Medvedev has promised a thorough investigation, and the Interior Ministry has presented service awards to several investigators implicated by Magnitsky's supporters in his arrest and death.
U.S. President Barack Obama raised the case with Medvedev during a meeting in Japan over the weekend, and U.S. and Canadian lawmakers are considering legislation that would impose sanctions on 60 Russian officials linked to the case."
