On May 3rd 2016 the founder and chief executive of Hermitage Capital Management, Bill Browder, testified to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee as to his personal experience dealing with the UK's premier police force and the UK's national law-enforcement agencies.
Mr. Browder tells a remarkable story of how the Russian authorities stole $230m of taxes paid by his Moscow-based investment company, distributed it around the world, and then murdered his Moscow lawyer who had unearthed the fraud.
After six years of investigation by his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Mr. Browder established that the perpetrators had distributed the money to twelve countries including: the United States, Canada, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom.
In all cases Mr. Browder presented documentary evidence of the crime to each country's law enforcement agencies. Only one police force - London's Metropolitan Police - failed to act.
In total Mr Browder presented six complaints over a five-year period to various UK institutions, showing how $30m stolen from his company was being laundered in London. They included: the Metropolitan Police; the Serious Organised Crime Office; the Serious Fraud Office; the National Crime Agency; and even Parliament and Prime Minister David Cameron himself. In all cases lame excuses were offered to justify their turning a blind eye. In stark contrast, all other countries had frozen the stolen funds.
Clearly speaking from personal experience of the British national psyche, Mr Browder - a British citizen for the last 26 years - offers his view that one reason for the inaction is an unwillingness among the British to "rock the boat".
Personal view by Jonathan Boyd Hunt:
I suggest that, if Mr Browder is to succeed in provoking positive action in Britain, he should somehow persuade the editor of the BBC's favourite newspaper The Guardian to run a campaign exposing his story. This will guarantee that the dominant BBC will then run it as a major news item in its news bulletins broadcast on each and every one of its many radio and TV channels and also the BBC's dominating news website. This, in turn, will finally provoke debate in Parliament, and the resultant controversy will finally motivate the Metropolitan Police and other agencies to perform their lawful duties. (That's what usually happens in Britain.)
