by Federico Fubini
A Moscow tax officer, her ex-husband and a former banker are at the center of the $230 million scam that later led to the Magnitsky murder
FROM OUR REPORTER
DAVOS – In the past few months, Russian assets worth tens of billions have been frozen in Italy, France, London and the United States. Thousands of Russians have come under sanctions. But not all Western countries are moving in the same direction. A few weeks ago, Swiss authorities allowed the return of multi-million dollar Swiss bank accounts to four Russian citizens, three of whom were subject to sanctions in the US, UK, Baltic States, Canada and Australia.
The turning point came on November 23 with a decision by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court. The four beneficiaries of $14 million of the funds deposited in Switzerland are Moscow tax official Olga Stepanova, her ex-husband Vladlen Stepanov, former banker accused of corruption Dmitry Klyuev and finally Denis Katsyv, son of former Moscow regional deputy chairman Pyotr Katsyv.
The Swiss judges do not dispute that at least two of the four are involved in a complex $230 million tax fraud that has been going on since 2007. They also do not question that the money laundering that followed the scam led in part to deposits of several million dollars into Swiss accounts. In addition, the US Treasury Department has for years sanctioned Stepanova, along with her ex-husband, for their involvement in what Washington defines as a criminal conspiracy. As for Klyuev, the London Treasury justified its sanctions as follows: in December 2007, an organized crime group was involved in a $230 million case of serious corruption, and Klyuev was involved in the fraud, specifically the scheme. After all, Katsyv has already paid $6 million to the US Department of Justice to drop a case for money laundering, according to the Department of Justice, of proceeds from the same fraud.
moreover, a 2015 decision by the Moscow Attorney General revealed that the Russian regime has been covering up the €230 million fraud and its perpetrators for years. But the Swiss Federal Criminal Court ruled in favor of these four: on the one hand it confiscated 4.5 million dollars from them, on the other hand it repeatedly forced them back14. In fact, the choice of the four Russians parked a lot of money in Swiss accounts was rewarded and now various suspect actors could be emboldened will move in the same way.
The story begins in 2007 with an attack on the Hermitage Fund, the Moscow fund owned by American investor Bill Browder. At the time, Moscow police raided offices associated with Browder and confiscated papers and seals from companies controlled by Hermitage. What the US Department of Justice defines as a criminal organization used forgeries of these documents to fabricate the application to the Moscow Treasury Department for a $230 million tax refund – wrongly so. Stepanova, head of a Moscow tax office, empowers her, and her then-husband received part of the resulting money. The amounts would then be laundered in many steps until part of it arrived in Swiss accounts.
Hermitage lawyer Sergey Magnitsky reconstructed the intrigue, revealed it and because of this in 2009 he was arrested, tortured and died in a Moscow prison. Its demise would have inspired the Magnitsky Act in America, the law that now allows the assets of Russian oligarchs to be frozen.
However, Switzerland remains largely an exception. The Federal Criminal Court awarded the four accused compensation on the grounds that the Hermitage funds were not injured in the matter and that there were no indications that a criminal organization was behind the fraud. In contrast to the US Department of Justice, the Swiss judges adopt the version of the Moscow public prosecutor’s office.
It could just be an injury, but not the first. Four times in recent years, Swiss courts have ruled in favor of Russian oligarchs accused of corruption or money laundering, often allowing them to recover available fraud funds. Today, only eight of the $213 billion Russian clients deposited with Swiss banks are being confiscated. As if the federal government were more interested in the business of its banks than in international transparency.
January 17, 2023 (change January 17, 2023 | 07:41)
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