Magnitsky Act Timeline

#Magnitsky Act Timeline

**1996** - Bill Browder co-founds Hermitage, an international investment fund. Hermitage holds several child companies and makes a return by making these companies more efficient by cutting down on corruption.

**2005** - Browder is denied entry while attempting to return to Russia, where Hermitage has several headquarters. He is told that he has been blacklisted for being a threat to national security. It is suspected that his role in cutting down on corruption is the true reason for his denial.

**2006** - A Russian head of a tax crimes unit, Artem Kuznetsov, calls Hermitage and attempts to set up a meeting with Browder in order to extort him in exchange for a visa. Hermitage refuses to cooperate and Browder is denied a visa.

**June 24 2007** - Hermitage headquarters in Mocow is raided by Russian officials. Corporate servers, computers, and documents were seized. The given reason for the raid was that one of Hermitage's child companies was behind in taxes. This was a bogus excuse as the companies had certification that they overpaid in taxes.

**June 24 2007** - Firestone Duncan, the legal firm used by Hermitage, is raided the same day. Sergey Magnitsky, a lawyer working for Firestone Duncan, objects to the seizures claiming they are illegal, and is subsequently arrested. Magnitsky was beaten, jailed, and hospitalized for two weeks.

**Mid 2007** - The Hermitage documents and computers stolen by Russian officials allowed them to steal three of the companies that Hermitage was holding. Along with the theft, three convicted criminals were installed as new directors of these companies.

**Late 2007** - The companies were taken to court, where the new criminal directors pleaded guilty to tax fraud. In total, the three companies were ordered to pay $1.26 billion. Russian officials headed to the banks used by Hermitage in order to seize the funds only to find nothing there. Hermitage had preemptively moved its assets out of the country.

**December 2007** - Upset that their scandal had yielded nothing, the criminals then targeted $230 million in taxes that Hermitage had already paid. A criminal judgment was made that awarded the criminals the $230 million tax dollars as a rebate, the largest in Russian history.

**Early 2008** - Hermitage files several complaints at every level of government only to be told that the only crimes that were committed were by Hermitage since their child companies were the ones who had committed tax fraud. Browder is convicted in a Russian court, which requests assistance from Interpol in extraditing Browder. Interpol denies the request.

**November 2008** - Sergey Magnitsky is arrested for his alleged role in the tax fraud. Magnitsky had actually been working to uncover the scandal, which is the real reason for his arrest.

**November 2009** - Sergey Magnitsky is set to be released as Russian law dictates that police can hold someone for up to a year without a trial. Magnitsky dies just days before his release date. The post-mortem examination showed Magnitsky had been heavily beaten, and cranial injury is listed as the cause of death.

**2010** - International outcry occurs over the treatment and death of Magnitsky. Legislation is drafted to punish those responsible for the treatment and death of Magnistsky.

**December 14 2012** - The Magnitsky Act is passed in the U.S., punishing those responsible for the scandal by preventing their entry into the U.S., freezing any funds they may have in the U.S., and further preventing them from using U.S. banks. Similar laws pas in the EU. As retaliation, Russia outlaws U.S. adoption of Russian children.

____

**June 9 2016** - Donald Trump Jr., son of then presidential candidate Donald Trump, along with several other members of the Trump campaign, takes a meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer and advocate against the Magnitsky Act. The premise for the meeting was to disclose compromising information about Hillary Clinton, but Donald Jr. later claimed it was actually about Russian adoption.

**January 9 2017** - The Obama administration adds five individuals to the Magnistsky Act, just 11 days before Donald Trump assumed the presidency.

**July 8 2017** - The New York Times discloses information about the meeting between Donald Jr. and Veselnitskaya, which was previously unknown the the public. Donald Jr. tweets the email exchanges that arranged the meeting, confirming the story.

**July 27 2017** - Bill Browder testifies to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. In his testimony, he claims that Vladimir Putin is likely the richest man in the world. He claims he accomplished this by threatening Russian oligarchs with imprisonment if they did not forfeit 50% of their assets to Putin personally. According to Browder, these assets are likely kept outside of Russia in foreign banks, including U.S. banks. This, he claimed, is the reason Putin desperately wants the Magnitsky Act repealed, because existing and potential assets of his and other corrupt officials are inaccessible. Browder claims repealing or weakening the Magnitsky act was the purpose behind the 2016 meeting with the Trump campaign.