The Independent (04/03/2014) reports that the tireless and fearless Bill Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital and the driving force behind the US Magnitsky Act, recently addressed the UK Parliamentary All-Party Anti-Corruption Group.
He has relentlessly pursued the proceeds of a £138 million tax fraud committed by known and corrupt Russian officials and traced those monies through companies and assets all over the world. We have blogged previously about these issues on 11 September 2013.
His company, Hermitage, has investigated the companies that own the luxurious properties of Victor Yanukovych and have identified three of the tax fraudsters’ names who also involved with those companies.
He told the All-Party Group that he has had co-operation from the relevant authorities in the US, Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldavia, but not one UK investigatory/regulatory or prosecution authority in the UK has responded to requests for assistance or taken any action. He has even approached the Home Secretary directly to no avail.
He went onto say “I have learnt definitively that the UK is the most porous, unrobust and weakest place for enforcing any kind of money-laundering law, bar none. If you are a money launderer, this is the place to be.”
