Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, Murder,and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

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They thought she would deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton, but what she talked about most was Bill Browder. there is no question that Browder’s dogged persistence against a backdrop of undoubted stress and personal courage have made an important contribution in highlighting the failures of contemporary Russia and the west alike, and offered new tools with potential to try to redress them. Browder is to be commended for his bravery in standing up to one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. Unbelievably, Browder is still alive—even though Russian president Vladimir Putin has placed him in both legal and personal jeopardy more than once. The Russians came after Browder claiming he was the one who applied for the tax refund, turning everything around so that they looked like the injured party.

He's on a personal and quixotic quest to shut down Putin's money-laundering pipeline to the Western banks who are hiding (it transpires as a result of investigations tied to Browder's own) about a trillion dollars. Representatives of each of these groups feature in this book, in which witnesses to Russian corruption die in bizarre circumstances, falling off roofs or from sudden heart attacks. I thought of my 10-year-old daughter, Veronica, whom I had promised a similar trip, but who might now have to wait a very long time. As I rushed to pack, I remembered something Elena had said to me after I’d been detained at Geneva Airport that February.

Thankfully, Prevezon had to pay a large fine in the end, but must have spent even more on lawyer's fees to try and disprove the case against them. In the end, I am not so much glad that I read this book as I am grateful to it, and to Author Browder, for showing me that people who live in a principled way and advertise their intentions clearly can, and do, effect change for the better. Browder’s account of how he stood up to Putin in the face of danger, arrest warrants, and bullying is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the tactics of modern autocracy. Browder himself has been repeatedly targeted by the Russians, and he has been tried twice in absentia and convicted of false charges in Russia.

They expected some kind of reaction, but the Russians had been accusing me of much more serious crimes for such a long time that the sole accusation of “fraud” had almost no impact. Fast paced and engaging , Browder’s book reads like a spy novel, but it also makes a powerful and remarkably prescient case for the need to use all the legal and financial tools available to separate Putin’s financiers from their foreign-held bank accounts and luxury yachts. I’d started using Twitter a couple of years earlier, and now had some 135,000 followers, many of them journalists, government officials, and politicians from around the world.

But rather I feel fewer mentions of family skiing vacations in Aspen and all the trans-continental jet setting might have made space for some more interesting analysis. I mean some of the stuff would be laughed at if written for a movie - like the attorney who fought the good fight but eventually becomes corrupted by Russian money is named . I know that is nothing like what Browder has put up with, but I was working with stripe shirts and thugs, while he faced off the powerful. Reading this for book club, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, and thought this was going to be an exciting spy novel.

They faked documents that they claimed “proved” Magnitsky committed the fraud and then they named Browder and charged him with Magnitsky’s murder. At least four people Browder knew and worked with on exposing human rights abuses and financial crimes were killed by Russian state security agencies, and two others were nearly killed or maimed. It is among a crop of excellent recent books about Russia…If its subject matter weren’t so grave, the book could be said to have all the elements of a high-octane drama.One of the most impactful takeaways from this book is that none of this could happen without western enablers and the acquiescence of timid and ineffective governments that refuse to follow their own laws and values. If something like this ever happens again,” she said, “and you can’t reach anyone, post it on Twitter. A] zesty new book about the theft, extortion, intimidation, lies and murder that are the Russian state’s daily levers of power. The Russians hired a lawyer who had previously worked for Browder, a conflict of interest that eventually had the lawyer barred, but not before Browder feared his personal information had been passed on to the people who were out to get him.

This book was eye-opening on just how much Russian money has been spent on law firms, banks and politicians.

In December 2012 President Obama signed into law the Magnitsky Act which had passed Congress with broad bi-partisan support. What if, instead of driving me to the police station, they drove me to an airstrip, put me on a private plane, and whisked me off to Moscow? These last are through periodic Interpol 'red notice' warrants initiated by Russia to hopefully get Browder caught in Customs by a foreign country unaware of the malicious intents of the instigators.