Switzerland is returning CHF$ 14 million ($15.46 million) in frozen possessions to 3 approved Russian nationals implicated in a corruption case revealed by the late tax consultant Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage Capital Management has said.A Jan.
21 Swiss Supreme Court judgment withdrew Hermitage Capitalsprivate claimant status in a cash laundering case filed against Dmitry Klyuev, Vladlen Stepanov and Olga Stepanova, allowing their obstructed possessions to be unfrozen and accessed.Klyuev, Stepanov and Stepanova were all sanctioned by the U.S., Canada, theUnited KingdomandAustralia over their functions in the $230 million tax refund fraud plan discovered by Magnitsky in 2008.
Magnitsky was arrested and locked up in Moscow soon after he affirmed in the 2008 case on accusations viewed as retaliation for his work.
He died in pre-trial detention in November 2009 after being rejected medical treatment and subjected to harsh conditions.In a Feb.
4 letter to Swiss bank UBS showed The Moscow Times, Hermitage Capital alerted that launching the previously frozen possessions would breach U.S., British, Canadian and Australian sanctions.Despite the Swiss prosecutors decision to unfreeze certain funds, banks remain bound by worldwide sanctions laws and need to not release any funds to approved people, they wrote.If your bank continues with the release of these funds in specific defiance of sanctions, we will pursue all readily available legal avenues to hold your institution liable for assisting in the laundering of illegal earnings and helping sanctioned people in evading international monetary restrictions.