By Jason Corcoran in Moscow
The investment firm Hermitage Capital Management has hit back at charges of illegal tax evasion via a ten-minute YouTube video clip illustrating the “true kafkaesque type situation.”
Press reports in Russia today suggested investigators intend to apply for an international arrest warrant for Hermitage founder Bill Browder, who once ran the country’s biggest portfolio investment fund, on charges of tax evasion.
Hermitage said the cases against Browder, who hasn’t been in Russia since his visa was revoked in 2005, and the fund have been fabricated in order to discredit them.
In a statement, the firm said the latest charges were implicating Browder and Hermitage’s legal adviser Sergei Magnitskiy were in response to Hermitage implicating Interior Ministry officials in the theft of $230m from the Russian budget.
Hermitage said the Russian press have been afraid to write about the Interior Ministry’s role in the alleged fraud. As a result, the firm had decided to use new channels to fight corruption in Russia. “In order to avoid putting Russian journalists at risk, we are, therefore, releasing the following YouTube video to lay out the story in full,” it added.
The video had over 400 views by 4pm Moscow time today.
