Moscow Court Sentences William Browder to 9 Years in Absentia

The court sentenced the founder of Hermitage Capital Management, a UK-based investment fund that specializes in Russian markets, to nine years in prison in absentia and ordered to collect from him and his business partner Ivan Cherkasov 4.2 billion rubles ($72.9mln) of unpaid taxes.

In addition, Browder was fined 200,000 rubles ($3,500) and banned from running business in Russia for 3 years.

Second defendant Cherkasov was sentenced to 8 years in prison and received a 200,000 ruble fine.

READ MORE: Russian Prosecutor General Asks US to Initiate Criminal Case Against Browder

The total damage from the actions of Browder and Cherkasov in the period from 1995 to 2007 was estimated at 3.5 billion rubles.

Browder was convicted of tax evasion and falsely claiming tax breaks for hiring disabled persons in absentia in 2013. The Hermitage Capital Foundation CEO refuted the accusations, saying that he became a victim of a corruption scheme himself.

In 2009 the court also ruled that Sergei Magnitsky, a tax and legal consultant for Hermitage Capital Management who died in pretrial detention in Moscow later in 2010, developed and implemented a tax evasion scheme while working for the businessman. The circumstances of his death led the United States to impose sanctions on Russian officials that it dubbed the Magnitsky Act.