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Russian Lawyer Posthumously Charged With Tax Evasion


Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Magnitsky
Russian authorities have filed posthumous charges of tax evasion against anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison in 2009.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said that Magnitsky helped evade 522 million rubles ($16 million) in taxes and that charges have been filed with Moscow's Tver District Court.

Also charged was Magnitsky's former client, William Browder, the chief of London-based Hermitage Capital Management.

Browder is in Britain and unlikely to return to Russia.

Magnitsky died in a Moscow detention center in November 2009 after he was allegedly beaten by guards, who also neglected his poor health.

The charges against Magnitsky and Browder were initiated by government officials whom Magnitsky earlier accused of embezzlement in 2008.

After a campaign by Browder, the U.S. House of Representatives backed legislation earlier this month sanctioning Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky's death.

Based on reporting by RIA Novosti and Interfax

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