The colleagues of Sergei Magnitsky, the late tax advisor to Hermitage Capital, published the results of their independent investigation that appears to show that that officials whom Magnitsky had implicated in a tax fraud have become extremely wealthy. Magnitsky accused several Interior Ministry officials of having used three Hermitage subsidiaries in a scheme with tax officials to receive an illegal tax refund of $230 million. Shortly after that Magnitsky was arrested and later mysteriously died in jail. Magnitsky’s claims have never been fully investigated by Russian law-enforcement bodies. Now Magnitsky’s supporters, including William F. Browder, the owner of Hermitage Capital Management, published their own findings on a web site. Among the officials that were investigated is Olga Stepanova, the former head of Moscow’s 28th District Tax Inspectorate. Three weeks after her office was said to have approved a portion of the tax refund in question, Stepanova made a $629,030 down payment on a luxury apartment in Dubai. In addition to the Dubai apartment, Stepanova and her husband (a construction worker) bought a large villa in Dubai and another in Montenegro, and built an 11,900-square-foot house outside of Moscow, according to the investigation. In total, Stepanova acquired nearly $39 million in assets and cash after her office authorized the tax refund. According to their tax returns, Stepanova and her husband had been making a combined salary of just under $40,000 annually.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/world/europe/19russia.html?_r=1
http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/
http://youtu.be/H7yBOEPYJTc (video)
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