mckenna20171025CBCnational.html

The Magnitsky Act: How Canada set out to punish Russia's human rights abusers

The death of tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Russian prison inspired legislation in Canada and the United States to punish foreign officials responsible for gross human rights violations.

On 10Nov2012, Alexander Perepilichny (1968.07.15 - 2012.11.10) collapsed and died while jogging in London. He had supplied investigators with bank records of people involved in the death of Sergei Magnitsky (1972.04.08 - 2009.11.16), who was a lawyer for Bill Browder (1964.04.23 - present). Since that time, Mr Browder has lobbied governments around the world to pass the Magnitsky Act, which has occurred in the United States, Estonia and, most recently, Canada under the title "Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act" on 18Oct2017.

McKenna starts with death of Perepilichny, then relates it to the case of Magnitsky, who had uncovered a $230 million tax fraud perpetrated by corrupt Russian government officials on 24Dec2007. Magnitsky was arrested on 24Nov2008 and held in prison for 358 days before dying. Pereplichny contacted Jamie Firestone with bank and corporate information associated with the fraud -- numerous Swiss bank accounts, apartments, etc. (Litvenenko death and Kara-Murza poisoning.) London police botched the Perepilichny case, insisting that he died of natural causes. U.S intelligence has concluded that Perepilichny was murdered. Browder feels that the British don't want to lose billions of dollars of dirty Russian money.

The trail leads directly to Vladimir Putin -- or rather his relatives and friends. Then to the Trump investigation and the 09Jun2016 meeting with Veselitskaya, who has been lobbying the U.S government to repeal the Magnitsky Act. Instead, Canada has passed a version of the Magnitsky Act on 18Oct2017.