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Also see: Bill Browder; John McCain;
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Undated: The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.
Since 2016 the bill, which applies globally, authorizes the US government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freezing their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.[1]
In June 2016, a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was hired to lobby against the Magnitsky Act in the US, set up a Trump campaign–Russia meeting with Donald Trump Jr., purportedly to discuss altering the Russian Duma's sanctions against American adoption of Russian children along with other alleged illegal activities. On July 11, 2017, Reuters US reported that at the meeting Russia "offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to [Trump Jr.'s] father".[31] Donald Trump Jr. insisted that Veselnitskaya did not reveal any damaging information about Secretary Clinton, contrary to what his correspondence had suggested. Trump Jr. subsequently released to the public, via Twitter, his personal records and correspondence between the Trump campaign team and Rob Goldstone, a longtime business partner and friend of Trump Sr. who actively represents several Russian interests and who had first pitched the meeting to Trump Jr.[32]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitsky_Act
-- 2017 --
July 15: The new figure in the Trump-Russia controversy: Rinat Akhmetshin
The saga surrounding a June 2016 meeting between senior Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer took another turn Friday when it was revealed that there were additional participants, including a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military and now promotes Kremlin-aligned interests in Washington.
Akhmetshin has been a presence in the US for more than 20 years, and his history has been a source of intrigue for months. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley requested more information about his immigration history in April as his committee investigated a complaint that Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya and others engaged in undisclosed lobbying on behalf of the Kremlin to weaken the Magnitsky Act.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/15/politics/who-is-rinat-akhmetshin/index.html
-- 2018 --
July 17: I'm Bill Browder. Here's the Biggest Mistake Putin Made When Trying to Get Access to Me Through Trump
Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Since 2009 when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia's endemic corruption and human rights abuses.
I wasn’t watching the Donald Trump–Vladimir Putin press conference from Helsinki. But when my phone started burning up with messages, I knew something was going on. I quickly discovered that Putin had mentioned me by name. No journalist had asked about me. He just brought me up out of the blue.
Putin offered to allow American investigators to interview the 12 Russian intelligence agents just indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in exchange for allowing Russians to have access to me and those close to me. This is no idle threat. For the last ten years, I’ve been trying to avoid getting killed by Putin’s regime, and there already exists a trail of dead bodies connected to its desire to see me dead. Amazingly, Trump stood next to him, appearing to nod approvingly. He even later said that he considered it “an incredible offer.”
I’m lodged so firmly under Putin’s skin because I’m the person responsible for getting the Magnitsky Act passed in the United States in 2012. This is a law that allows the U.S. government to freeze assets and ban visas of human-rights violators around the world. Some of these human-rights violators had killed Sergei Magnitsky, my Russian lawyer who was murdered in a Moscow jail for uncovering a massive $230 million government-corruption scheme that we’ve since traced to known Putin cronies. In essence, Putin received some of the proceeds of this crime, and he is terrified that the Magnitsky Act could be applied to his offshore fortune, which is probably one of the largest amassed in modern times.
http://time.com/5340545/bill-browder-vladimir-putin-magnitsky-act-donald-trump/
October 23: John McCain forced Trump to get tough on Saudi Arabia, from beyond the grave
The United States will kick some Saudi diplomats out of the country, and could freeze the assets of others in retaliation for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, officials said today.
“We have ID’d some of the individuals responsible” for Khashoggi’s death, secretary of state Mike Pompeo told reporters. The individuals include Saudi intelligence and foreign ministry officials, and members of the “royal court.” The State Department has begun “revoking visas,” and is studying the “applicability of the global Magnitsky sanctions to these individuals,” he said.
... Congress pressured the president to act, invoking the 2014 Global Magnitsky Act. On Oct.10, ten Republican senators, including those that voted to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, used the act to force Trump into action.
Without former Arizona senator John McCain, there would be no Magnitsky Act at all, as investor Bill Browder explained in Time when McCain died earlier this year. The act was named after Browder’s business partner Sergei Magnitsky, who was killed in a Russian prison in 2009. Seeking some retribution for his death, Browder, a US citizen, traveled to Washington, begging politicians for help.
Only McCain would listen, he writes, becoming “my hero by creating a new tool for bringing Sergei’s killers and other human rights abusers to justice.”
https://qz.com/1434863/john-mccains-magnitsky-act-forces-donald-trump-to-act-on-saudi-arabia/
November 19: As the 28 states of the EU gather in the Hague to discuss an EU equivalent of US legislation known as the Magnitsky Act, Russia’s Prosecutor General Office said it had concluded UK financier Bill Browder was behind the death of his own lawyer, Sergey Magnitsky, in a Russian prison in 2009.
Nikolai Atmonyev, an advisor to the prosecutor’s office, said Moscow will put Browder on the international wanted list "in the near future.”
“We see a spike in these Russian games every time there is an attempt to go forward with a new Magnitsky Act anywhere in the world,” Browder said by phone.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joharper/2018/11/19/browder-slams-kremlin-threats-as-eu-votes-on-magnitsky-act/#61c4cf781d43
-- 2019 --
January 8: Natalya Veselnitskaya, Russian attorney at Trump Tower meeting, charged with obstruction of justice in unrelated money laundering case
... an issue that [Natalya] Veselnitskaya raised at the Trump Tower meeting is closely related to the scheme that led to the civil case, U.S. vs. Prevezon Holdings, in which she is accused of acting criminally as a lawyer.
In that civil case, Veselnitskaya was representing defendants accused of an "elaborate" $230 million tax refund fraud scheme, according to authorities.
The federal government filed the case in 2013 in an effort to recover several million dollars worth of property, primarily comprised of New York real estate, which was allegedly obtained to launder a portion of the money swindled in the tax refund scheme.
That scheme was uncovered by a Russian accountant named Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested after helping report the fraud to Russian authorities.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/08/natalya-veselnitskaya-attorney-at-trump-tower-meeting-charged.html
January 15:
... President Donald Trump called the suggestion from Putin that the U.S. and Russia collaborate in handling international prosecutions an "incredible offer." The White House turned it down.
Browder, the CEO of the investment firm Hermitage Capital Management, said he was unnerved by Trump's characterization of the offer.
"I thought to myself this guy... is either very stupid — not having been briefed about my story because my story is all over the place — or there's something wrong in his head because to hand me over to the Russians is about the worst thing," Browder said.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/view-kremlin-critic-bill-browder-trumps-hesitance-criticize/story?id=60375934
-- 2020 --
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