US help to investigate the case of Dirk, Robert and Daniel Ziff
Yesterday it became known that the Russian Interior Ministry suspects the head of Hermitage Capital, William Browder in the illegal acquisition of 200 million shares of "Gazprom", tax evasion, as well as the deliberate bankruptcy of the company used for this transaction. As a consequence of his accomplices sees Dirk brothers, Robert and Daniel Ziff, holding Ziff Brothers Investments investment fund. In this case Prosecutor General's Office plans to seek legal assistance from the United States, as well as to notify the authorities of that country that in its territory and committed wrongful acts.

As the official representative of the Prosecutor General Alexander smoking, the investigating authorities of the Russian Federation is currently investigating a number of conducted criminal cases of illegal acquisition during the period from 1997 to 2005 no less than 200 million shares of OJSC "Gazprom", tax evasion and deliberate bankruptcy of several companies (h . 4 Art. 159 of the Criminal Code, Art. 199 of the Criminal Code and Art. 196 of the Criminal Code).

it was found that Ziff Brothers Investments Fund (a tax resident in the USA), owned by New York billionaire brothers Dirk, Robert and Daniel Ziff, founded the company Speedwagon Investors 1 and Speedwagon Investors 2, which in turn During the investigation, the investigation department of the Ministry of Interior, registered in Cyprus offshore Zhoda Limited, Peninsular Heights and Giggs Enterprises Limited. Offshore companies established in the Republic of Kalmykia, which at that time was a free economic zone, LLC "Cameo", "Baikal-M", "Sterling Investments", "Lori", "Empire" and "Excalibur". We headed all the head of the company Hermitage Capital, William Browder and his partner Ivan Cherkasov. Since at that time I acted presidential decree forbidding foreigners to buy shares of "Gazprom", the transactions carried out through the Kalmyk LLC. The shares of the gas monopoly, they acquired at the St. Petersburg and Moscow brokerage trading floors. A total of 133 million shares of OOO "Gazprom" has been acquired.

In 2006, according to the Interior Ministry, the shares were consolidated in the Company "Cameo". Some of them, the company sold, and about 70 million of securities in the form of dividends passed the Cyprus offshore, and they sent them to Speedwagon Investors 1 and 2.

The remaining shares were purchased and registered in Kalmykia William Browder companies "Distant Steppe", "Saturn Investment" and "Ryland". Subsequently, they were transferred securities in the Cypriot offshore companies, their founders and speakers. These transactions, according to the Interior Ministry, has been committed for the benefit of HSBC Fund, speaking in turn, the founder of Hermitage Capital. They believe in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as a result of these transactions, only the Russian budget in the form of taxes is not received more than 1 billion rubles.

According to investigators, these transactions entered into an international group, which in addition to Ziff Brothers and William Browder were the head of the audit company Firestone Duncan Jamison Firestone and others, including the "unidentified persons".

According to Mr. smoking, the Russian law enforcement officers have reason to believe that these actions violated a number of normative acts of the United States, including the law on investment activity, and may be a reason for criminal prosecution by US authorities. According to lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (involved in the protection of the US citizens of Russia), according to its information, violations linked including the fact that while Ziff Brothers Investments was not registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment company, and therefore I could not participate in such transactions.

[RBC, 05.19.2016, "Prosecutor General's appeal to the United States for help in the case of Browder": Ziff brothers investments - US investment fund, run by three brothers - Daniel, Dirk and Robert Ziff. They occupy the 118-120 th place in the ranking of the richest Americans by Forbes magazine. Their total wealth is estimated at $ 14.4 billion -. K.ru Box]

In this regard, the supervisory authority is preparing to appeal to the US Justice Department for the provision of international legal assistance. General Prosecutor's Office expects that US law enforcement authorities verify the transaction to meet US financial and tax law.

In addition, the hope that the US authorities will provide data necessary for the completion of the Interior Ministry criminal investigation and transfer it to the court the prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation. It is expected that William Browder will stand trial in absentia (in 2013 by the verdict of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, he got nine years in absentia for tax evasion). But bankruptcy trustee "Long steppe" Alexander Dolzhenko on charges of premeditated bankruptcy would be judged as normal.

Vladislav Trifonov