Old news, but alarming -- Swiss justice no obstacle to Russian corruption

[eppur_se_muova]

Switzerland Bows to Veselnitskaya, Sends Loot Back to Russia''

Nico Hines

Senior World Editor
Published Nov. 19, 2020 7:00PM ET

LONDON—Switzerland knows its investigation into a $230 million Russian fraud was corrupted by Kremlin assets, including Trump Tower Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, but it still plans to hand back almost all of the stolen funds to the men accused of taking part in one of the world’s most infamous financial crimes.

In a letter seen by The Daily Beast, the Swiss General Prosecutor’s office says it plans to return 99 percent of the frozen assets belonging to one alleged Russian fraudster and 100 percent of the assets belonging to an alleged Russian crime syndicate boss.

These illicit proceeds allegedly came from Russia’s biggest ever public fraud, which has resulted in a swathe of global anti-corruption laws that began when President Obama signed the Magnitsky Act into law in 2012.

A year before that, the authorities in Switzerland began to freeze more than $10 million that was funnelled into Swiss bank accounts from Russia. That money was part of a massive fraud and coverup that was discovered by Sergei Magnitsky, who was subsequently imprisoned and left to die after being beaten by the Russian authorities.
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One of the men accused of distributing the proceeds of the crimes, Denis Katsyv, was Veselnitskaya’s boss. She worked with senior figures in Moscow’s General Prosecutor’s Office who—together with friendly oligarchs—influenced senior Swiss officials with all-expenses paid vacations in Russia where they were fed with Kremlin propaganda, according to Swiss court documents.
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more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/switzerland-bows-to-trump-tower-lawyer-natalia-veselnitskaya-sends-loot-back-to-russia

[Ford_Prefect]

1. Sad but not at all surprising. Imagine that same "influence" applied to a more receptive audience

here and what that might accomplish?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. If only we could be assured our own government is not corrupted by oligarchs.