Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, Murder,and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

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We all know of Putin's total disregard for the deaths he is currently responsible for in Ukraine and amongst his own soldiers, but the greed of this evil man, who for years has been robbing Russia's citizens of billions, aided by those in the West, has been a revelation. I leave this this book feeling frustrated that many avoided the consequences of their actions, greed prevailing regardless of the murders, blackmail and coercion and that Putin is still in power, that Trump is once more attempting to grab the presidency and that we seem to be on the verge of something even more terrifying unless these people are stopped. Out of the blue, Putin offered to swap some Russian intelligence agents for Browder, and in a joint press conference Trump said that he thought it was “an incredible offer”.

Held for almost a year without charge, Magnitsky died a few days before he was due to be released – murdered, says Browder, and a number of independent investigators, by prison guards who beat him to death. there is no question that Browder’s dogged persistence against a backdrop of undoubted stress and personal courage have made an important contribution in highlighting the failures of contemporary Russia and the west alike, and offered new tools with potential to try to redress them. They then blamed the scam on Browder, and when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, exposed the officers responsible for the fraud, those same officers had Magnitsky arrested.Bill’s courage, determination and tenacity with creating and putting the Magnitsky Act into action are truly remarkable. They expected some kind of reaction, but the Russians had been accusing me of much more serious crimes for such a long time that the sole accusation of “fraud” had almost no impact. Fast paced and engaging, Browder’s book reads like a spy novel, but it also makes a powerful and remarkably prescient case for the need to use all the legal and financial tools available to separate Putin’s financiers from their foreign-held bank accounts and luxury yachts.

Lawyers, politicians and the usual useful idiots have all been successfully recruited to the Russian cause, either through financial inducement, bribery, bovine anti-west sentiments, or perhaps worst of all, complacency. When I arrived at my hotel that evening, the manager scurried over to the check-in desk and ushered the clerk aside. If this were a kidnapping, and I was starting to believe it was, I could picture what was in there: a bright-white office with a steel gurney, a little table with an assortment of syringes, and Russian men in cheap suits. Thereafter Browder, a naturalised Briton based in London, dedicated himself to gaining justice for his friend, primarily by lobbying for the Magnitsky Act – a bill that authorised the US government to sanction human rights offenders and freeze their assets. I had to let him know what was going on, so I ducked behind the partition and cupped my hand over the phone.Be prepared to be shocked as we follow Browder and this colleagues as they “chase the money” in the full knowledge they are being followed and probably targeted by people in Moscow. There was a dining room, its table laid out with pastries, chocolates, and champagne on ice; then came the reading room, with a small private library; then a lounge with a glass-topped bar; then a little office with subdued lighting; and finally, the bedroom, which had a freestanding bathtub tucked under a high window. He scanned my passport and fed the credit card—a Black American Express Card to which I’d recently been upgraded—into a chip reader.

Reading Bill Browder’s zesty new book about the theft, extortion, intimidation, lies and murder that are the Russian state’s daily levers of power can feel like reading several books at once. Bill Browder's thrilling new book digs deeper into the kleptocratic world enabled and supported by the Russian state, for the benefit of the most powerful and well-connected crooks in Russia and beyond. Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. I would then have 30 days to respond, and the Russians would have another 30 days to respond to my response. What if, instead of driving me to the police station, they drove me to an airstrip, put me on a private plane, and whisked me off to Moscow?Since the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, Browder's advocacy has led to the passage of the Magnitsky Act in 34 countries. More explosive, compulsive and gasp-inducingly, spine-tingingly, mouth-dryingly, heart-poundingly thrilling than any fiction I have read for years.

Revealing and damning , exposing Putin and his minions as little more than greedy international criminals. Revealing and damning, exposing Putin and his minions as little more than greedy international criminals.

If you read these books you’ll know more about what’s happening in Russia than not only the people in your neighborhood, but many on TV! Once adopted, however, the Magnitsky law remained mostly unused in the US, and particularly in the UK. It would be entertaining fiction, but it is a true story that serves as a roadmap for fighting back against the crime and corruption from Putin’s Russia. It was a time of wild profiteering, as post-Soviet state assets were sold off on the cheap, and a venal oligarchy was created. He stepped aside when the doors opened, making room for me to exit first, but once we were in the hall he shuffled past me, stopping in front of a white door.