Anti-corruption activist Bill Browder is calling on the US to impose visa bans on British lawyers he accuses of “empowering” Russian oligarchs.
The US-born financier, an outspoken and longtime critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said introducing such a ban would go to the heart of what he described as an ongoing problem by oligarchs using the UK legal system against journalists and whistleblowers them in costly court cases.
Broder suggested sanctions could ultimately be aimed at any legal and financial experts who might be shown them has helped oligarchs hide their fortunes but said his initially proposed blacklist focused on British lawyers involved in defamation cases.
Brother described “this whole class of British lawyers” who have been instructed by Russians and people with Russia ties “to bring lawsuits against journalists, dissidents and whistleblowers, including myself, and they’re making money”.
“There’s this industry,” Browder said. “It’s going to be quite difficult to legislate the idea that a plaintiff can hire a lawyer to sue for defamation because how do you define what’s good and what’s bad? But if you identify an attorney who does this on a regular basis — persecutes people — the United States doesn’t have to issue them visas to come to this country.”
The activist has a proven influence on Capitol Hill. In a recent statement, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin called Browder a “hero” to “many” in the Senate for his work in passing the Magnitsky Act, a bipartisan Obama-era bill named after Browder’s former tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky died in police custody in Russia in 2009.
The law should allow the US to punish officials linked to Magnitsky’s death, but it also empowers the US to sanction human rights violators and ban them from entering the country.
Browder said he is seeking the assistance of senators and members of Congress to write a letter to the US State Department listing the names of certain attorneys he believes should have their visas revoked. He did not name the lawyers who might appear on the list.
Browder also argued that targeting oligarchs, such as lawyers and accountants, would be an effective way to find their money, at least half of which he said ends up in Putin’s coffers as part of the Kremlin’s pact with the oligarchs .
“There’s going to be a whole lot of smart law enforcement work now, looking at sanctions evasion. These people have circled around us in the past,” Browder said. “They have the most robust asset protection mechanisms in place with trustees, holding companies, nominees and proxies overseas.”
Finding the oligarchs’ money is an “almost impossible task”. He said he would like to add an amendment to the Sanctions Act to make lawyers, accountants, bankers and other financial advisors liable – including possible prison terms – if they are found to have created structures to evade sanctions.
“Very quickly, the whole system would become very transparent,” he said.
Browder’s comments follow his recent testimony before the Helsinki Commission, an independent body made up of nine members of the US House of Representatives, nine senators and one member of the US Departments of State, Defense and Commerce. The commission is set to help formulate policy related to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the hearing focused on Western “enablers” of Putin’s regime.
Browder’s recommendations in his testimony included that the US create a list of law firms, public relations firms and investigative firms involved in “enabling dictatorships and oligarchs to prosecute journalists” and ban the US government from using do business with these companies; canceling the visas of “foreign trailblazers”, enforcing rules requiring lawyers and public relations firms to disclose their work to foreign governments; and the creation of new laws to protect journalists from so-called SLAPP lawsuits (strategic lawsuits against public participation) intended to intimidate the press.