The founder of the Hermitage Capital fund, William Browder, withdrew his lawyers from participating in a lawsuit on charges of deliberate bankruptcy in Russia, his lawyer Alexander Antipov told Interfax.
“Browder refused to personally participate in this trial, and refused to participate in his lawyers.As far as I know, now he is represented in court by a lawyer free of charge – an attorney for the appointment,” said the lawyer.
According to him, a similar decision was made by the second person involved, Browder’s partner Ivan Cherkasov.
Currently, the Tver Court of Moscow is considering the criminal case of Browder and Cherkasov, accused of three episodes of deliberate bankruptcy. The trial is held in absentia, as the defendants are in the UK and do not intend to come to Russia.
The amount of damage they caused, according to the prosecution, is 3.5 billion rubles. Victims of the case are three offices of the Federal Tax Service in Moscow, who, in the criminal case, claimed to the defendants a civil claim for the amount of damage caused.