Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya conducted her own investigation into the activities of the founder of the Hermitage Capital William Browder Foundation since 1996 and came to the conclusion that he was evaded from paying taxes in an especially large amount and understating the dividends paid to the Russian budget.
“After the collision with Browder, I initiated a personal investigation into the activities of Browder and his companies, I have information about the evasion of Browder companies from paying taxes and understating the dividends paid to the budget of the Russian Federation,” she told the Tverskoi court in Moscow.
On Thursday, the court is interrogating Veselnitskaya, suspected by the American media in relations with the administration of Donald Trump, in the case of non-payment of taxes by Browder and his business partner Ivan Cherkasov. Hearings of the case take place without the defendants, since they are abroad.
The lawyer claims that he conducted an investigation with the participation of an international group of lawyers, using documents from Russia, the United States, Britain and other countries. “I made up my own chronology of Browder’s activities in Russia since 1996,” Veselnitskaya said.
She told the court that she was familiar with Browder, since she represented the interests of businessman Denis Katsyv, against whom Browder initiated civil cases in American and Swiss courts. Previously, Russian media claimed that Katsyv’s Cyprian company was the recipient of money stolen in the Magnitsky case. The cases initiated by Browder concerned the confiscation of these allegedly stolen funds.