Following the release of his latest book ‘Freezing Order’, Bill Browder, the American-British financier and political activist, discusses his personal and terrifying experience of Interpol Red Notice abuse by Russia.
You can watch the 30 minute video interview below.
“Interpol is this nameless, faceless, black box, where they are not accountable to anybody”
Thirteen years ago this month, Browder’s Russian lawyer and anti-corruption whistle blower, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow pretrial detention centre. Ever since, Browder has strenuously lobbied for anti-corruption legislation.
In 2009 Sergei Magnitsky testified that the Russian police and tax authorities had attempted to steal two hundred and thirty million dollars in Russian taxes paid by Browder’s Moscow-based investment firm, Hermitage Capital.
The persecution and corporate raiding of Browder by Russia has been well documented. It is from this affair and Russia's abuse of the Interpol system that the “Magnitsky list” was created by the US senate and then adopted by the EU.
In this video interview with Rhys Davies, barrister and co-editor of Red Notice Monitor, Browder discusses the devastating impact that Interpol abuse by authoritarian regimes is having on innocent individuals.:
“The message is that …there’s no place you can hide if you’re not blessed with public interest in your case or having financial resources to hire good lawyers to get you out of trouble”
Browder also discusses his views on how Interpol should be reformed to protect against human rights abuses:
"I think it is well acknowledged now that Putin’s regime is a criminal regime. So here you have a supposed law enforcement organisation acting as an arm of a criminal regime to go after its enemies. It is scandalous and demands reform.”
Watch the full 30 minute video interview here: