Russian Poisonings: What killed Alexander Perepilichnyy? (PART 3)

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Alexander Perepilichnyy had a strong conscience, and wanted to do something fair and just. Or, maybe he saw an opportunity to clear his name and return back to Russia with his family. Was that the thing that got him killed? Magnitsky also wanted to do the right thing, and report a crime to the authorities, and he was the one that ended up in jail instead, and died in a very painful way. In this installation, we explore why these two Russian nationals were punished by the state for trying to fight crime. 

Magnitsky's funeral 

Picking up from Part 2, we left off that Magnitsky died in jail from poor health and ill-treatment. Browder, angry and hurt, wanted to get revenge on his associate's death. So, he took to the media and YouTube. He published a long expose in a major Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, and there they included handwritten letters from Sergei Magnitsky professing his innocence. 

Handwritten letter from Sergey Magnistky 

The newspaper article instigated an investigation of some 20 or so police officers, and resulted in their firings. A further look into this showed that only one of those twenty police officers was actually tied to Magnitsky. The other nineteen had no connection to him, in fact some were working at prisons thousands of kilometres away. A private NGO released a report that detailed Magnitsky's torture, and send it to various government agencies, but there was no reply. 

Browder also set up a YouTube account, and started posting videos with the information he was gathering on Magnitsky's death. In 2012, he lobbied the US government to implement the Magnitsky Act, which would impose sanctions and travel bans on the culprits tied to this fraud case. 

THE YOUTUBE CONNECTION 

In August 2010, Perepilichnyy contacted Bill Browder after stumbling on his YouTube channel. He claimed that he had intimate knowledge of the heist, and signed his emails as "Alejandro Sanches". This made Browder very suspicious, because to him, the name was clearly fake and non-Russian. 

Bill Browder

When Sanches asked he meet up with Browder to discuss his side of the crime, he was met with one of Browder's lawyers, accompanied by a four-man security team. One security guard carried a signal jammer, and another did a sweep with a Geiger counter, just in case this mysterious man came with radioactive poison. 

At this rendezvous, Perepilichnyy revealed his true name, and motivation for speaking out. He revealed who the culprits of this crime was, the Stepanovs acting in cahoots with the Klyuev Crime Syndicate, and also revealed that they had a falling out. This resulted in the Stepanovs pulling governmental strings to bring criminal charges against Perepilichnyy after losing their money in 2008. He thought if he could tie them to this US$230 million fraud, their reputation would tumble and he could get rid of this criminal case. The charges were the reason why Perepilichnyy ran away to England with his family.  

The Klyuev Crime Syndicate hierarchy

Alexander provided Browder with bank records and other critical evidence that was used to build a case in Switzerland. Browder's lawyers filed a complaint with the Swiss attorney general, and in turn they froze two bank accounts, worth at least US$10 million combined. They also launched an investigation and let Browder's team have access to documents pertaining to the case.

The journalism group, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, found further evidence that the  stolen funds were used to buy property in the USA, in Manhattan. So, Browder contacted the US Justice Department, and they immediately launched their own investigations and started to seize properties. In total, over 12 countries have imposed sanctions and pursued their own investigations in regards to this fraud. 

Perepilichnyy's death wasn't something unusual with this case. Three other people who had knowledge about this fraud also died. Their causes of death were falling from a balcony, liver failure at the age of 43, and last person died of heart failure at 53 years of age. All deaths were somehow suspicious in their own way. 

Vladlen Stepanov

Browder tried to protect Perepilichnyy as best as he could, but enough information and breadcrumbs leaked out that Stepanov whiffed who it might be. Mostly, the specific details to the Swiss case, and also Browder's YouTube videos, were ones that only Alexander would know. So, Stepanov took to the press, and printed in a prominent Russian newspaper that he will ''seek revenge'' for the damage to money and reputation that Perepilichnyy caused him. 

STEPANOV'S VENDETTA 

The players in this game have changed gears. Olga Stepanova was now working in the Ministry of Defence, having left the tax bureau. The man who approved Magnitsky's arrest was working in a senior position in the FSB. And, just being mere speculation, it is believed by Russian experts that most likely President Putin himself probably knew about this deal. So, whether he realised it or not at the time, Perepilichnyy made some powerful enemies!

A few strange things started to happen after Perepilichnyy blew the whistle. A family member said that they have heard a rumour that Alexander's name was mentioned on a hit list, found by police, belonging to a Chechen contract killer. On another occasion, he was in Ukraine visiting family and someone cornered him, and their bodyguards started to attack Perepilichnyy. The other tell-tale was that Dmitry Kovtun, one of the pair suspected of killing Litvinenko with polonium, filed a few lawsuits against Perepilichnyy over alleged debts. 

Dmitry Kovtun

In a bid to fix things, Alexander decided to meet with a shady character, named Andrey Pavlov. He was also part of the same crime syndicate, the Klyuev group. He threatened Perepilichnyy with more criminal lawsuits but also offered a way out. They met in Zurich and at a café in Heathrow Airport.

As we covered in Part 1, Mr Perepilichnyy travelled to Paris for a few days, returning to London on the day of his death, November 10. There he met with his Ukrainian mistress, Elmira Medynska, and it is also said that he was meeting Andrey Pavlov at the same time. Can it be that the events of his death and the Pavlov meetings are a coincidence or something more sinister? 

Andrey Pavlov

On the day he came back from Paris, he felt unwell and collapsed dead. The English government opened an inquest in to this suspicious death, a bitter fight ensued between the parties connected with this death. 

In the next and final part, we will see what the inquest ruled as the cause of death for Perepilichnyy and what bombshell the life-insurance company found in their own investigation of this mysterious case!

Reference



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