William Browder

William Browder, CEO Hermitage Capital Management, Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and author of Red Notice and Freezing Order.

William Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes. Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured. After a year in prison, under horrific detention conditions, repeatedly denied medical treatment, Sergei Magnitsky died in prison on November 16, 2009.

Since Sergei Magnitsky’s death, Bill Browder has lead a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on acts of corporate corruption and human rights abuse with the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act in 2012, followed by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in 2016.