Dead Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky found guilty of tax evasion

MOSCOW – Russian news agencies say a court in Moscow has found dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion, concluding an unusual posthumous trial.

The court on Thursday also found Magnitsky’s onetime client, the US-born British investor William Browder, guilty of evading some $17 million in taxes.

Magnitsky died in prison of untreated pancreatitis in 2009, months after alleging that organized criminals colluded with corrupt Interior Ministry officials to claim a $230 million tax rebate through illegally obtained subsidiaries of Browder’s Hermitage Capital investment company.

His death prompted widespread criticism from human rights activists and the presidential human rights council found in 2011 that he had been beaten and deliberately denied medical treatment.

A U.S. law named for Magnitsky calls for sanctions on Russians identified as human rights violators.

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