Bill Browder

William Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management. He was the largest foreign investor in Russia until November 2005, when he was suddenly denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” by the Russian government for exposing corruption at large Russian companies.

In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for his company in Moscow, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US$230 million of taxes paid by my company in 2006. After testifying against the state officials involved in the fraud, Sergei was imprisoned without trial and detained under horrific conditions, where he was systematically tortured in an attempt to force him to retract his testimony. He suffered a complete breakdown of his health but was denied any medical assistance, despite filing over twenty requests for medical attention. He died in prison on 16 November 2009 at the age of 37, leaving a wife and two children.

Because of the impunity in Russia, Bill has spent the last six years conducting an international campaign to impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on the officials who played a role in Sergei’s false arrest, torture and death. The US was the first country to impose these sanctions in December 2012, passing a law called the “Magnitsky Act”. In 2015 the Global Magnitsky Act was introduced which imposes sanctions on human rights abusers around the world.

In February 2015 Mr. Browder published theNew York Times bestseller Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice, which recounts his experience in Russia and ongoing fight for justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Before founding Hermitage, Browder was Vice-President at Salomon Brothers. He holds a BA (Honours) in Economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Agent: Patrick Walsh