Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“He apologized profusely, mortified that he’d invited me to Madrid to give evidence against Russian criminals only to be arrested by his colleagues on the orders of the same Russian criminals.”

Bill Browder describes his arrest in Spain because of a bogus Russian warrant. He was there to speak with a prosecutor about how Russian criminals had used dirty money to purchase Spanish properties. He got the situation sorted out with help from his influential Twitter followers, but it is a stark reminder of the danger facing those who challenge the corruption of the Putin regime.

“The Interior Ministry was effectively saying that the only person who had the right to report a stolen car was the person who stole it.”

The Russian Interior Ministry wouldn’t allow the attorneys for Browder’s hedge fund, Hermitage, to file a criminal complaint about the theft of their companies. Instead, the attorneys were charged with a crime for making the complaint. This is emblematic of the corruption of the Interior Ministry and its integral relationship with criminals.

“Every time someone does something in Russia, that information gets filed in quadruplicate with four different ministries. The people working at these ministries make only a few hundred dollars a month. As a result, nearly everything is for sale.”

Browder’s team needed records to piece together what happened to the stolen $230 million. In this case, the corruption of the Russian system, with bribes accepted, would help them get the information they needed.