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Eastern Europe
October 20, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Russian tax fraud deal, days before the case was scheduled to go on trial on May 15.
Perezvon settled out of court with a $5.9mn deal, three times the value of the $1.9mn demanded
by prosecutors, while ending the case before trial with no admittance of wrongdoing. Perezvon’s real estate in Manhattan is estimated at $17mn.
“The abrupt conclusion has some involved in the trial wondering why this Russian investigation had been cut short,” CNN reported on May 13.
"What most concerns me is: Has there been any political pressure applied in this?" asked Louise Shelley, an illicit finance expert who was set to
testify in support of the US government on May 16, quoted by CNN.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the head of
the Hermitage Capital US-born financier Bill Browder was trying to expand his campaign
to expose Russian fraudsters and freeze their assets in Europe and Canada, while authorities in Moscow work to thwart his efforts by holding a bilateral plutonium-disposal deal with Washington hostage.
The settlement with Perezvon was reached days after Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov had
a “very, very good” meeting with the US President Donald Trump in Washington.