By LucyKomisar
June 15, 2018

Reuters announces that it has trust principles committed to unbiased reliable news. So how does it deal with the fact it subscribes to the Russophobic meme that leads to fake news like this?

Reuters, June 15, 2018:  Kremlin foe Bill Browder tells West: Russian money is Putin’s Achilles heel

By Guy Faulconbridge, Lucy Fielder

LONDON (Reuters) – Once the biggest foreign money manager in Russia, Bill Browder has some advice for the West: If you want to counter Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, then go after Russian money and Russian oligarchs.

Browder, the British 54-year-old head of investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, leads a campaign to expose corruption and punish Russian officials he blames for the 2009 death of Sergei Magnitsky who he employed as a lawyer.

Dear Reuters,

Magnitsky was not a lawyer. And that is important. Browder admits that in his April 15, 2015 Prevezon case deposition in U.S. federal court. The Prevezon case, brought by the Justice Department at Browder‘s instigation, targeted a Russian who Browder said had received $1.9m of a $230m in a tax-refund fraud against the Russian Treasury. Browder suffered no loss from that, but he conflated it with his tax evasion to confuse the easily confused western press and build a political wall against Russian attempts to collect $70 million linked to evaded taxes and illicit share purchases.

 He was asked if Magnitsky had a law degree in Russia.
“I‘m not aware that he did,” Browder said.
Did he know if Magnitsky “went to law school?”
“No,” Browder answered.

See that in a video clip. From his U.S. federal court deposition.

Though Browder continues to lie about that, including to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2016. Want to know why Browder claims Magnitsky as a lawyer? To divert attention from the fact that Magnitsky since 1997 was the accountant who managed the Russian tax evasion for Browder‘s company, Hermitage. Look at the Russian interrogations of Magnitsky. Have you done that? Sorry to seem cynical, but a major media organization should not accept the claims of a controversial figure without checking them out.   (If your mother says she loves you, check it out, my favorite advice from the Chicago City News Bureau.)

See Magnitsky identified as “workplace: auditor” in Firestone Duncan, No. 8 on his three testimonies. The one below was in 2006, eight months before the famous June 2007 raid. It was about Hermitage tax evasion.

The Reuters website says For inquiries pertaining to Reuters reporting standards and the Trust Principles please email:  brian.moss@thomsonreuters.com. So I did that. I will post his response. If there is one.