MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Interpol will review its earlier refusal to grant Russia's request on declaring businessman William Browder internationally wanted, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax on condition of anonymity on Wednesday.
Russia is seeking to prosecute Browder, a London-based businessman known, in particular, as a co-founder of the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund and former employer of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, on suspicion of fraud involving Gazprom shares.
Russia has appealed a decision made by Interpol's special panel on finding Browder's prosecution by Russia to be politically motivated and refusing to issue a Red Notice against him.
"The Russian authorities have presented their objections, which will be considered by Interpol's appeal panel within the next few days," he said.
An agreement on the matter was achieved following negotiations between a delegation of Russian law enforcement officials and the Interpol leadership in Lyon at the end of 2013, he said.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble had reportedly assured the Russian counterparts earlier that he was prepared to consider their objections regarding political motives behind the Browder case if such are presented and did not rule out that the decision on declining Russia's request on declaring Browder internationally wanted could be reviewed.
Interpol removed Browder's name from all of its databases last year after an independent panel scrutinizing his criminal case found it to be politically motivated.
The Russian Interior Ministry press center had told Interfax earlier that the Russian National Central Bureau of Interpol, instructed by the Prosecutor General's Office, had sent a request to the Interpol General Secretariat on declaring Browder internationally wanted. Russia suspects Browder of massive fraud (Russian Criminal Code Article 159, Part 4), which is qualified as a grave crime.
The Interior Ministry contended that Browder "illegally acquired over 131 million Gazprom shares worth over 2 billion rubles at the domestic market price" from 1999 to 2004. "As a result of these illegal actions, the defendant concluded at least 30 transactions on buying the Russian gas concern's securities and caused damage amounting to at least 2.9 billion rubles to Russia."
Moscow's Tverskoi District Court ruled on July 11, 2013 to find Browder and late Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion amounting to over 522 million rubles through falsifying tax declarations and illegally using benefits to which the disabled were entitled.
Browder was sentenced in absentia to 9 years in a general security penitentiary. Browder was tried in absentia as he failed to appear in court, and the United Kingdom refused to extradite him.