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

by Bill Browder

We’d been working on this legislation for over two years, and it was finally coming to fruition. Boris Nemtsov had made good on his Helsinki promise and had advocated for the US Magnitsky Act multiple times on Capitol Hill. In large part due to Boris’s involvement, the Magnitsky Act passed the House that day, 365–43. It would head to the Senate within weeks, and was certain to be signed into law by the president soon afterward. I should have been elated—and part of me was—but Perepilichnyy’s sudden death cast a dark shadow over this success in Washington. Perepilichnyy wasn’t a friend or colleague like Sergei, but he had played an important role in our money laundering investigation. Whatever his motivations or background, he had taken a huge risk, and now he was dead. His death was not only tragic—it was also terrifying. It appeared the Russians were sending assassins to the West to retaliate against people exposing Russian government corruption in the Magnitsky case. If there ever was a moment to get the US authorities involved, this was it.