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

by Bill Browder

If BakerHostetler weren’t going to recuse themselves, then we would make sure the rules forced them to. On December 6, we filed a complaint with New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee, the body that polices lawyers’ conduct, laying out how John Moscow and BakerHostetler had switched sides. It was one thing for them to try to snow-job us with legalese, but another for them to be scrutinized by the Grievance Committee and risk punishment, up to and including disbarment. It would be much easier for them just to walk away from Prevezon. But once again, BakerHostetler surprised us. They responded to the Grievance Committee by repeating their previous spin from the letter to us, but they went further, claiming they were “not engaged by Hermitage to ‘trac[e] the proceeds of the stolen $230 million and identifying beneficiaries of this fraud.’ ” When I read this, I thought they’d backed themselves into a corner. We had copies of the subpoena requests to the US banks that John Moscow had drafted specifically looking for the $230 million.