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

by Bill Browder

Klyuev’s unexpected presence in Monaco was almost too good to be true. There was no way that Spencer Oliver would have agreed to meet with Dmitry Klyuev unless the Russian government had formally asked Spencer to take the meeting. All of this proved our point: the Klyuev Organized Crime Group and the Russian government were one and the same. With only hours before the vote, Mark swiftly made the rounds, showing the Klyuev clip to MPs throughout the Assembly. Any of the doubts aired at our screening had now evaporated. When the Assembly convened, the vote on the Magnitsky resolution wasn’t even close. It passed 291–18. The only delegations to vote against it were from Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The Russians had spectacularly overplayed their hand. In fact, they had done our job much better than we ever could have done it ourselves. Not only had they failed to stop the Magnitsky resolution, but their actions cemented their defeat. Moreover, we’d succeeded in forcing Dmitry Klyuev out of the shadows. Mark came home triumphant, but then the news got even better. Based on the reporting coming out of Monaco, Swiss law enforcement had taken it upon themselves to freeze Klyuev’s Swiss bank accounts. This was the second freezing order in the Magnitsky case. It too would not be the last.