Freezing Order Quotes

“It’s one thing for Russians to act the way they do. Their society is so harsh and unforgiving that in order to get through life, most people are either getting screwed or screwing someone else—and often both. There are few rewards for doing what is right. It takes exceptional individuals like Sergei Magnitsky, Boris Nemtsov, and Vladimir Kara-Murza not to descend reflexively into nihilism, dishonesty, and corruption. In the West, and especially in America, it’s different. There’s no question we have our own issues, but Americans like John Moscow, Mark Cymrot, Chris Cooper, and Glenn Simpson have led charmed lives. They went to the best universities, associated with the highest-caliber people, lived in comfortable homes, and operated in a society that at least aspires to honor good conduct and ethical behavior. Everyone is entitled to a legal defense, but this wasn’t about the law—it was an active Russian disinformation campaign. For these people to use their considerable knowledge, contacts, and skills to assist Putin’s cronies in exchange for nothing more than money was even more contemptible than the actions of the Russians themselves. Many Russians can’t help what they do. But Americans like these can, and they act with full cognizance.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“but what I’ve learned over the years as an investor is that almost everyone behaves rationally. If someone does something that appears irrational, it just means you don’t have all the information.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“I drew a line from the $230 million fraud to Putin’s proxy, the cellist Sergei Roldugin. I explained that this wasn’t a one-off, but one of thousands of crimes Putin had benefitted from, allowing him to accumulate an estimated $200 billion fortune. I pointed out that nearly all of this wealth was held at financial institutions in the West and at risk of being frozen under the Magnitsky Act. For these reasons, the law was an existential threat to him and his senior officials.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“was the first to speak after the movie finished. I made my pitch for the Magnitsky resolution, and concluded, “As you can see, there’s now no difference between the Russian government and organized crime.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“one of the main reasons Putin had interfered in the US election was because of the Magnitsky Act.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“There had been constant chatter around Washington about the existence of a damning dossier explaining how Trump was connected to the Russians. By the beginning of January, this dossier was actually in the hands of the FBI, certain members of Congress, and nearly every major US news organization. The press had reported on its existence, but no outlet took the step of publishing it, since they hadn’t been able to”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Within moments, I received an email from my brother, Tom. “Don’t come to America,” he warned. “It’s not safe for you here.” Similar messages poured in throughout the morning as I forced myself to get ready for our meeting with the French”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“It’s one thing for Russians to act the way they do. Their society is so harsh and unforgiving that in order to get through life, most people are either getting screwed or screwing someone else—and often both. There are few rewards for doing what is right. It takes exceptional individuals like Sergei Magnitsky, Boris Nemtsov, and Vladimir Kara-Murza not to descend reflexively into nihilism, dishonesty, and corruption.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Now we knew. There weren’t just millions of dollars at stake. Or even billions. There was likely more than $1 trillion at stake. And Putin will do anything to protect this.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“If we could lift the hood on every Western bank, I estimate we’d find that the amount of dirty money that has moved out of Russia since Putin took power to be $1 trillion, and possibly much more.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“For the first time, it all made sense: one of the main reasons Putin had interfered in the US election was because of the Magnitsky Act.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Simpson’s involvement changed everything. He’d been running Fusion GPS for five years and was widely regarded as a well-connected and effective smear campaigner, having left a trail of ruined reputations of politicians and businesspeople from around the world. The Russians had made dozens of unsuccessful, ham-fisted attempts to destroy my credibility—but this guy was the real deal who knew what he was doing. The game of Whac-A-Mole had just become a lot more intense. If Simpson was going to be working the media following the film screening, then Vadim and I needed to be in Washington to run damage control.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“met Glenn several times back when I was running the Hermitage Fund, trying to expose corruption at some of the companies we invested in. He was tall, unkempt, and vaguely bearlike. In 2011, he had given up journalism to set up an investigation firm in Washington called Fusion GPS. “I thought Glenn was one of the good guys,” I said. “Perhaps he was, but now he does opposition research for anyone willing to pay,” the journalist said, referring to the types of investigations done by firms that dig up dirt on political candidates”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“At first, I did them because I owed it to Sergei. He had been killed because he worked for me, and I couldn’t let his killers get away with it. As with the theft of my childhood flute, but on an infinitely grander and more meaningful scale, I have been compelled to get justice. As the theft of my flute showed, this inclination toward justice is part of who I am. It’s in my nature. To reject it would have poisoned me from the inside. Then, as things escalated, it also became a fight for survival. Not only for myself and my family, but for my friends and colleagues, and all the people who were helping Sergei’s cause inside of Russia. But in the end, I’ve done these things because doing them is the right thing to do. For better or worse, I’ve been obsessed with this cause since the moment of Sergei’s death. This obsession has affected every facet of my life, and all of my relationships, even those with my own children. These effects haven’t always been for the better.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“On the surface, it appeared that Trump was acting irrationally, but what I’ve learned over the years as an investor is that almost everyone behaves rationally. If someone does something that appears irrational, it just means you don’t have all the information.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Senator Feinstein. She thanked me for staying an extra day and said that this was one of the most powerful testimonies she’d heard in her 25 years as a US senator.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Fortunately, as the hearing progressed, the partisanship fell away. There was genuine desire among all the senators to understand how Russia worked and why Putin behaved the way he did.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“couldn’t afford for this hearing to become partisan. I needed Republicans and Democrats to continue to work together to fight off Putin as he tried to derail the Magnitsky Act.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“speeches and then ask questions that further their partisan agenda, and there was a little of that here. The Republicans were keen to discredit Glenn Simpson and have me say that the Trump dossier was a complete fiction. And the Democrats wanted me to state that the Trump Tower meeting was evidence of a conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign. I did neither. I stayed laser-focused on playing it straight down the middle.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“At the end of the day, the biggest market for bodyguards in London is Russians (who are afraid of other Russians). With all that money sloshing around, I realized I couldn’t fully trust any of these people.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Because of their friendship, Prince Albert enthusiastically supported the Russian president and occasionally did his bidding. I’d heard stories about Putin’s enemies checking into Monaco hotels, presenting their passports, and finding themselves arrested within minutes by the local police.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Boris Nemtsov became my partner in getting justice for Sergei and advocating for the Magnitsky Act all over the world.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“To really hit these people where it hurt, we needed a European Magnitsky Act as well.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

“Magnitsky Act, which would ban visas and freeze assets of Russian human rights violators, including those who had tortured and killed Sergei.”
― Bill Browder, Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath