Bill Browder is a British financier and political activist who has been at the forefront of the global campaign for justice for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison after exposing a massive tax fraud scheme involving high-ranking officials.
Browder is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, once Russia’s largest foreign portfolio investor, until he was expelled from the country and declared a threat to national security in 2005.
Since then, he has been a vocal critic of the Kremlin and its human rights abuses and has successfully lobbied for the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, a law that imposes sanctions on Russian individuals responsible for corruption and violations of human rights, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and several other countries.
Profile
- Full name: William Felix Browder
- Other names: Bill Browder
- Date of birth: April 23, 1964
- Age: 60 years old
- Gender: Male
- Place of birth: Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
- Nationality: British (formerly American)
- Profession: Financier and activist
- Height: 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
- Parents: Felix Browder (father), Eva Tislowitz (mother)
- Siblings: Thomas Browder (brother), Ann Browder (sister)
- Spouse: Elena Molokova
- Children: Joshua Browder, David Browder, Alexandra Browder
- Relationship status: Married
- Net worth: $100 million
Early Life and Education
Bill Browder, now 60 years old, was born on April 23, 1964, in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father, Felix Browder, was a professor of mathematics at Princeton University.
His mother, Eva Tislowitz, was a Russian-born art historian and Holocaust survivor. Browder comes from a prominent family of American communists.
His grandfather, Earl Browder, was the leader of the Communist Party of the United States from 1934 to 1945, and his grandmother, Raissa Berkman, was a Russian-Jewish revolutionary who participated in the 1905 Russian Revolution. His uncle, William Browder, was also a mathematician and a communist activist.
Browder attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Chicago, Illinois. He was interested in something other than politics or mathematics but in business and finance. He decided to rebel against his family’s communist legacy by becoming a capitalist.
He enrolled at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he studied economics and finance. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1985.
He then pursued a Master of Business Administration degree at Stanford University, graduating in 1989.
Personal Life
Browder married Elena Molokova, a Russian-born economist, in 1996. They have three children: Joshua, David, and Alexandra. Joshua Browder is a software developer and entrepreneur who created DoNotPay, an app that helps users fight parking tickets and access legal services.
David Browder is a student at Stanford University, and Alexandra Browder is a student at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
Browder renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1998 to avoid paying taxes on his foreign income. He became a British citizen in 1999 and has lived in London since then. He holds a British passport and a Lithuanian residency permit. He is also an honorary citizen of Estonia.
Browder is a chess enthusiast and a supporter of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
He also enjoys the rock band U2 and the rapper Eminem.
Career
Browder began his career in finance in 1989 when he joined the Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant.
He then moved to London in 1992, where he worked for Robert Maxwell’s Maxwell Communications Corporation as an investment banker.
After Maxwell’s death and the collapse of his media empire, Browder joined Salomon Brothers, where he became the head of the firm’s Russian equity research team. He specialized in analyzing the emerging Russian market after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In 1996, Browder co-founded Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund focused on investing in Russia and the former Soviet states.
He partnered with Edmond Safra, a Lebanese-Brazilian banker and philanthropist, who provided $25 million in seed capital.
The fund was named after the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, which Browder admired for its art collection.
The fund and associated accounts eventually grew to $4.5 billion of assets under management, making it Russia’s largest foreign portfolio investor by 2005.
Browder’s primary investment strategy was shareholder rights activism. He used his stakes in large Russian companies, such as Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz, Unified Energy Systems, and Sidanco, to expose corruption, mismanagement, and fraud and to demand better corporate governance and transparency.
He also advocated for protecting minority shareholders and the rule of law in Russia. He earned a reputation as a crusader against oligarchs and bureaucrats and a champion of market reforms and democracy.
He also earned high returns for his investors as the Russian economy boomed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In 1997, the Hermitage Fund was the best-performing fund in the world, up by 238%. However, Browder’s activism also made him enemies in the Russian establishment, especially among those who benefited from the status quo.
He clashed with powerful tycoons, such as Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Fridman, and Roman Abramovich, over corporate raids, asset stripping, and minority shareholder rights.
He also criticized the Kremlin and its policies, such as the war in Chechnya, the Yukos affair, and the increasing authoritarianism of President Vladimir Putin.
He accused Putin of presiding over a system of kleptocracy, where state officials and oligarchs conspired to loot the country’s natural resources and public funds.
In retaliation, on November 13, 2005, Browder was refused entry to Russia, deported to the U.K., and declared a threat to national security.
He was denied a visa, and his residency permit was revoked. He was also blacklisted by the Russian authorities, who accused him of various crimes, such as tax evasion, fraud, and espionage.
Browder claimed that he was targeted because he exposed corruption and his opposition to Putin’s regime. He also claimed that he was the victim of a political vendetta orchestrated by Putin and his allies. Eighteen months after Browder was deported, on June 4, 2007, Hermitage Capital’s offices in Moscow were raided by 25 officers of Russia’s Interior Ministry.
Twenty-five more officers raided the Moscow office of Browder’s American law firm, Firestone Duncan, seizing the corporate registration documents for Hermitage’s investment holding companies. Browder assigned Sergei Magnitsky, head of the tax practice at Firestone Duncan, to investigate the raid’s purpose.
Magnitsky discovered that while those documents were in the custody of the police, they had been used to fraudulently re-register Hermitage’s holding companies to the name of an ex-convict.
The re-registration of the Hermitage holding companies was an intermediate step before the perpetrators used those companies to apply for a fraudulent $230 million (~$314 million in 2022) tax refund, awarded on December 24, 2007.
The tax refund was the largest in Russian history and was equivalent to the taxes Hermitage had paid to the Russian government in 2006. Magnitsky filed criminal complaints against the officials involved in the fraud.
Still, instead of investigating his allegations, the authorities arrested him on November 24, 2008, and charged him with tax evasion and fraud.
He was detained in pre-trial custody for almost a year, during which he was denied bail, access to his family and lawyers, and proper medical treatment.
He was also tortured and pressured to retract his testimony and to implicate Browder and Hermitage in the fraud. He refused to do so, maintaining his innocence and accusations until the end. He died in prison on November 16, 2009.
Death
Magnitsky’s death sparked international outrage and condemnation. He was widely regarded as a martyr and a hero for his courage and integrity.
His case also exposed the extent of corruption and impunity in the Russian system and the vulnerability of human rights defenders and whistleblowers.
Browder was devastated and enraged by Magnitsky’s death. He vowed to seek justice for his friend and colleague and to hold the perpetrators accountable.
He launched the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, a worldwide movement that aims to impose sanctions on human rights abusers and corrupt officials worldwide, especially those involved in Magnitsky’s case. He also wrote a book, Red Notice, to tell Magnitsky’s story and his own.
Awards
Browder has received numerous awards and recognition for his human rights work and advocacy for the Magnitsky Act. Some of them are:
- The Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Award, which he received in 2015, 2016, and 2017, for his role in advancing the cause of justice and accountability for Magnitsky and other victims of human rights violations.
- The Global Leader Award, which he received in 2015 from the World Affairs Council of America, for his leadership in promoting global citizenship and human dignity.
- The Geneva Summit Courage Award, which he received in 2015 from the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, for his courage and perseverance in defending human rights and democracy.
- The Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, which he received in 2010 from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, for his contribution to advancing democracy and human rights.
- The Moral Courage Award he received in 2010 from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights for his moral courage and ethical leadership in exposing corruption and injustice.
Controversy
Browder has been involved in several controversies and conflicts throughout his career, mostly with the Russian government and its allies. Some of the most notable ones are:
- The Russian authorities have accused Browder of various crimes, such as tax evasion, fraud, money laundering, and espionage. They have also issued several international arrest warrants for him through Interpol. Still, they have been rejected or revoked by the Interpol Commission for the Control of Files, which deemed them politically motivated and abusive.
- The Russian authorities have also tried to prosecute Browder and Magnitsky in absentia, in what has been described as a “show trial” and a “mockery of justice”. In 2013, they convicted them of tax evasion and sentenced them to nine years in prison.
- In 2017, they convicted them of fraud and sentenced them to 12 years in prison. Browder has dismissed the verdicts as illegitimate and absurd and has challenged them in the European Court of Human Rights.
- The Russian authorities have also targeted Browder’s associates, lawyers, and supporters, who have faced harassment, intimidation, threats, arrests, and violence. Some of them have been killed, such as Alexander Perepilichnyy, a Russian businessman who provided evidence of tax fraud, and Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader and a supporter of the Magnitsky Act.
- Browder has also faced opposition and criticism from some Western politicians and businessmen, who have accused him of being a self-serving and unreliable source and undermining the relations between Russia and the West.
Some of them have also been linked to the Russian government or its interests, such as Dana Rohrabacher, a former U.S. congressman who tried to remove Browder’s name from the Magnitsky Act, and Glenn Simpson, a former journalist who co-founded Fusion GPS. This research firm produced the controversial Steele dossier, which alleged ties between Donald Trump and Russia.
Social Media
- Twitter handle: @Billbrowder
- Instagram handle: @billbrowder1
- YouTube channel: Bill Browder
Filmography
Browder has appeared in several documentaries and films featuring his story and campaign. Some of them are:
- The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes (2016), a documentary by Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, presents a critical and controversial view of Browder and Magnitsky’s case and accuses them of being involved in the tax fraud. Browder has denounced the film as propaganda and tried to prevent its screening and distribution.
- The Kleptocrats (2018), a documentary by Havana Marking and Sam Hobkinson, exposes the global corruption and money laundering network that links the Malaysian 1MDB scandal, the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street, and the Russian tax fraud. Browder appears as one of the experts and whistleblowers who reveal the scheme’s details and implications.
- Mr Jones (2019), a historical drama by Agnieszka Holland, tells the story of Gareth Jones, a Welsh journalist who exposed the Soviet famine of 1932-33, also known as the Holodomor. Browder appears as himself in a cameo role and also serves as an executive producer of the film. He has compared Jones’ fate to Magnitsky’s and praised the film’s relevance and courage.
- Citizen K (2019), a documentary by Alex Gibney, explores the rise and fall of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oligarch who became a political prisoner and a dissident under Putin’s regime. Browder appears as one of the interviewees who provides insight and context on Khodorkovsky’s case and the state of Russia.
Books
Browder has written one book and has contributed to several others. His book is:
- Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice (2015), a memoir that recounts his experiences in Russia and his fight for Magnitsky and justice.
The book has been a bestseller and has received critical acclaim. It has also been optioned for a film adaptation by Warner Bros., with George Clooney attached as a producer and a possible director.
Some of the books that he has contributed to are:
- The Case of Sergei Magnitsky
Net Worth
According to various sources, Browder’s net worth is around $100 million.
He made most of his fortune from his investments in Russia and the former Soviet states through his fund, Hermitage Capital Management.
However, he also lost significant wealth due to the confiscation of his assets, the fraud, and the legal battles with the Russian authorities.
He has also spent a lot of his money on his campaign for the Magnitsky Act and his defence against the charges and lawsuits filed against him by the Kremlin.
