Name Jamison Firestone | ||
Jamison firestone on the rule of law in russia
Jamison Firestone (born 1966) is an American attorney and the co-founder in 1993 of Russian law firm Firestone Duncan in Moscow, Russia. This was a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union, during privatization. Firestone graduated from Tulane University in 1988 and Tulane Law School in 1991. He fled Russia in 2010 following the death of his employee Sergei Magnitsky in prison, after eleven months' incarceration without trial.
Contents
- Jamison firestone on the rule of law in russia
- Hermitage capital story by jamison firestone part 1 of 2
- Career
- References
Hermitage capital story by jamison firestone part 1 of 2
Career
With his close friend Terry Michael Duncan, Firestone founded the law firm of Firestone Duncan in 1993 in Moscow. In this period after the fall of the Soviet Union, the two young men thought there were business opportunities in Russia, where privatization efforts were widespread.
The law firm later employed Russian attorney and auditor Sergei Magnitsky. Among the companies they represented was Hermitage Capital Management, co-founded by the American-British financier Bill Browder. Magnitsky began to investigate what he alleged was a massive tax fraud scheme, whereby criminals got control of Hermitage Capital. He was arrested by Russian police in 2008. He died in 2009 eleven months later while in police custody, prior to ever going to trial and suffering from assault injuries and treatable disease.
Following Magnitsky's death in prison, Firestone became one of the chief advocates of United States passage of the Magnitsky Act of 2012, which sanctioned Russian officials believed to have been responsible for the death of Magnitsky. It prevented their entry into the US and any business activities there.
Firestone published videos on YouTube that outlined Magnitsky's allegations against Russian officials; they have attracted more than 3.0 million views (as of July 2016). For five years after the death of Magnitsky in 2009, Firestone contributed articles to The Moscow Times in continued protest against the Russian government's perceived lack of action in response to the death of Magnistky.
In May 2017, Firestone was scheduled to testify in the United States against Prevezon Holdings Limited, in a civil assets case in connection with money laundering and the fraud uncovered by Magnitsky. Before the case could come to trial, Prevezon settled with United States federal prosecutors.
The case and players were highlighted again when reporters noted that Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who had represented Prevezon, had met with Donald Trump Jr, son of US President Donald Trump, in 2016 during his father's presidential campaign. Veselnitskaya was said to have lobbied for the removal of Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russian nationals.