Mikhail Khodorkovsky: the Man, the Myth, the Movie

Mikhail Khodorkovsky: the Man, the Myth, the Movie

The Nation, Jan 22, 2020 – Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, MBK in his homeland, is the most famous Russian “oligarch,” the name given by their compatriots to a handful of men who, when communism fell, turned it into gangster capitalism. With an estimated $16 billion fortune, he became the richest man in Russia. When the rules changed, he didn‘t adapt and spent a decade in prison.

Fault Lines: How Mikhail Khodorkovsky stole his mega-fortune

Fault Lines: How Mikhail Khodorkovsky stole his mega-fortune

May 1, 2018 – Here is what you never read in the mainstream press about crooked Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now in the MSM again because he received hacked emails the NY Times uses to declare that Russian lawyer Nataliya Veselnitskaya colluded with the Russian prosecutor in the Browder/Magnitsky case. It’s how he stole his billions. Here is the interview on Fault Lines. https://www.pscp.tv/stranahan/1rmGPmXLjpZJN

Khodorkovsky‘s Contradictions

Khodorkovsky‘s Contradictions

Oct 6, 2014 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky is “doing” the U.S. He appeared on big-time celebrity TV and I saw him today at the Council on Foreign Relations. After some dicey years as a Russian “oligarch” (a euphemism for a corrupt guy who loots the Russian patrimony), he became a “reformer” and was jailed by Vladimir Putin, serving ten years for tax evasion and related crimes. (Other oligarchs did the same crimes, but they got a pass, because they didn‘t challenge Putin.)

Yes, he was targeted for political reasons, but what about what he actually did? Siphon profit out of his companies via offshore shell companies, thereby cheating minority shareholders and (via tax evasion) the Russian people. (details below). How does he deal with it?

A Russian spook operation? “Khodorkovsky” film mysteriously stolen twice

Feb 5, 2011 – The final edit of a film about the jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a film to which I contributed, has been stolen from the offices of German director Cyril Tuschi. The documentary, Khodorkovsky, is to have its world premier at the Berlin International Film Festival Feb. 14. I did reporting for the film and also was video-interviewed for it. The film tells Khodorkovsky’s story from his youth to the build-up of his oil empire and his political challenge to then President Vladimir Putin. Putin had told the oligarchs, men who had stolen the Russian patrimony to build their wealth, that he wouldn’t bother them as long as they stayed out of politics. Khodorkovsky, however, sought to influence the Duma election. He was arrested in 2003 and then tried and jailed for tax evasion.

Western critics: Khodorkovsky stole Yukos fair and square

March 28, 2007

Russia, through its energy company Rosneft, has started to recover the multibillion-dollar oil company YukosYukos that was stolen from it in the mid-90s. It is buying the assets in auctions. Indignant protests are heard from westerners.

Funny there was no indignation from western officials when Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other oligarchs, with the help of crooked President Boris Yeltsin, were appropriating Russian national oil and mineral wealth for kopeks on the ruble.

A Khodorkovsky company ran an auction at which a Khodorkovsky shell company won Yukos, paying $309 million for a controlling 78 percent. Months later, Yukos traded on the Russian stock exchange at a market capitalization of $6 billion.

Criminal complaint filed against Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and Golubovich in Switzerland

Criminal complaint filed against Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and Golubovich in Switzerland

The Russia Journal, Nov 28, 2003

Two ex-bankers on Wednesday, Nov. 26, filed a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, and Alexei Golubovich, accusing them of money laundering and support for a criminal organization.

The Russia Journal has obtained a copy of the report. The Journal asked Yukos press office to comment on the charge but no comments were received.

The former bankers have requested the federal officials in Switzerland to open an investigation into the charges and to search the records of the Swiss offices of Menatep SA, Menatep Finances SA and Valmet (in liquidation) and of Bank Leu related to investigate claims of fraud against the Russian company Avisma and money laundering by Menatep in Switzerland.

Film “The Price of Truth” anti-Russia propaganda about “Nobel Prize” editor

Film “The Price of Truth” anti-Russia propaganda about “Nobel Prize” editor

I visited Russia twice, before and after the collapse of Communism and even attempted to learn Russian, not getting much beyond waiter and taxi talk, though I can pick up film and political speakers with the help of subtitles. So as an investigative reporter, not a film critic, to understand this film about a Russian editor who won a Nobel Prize, I sent a screening of this film to world-class Russia expert, Richard Sakwa. He is Emeritus Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent (England). He was also the head of the University’s Politics and International Relations department, has lived and taught in Russia and has published sixteen books on Soviet, Russian and post-communist affairs.

Matt Ehret interviews Lucy on the Browder hoax

Matt Ehret interviews Lucy on the Browder hoax

Nov 5, 2022 – Canadian journalist Matt Ehret interviews Lucy with details that the naive or corrupt Chartered Financial Analysts of Canada, meeting in Toronto, might like to know about their conman guest speaker. With links to documents that legitimate accountants might want to examine before they honor an infamous tax fraudster.

Canadian journalist challenges “gold standard” accountants to examine lies of Nov 7 speaker, fraudster Bill Browder

Canadian journalist challenges “gold standard” accountants to examine lies of Nov 7 speaker, fraudster Bill Browder

Oct 28, 2022 – I am publishing this important article by investigative journalist Adrian duPlessis just before CFA/Toronto, a woefully ignorant Canadian accounting organization, presents as speaker William Browder, one of the most infamous tax fraudsters of our time. He notes, “gnorance – be it in a naive or willful state – is form ill-fitting to a Chartered Financial Analyst and/or any other financial, legal+ professional worth their salt. Chronic toxicity of Hermitage networks’ false narratives – abundantly evident through review and analyses of public-record documents+ readily-accessible globally via court, police, corporate, press and other filings – prompts this letter.”

Radio interview about the Browder hoax with Hrvoje Morić of TNT

Radio interview about the Browder hoax with Hrvoje Morić of TNT

Sept 22, 2022 – Lucy Komisar talks to Hrvoje Morić about the Browder hoax, including Browder’s start as a crook skimming profits from Russian titanium company, Avisma, illicit buys of Gazprom shares for himself and the Ziff Brothers, the role of the Trump Tower meeting, proof Magnitsky wasn’t murdered, how Magnitsky Act was passed in a deal for the Jackson-Vanik trade amendment repeal and why Congress and the media lie about it all.

A US investment advisor worked for Russian but (MSM didn’t report) also for American/UK “oligarchs”

A US investment advisor worked for Russian but (MSM didn’t report) also for American/UK “oligarchs”

April 28, 2022 – Here’s a story the New York Times just missed. U.S. politicians and corporate media are promoting the targeting of “enablers” of Russian oligarchs who stash their money in offshore accounts. A Times article March 11th highlighted Michael Matlin, CEO of Concord Management, as such an “enabler,” who handles money of Roman Abramovich. But it missed serious corruption Matlin was involved in. Maybe because it stopped with “he helps the Russian oligarchs we hate.” Looking further would have revealed how he cheated Russia with the help of William Browder, a hero of the NYTimes, which has never challenged the Browder/Magnitsky hoax.

NYTimes Dealbook repeats William Browder’s Magnitsky hoax. I ask major media “fact checkers” to deal with it.

NYTimes Dealbook repeats William Browder’s Magnitsky hoax. I ask major media “fact checkers” to deal with it.

April 10, 2022 – Today’s Dealbook article in the NYTimes “ ‘There Is No Reasonable Way for This to End’: Bill Browder on How to Stop the War” includes numerous fake facts that fact checking organizations devoted to exposing such media falsehoods should address. This article is going a number of them in the hope that some have the courage to examine this evidence at a time of extreme hostility to Russia.

All you need to know about Russia and the West shown in reporter John Helmer’s satirical graphics and text

All you need to know about Russia and the West shown in reporter John Helmer’s satirical graphics and text

Feb 21, 2022 – John Helmer, a journalist in Moscow since 1989, has published a brilliant comic graphic-text primer about Russia, its outside enemies and corrupt insiders. In just over 100 pages of comment and vivid cartoons you will learn the stories of the major deep state inventions of most of the last decade or so: faked stories about Navalny, the Skripals, the downing of the MH17 in Ukraine, media propagandists, esp Russophobes Anne Applebaum and Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland. Also Russian inside-dealing including Putin’s gifts to some bigtime oligarchs. No surprise that Helmer got a death threat after that one.

Aussie Channel 10’s The Project a stenographer for fraudster Wm Browder aimed at pressuring Parliament & Foreign Minister to protect his looted $millions

Aussie Channel 10’s The Project a stenographer for fraudster Wm Browder aimed at pressuring Parliament & Foreign Minister  to protect his looted $millions

April 11, 2021 – A new Australian “light news” show, Channel 10’s The Project, broadcast a 29 March 2021 attack on the government for not passing legislation designed by a British fraudster to save his bloated bank account from Russian law enforcement. The Russians have evidence the fraudster stole hundreds of millions of dollars through evaded taxes, illicit stock buys and fraud against the Russian Treasury, but host Waleed Aly, with zero evidence, orchestrated a video aimed at getting public support for a bill the fraudster designed, which is a William Browder Protection Act.

How Democrats and Republicans made deals to pass Magnitsky Act

How Democrats and Republicans made deals to pass Magnitsky Act

Aug 19, 2020 – As the Democratic Convention is in progress, it is fitting to look at how Democrats in Congress and the White House, with Republican collaboration, were responsible for the Magnitsky Act, the law that protects tax fraudster William Browder and his henchman Mikhail Khodorkovsky by erecting a wall against their having to face justice for their financial crimes. And ramps up hostility to Russia.

“The Magnitsky Myth” podcast: Lucy Komisar, host Joanne Leon

“The Magnitsky Myth” podcast: Lucy Komisar, host Joanne Leon

Sept 30, 2019 – Guest: Lucy Komisar. A deep dive into the story behind the “Magnitsky Hoax”. Lucy tells the story of Bill Browder, Hermitage (his hedge fund) and how he managed to create a massive political weapon called the Magnitsky Act to protect himself and his benefactors and to use against others. The story also involves shell companies, tax havens, money laundering, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Robert Maxwell, Gasprom, HSBC, Natalia Veselnitskya, the Trump Tower meeting, the resurgence of the Cold War with Russia, Russiagate, the Mueller Report, and more.

Lies of WSJ’s Strassel and DOJ indictment

Lies of WSJ’s Strassel and DOJ indictment

Jan 10, 2019 – Lies exposed on my Fault Lines interview today: Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel’s declarations that William Browder’s accountant Sergei Magnitsky was arrested for exposing a tax fraud by Russian officials. Echoed by a US Justice Department indictment of Russian lawyer Nataliya Veselnitskaya, who defended the Russian company Prevezon, target of a political attack by the DOJ on behalf of Browder. Both claims are fabrications based on no evidence.

Fakery of Marie Brenner’s Browder article in Vanity Fair

Fakery of Marie Brenner’s Browder article in Vanity Fair

Nov 30, 2018 – This is an analysis of the worst William Browder acolyte article I have seen to date, by Marie Brenner, published by Vanity Fair, November 11, 2018. It eschews evidence and simply writes what Browder says as a stenographer would do. The full text is here. Below are the most egregious excerpts with my comments marked **. They are extensive, as the piece is replete with fakery.

Stealing Russia’s energy assets is the real “Russiagate”

Stealing Russia’s energy assets is the real “Russiagate”

Nov 2, 2018 – I spoke today on Fault Lines radio about how Mikhail Khodorkovsky and William Browder scammed Russian energy sector companies by Khodorhovsky getting control of Yukos oil through rigged auctions in the corrupt Yeltsin regime and then using transfer-pricing to cheat minority shareholders and Russian taxpayers and Browder buying shares in Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom through cutout companies to evade rules that banned purchases of its stock in Russia by foreigners.