By Lucy Komisar
April 16, 2018 –

William Browder commits identity theft! If you need more proof Browder is a fraud, look at this outrageous fake story. He produced a report given to press March 2009 to conflate the Russian tax evasion raid against him in June 2007 with the tax refund fraud perpetrated on the Russian Tax Authority in December that year.

Scroll halfway down to page 11 to see “Victor Poryugin,” an alleged Firestone Duncan lawyer, who Browder‘s report said was beaten by the Russian police who raided Firestone Duncan, Hermitage‘s accounting firm, in June 2007. (The raiders were investigators who sought evidence of Browder’s tax evasion and share-purchase fraud.) In a 2017 deposition ordered by a U.S. federal judge in New York, Browder said it was put together for journalists by his team.

Then look at the photo halfway down a 2014 article about 1961 U.S. Freedom Riders. The exact same photo, even holding the same copy of the Montgomery Advertiser! The attack on Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg was reported in the Washington Post and around the country. Didn‘t Browder know his fake story would be exposed on the internet! To anyone who did a photo search! (The photo Browder ran is blurred, so you don‘t notice that the headlines are not in Cyrillic!)

Read more about Jim Zwerg’s Freedom Rider experience and the rest of his life. He in is John Blake’s 2004 book “Children of the Movement” (before Browder’s 2009 fakery) and the 2011 PBS documentary “Freedom Riders.”

Sometimes conmen are stupid. Or careless. How could Browder not know how his use of the photo would be shown to be a fake! Do his acolytes in the media care? Probably not. The truth goes out the window when journalists and editors have other agendas. Which is how the conmen win.

Jim Zwerg: Browder “not the brightest bulb”

After being brutally beaten, Jim Zwerg became a Christian minister and then spent years in charity organization work. Showing his generosity of spirit, he commented with mild disapproval:  “Lucy, thanks for the call and the info regarding Mr. Browder. He obviously is not the brightest bulb around to use a photo that can be downloaded from numerous internet sites. He appears to have been using “clip art” in his document. No wonder he was shown to be a fraud.”

Browder repeats the story in his 2015 book, Red Notice. He says he changed some names, so for Maxim read Victor Poryugin of the Powerpoint above. Simon & Schuster published this fabrication.

Browder takes responsibility for the PowerPoint with the photo forgery. Here from Browder’s 2017 deposition U.S. Federal Court Southern District of New York:

Faith Gay, lawyer for Prevezon: “This was a presentation that was made to various journalists, was this authored by you or by someone else? I’m looking at what is entitled: A Case Study of Organized Crime Inside the Russian Government. Who put this together?

Browder:  My team.

Gay: Who is your team?

Browder: Lawyers and other employees of Hermitage Capital.

Gay: Do you remember any of their names?

Browder: Vladim Kleiner.

Gay: And this was put together at your direction?

Browder: Yes. ….

Gay: You don’t know whether or not you produced this document to the Government? [Did the Justice Department see this fakery?]

Browder: I don’t remember.