Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, Murder,and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath

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We all know of Putin's total disregard for the deaths he is currently responsible for in Ukraine and amongst his own soldiers, but the greed of this evil man, who for years has been robbing Russia's citizens of billions, aided by those in the West, has been a revelation. If its subject matter weren’t so grave, the book could be said to have all the elements of a high-octane drama. With the inevitable delays, I was looking at a minimum of six months of sitting in a sweltering Spanish jail before I was either released or sent to Russia. More explosive, compulsive and gasp-inducingly, spine-tingingly, mouth-dryingly, heart-poundingly thrilling than any fiction I have read for years.

The Russians hired a lawyer who had previously worked for Browder, a conflict of interest that eventually had the lawyer barred, but not before Browder feared his personal information had been passed on to the people who were out to get him. In retaliation, Putin expelled him from Russia as a national security threat, and the officers from the Russian Interior Ministry essentially stole the fund’s holding companies. Why, when after the summit Putin added names to Browder’s, were most of the people either involved with the Magnitsky Act or the Prevezon case? Putin is featured heavily in the later part of the book because ot his vendetta against Browder for helping institute this Act that makes money laundering so much more difficult for Russian criminals. A graduate of Stanford Business School, he arrived in Moscow in the late 1990s, via a stint in London, determined to make his fortune.The Act, initiated after the 358 day long wrongful incarceration and eventual death of Magnitsky in Russia, is one means that countries can track and prosecute monies laundered through their country’s banks. Magnitsky exposed Russian corruption and misconduct alongside Browder and was subsequently tortured and killed by the regime. As I rushed to pack, I remembered something Elena had said to me after I’d been detained at Geneva Airport that February. Could not be more timely in illustrating why the support of Russia’s super-rich and their funds have become crucial to Putin’s powerbase.

The Russians were NOT there to talk about adoptions as they suggested, but rather the Magnitsky Act.Browder ally and Estonia's former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves' name is jumbled in the acknowledgments as "Toomas Ilves Hendrik" (sic) (pg. Bill Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Magnitsky was subsequently arrested by Russian authorities and killed in prison, having been denied proper medical treatment.

I learnt a tremendous amount here about Russian money laundering and the Magnitsky act, all of it interesting but I would have loved a more objective account. In learning about the risks that brave people have made to find truth, one realizes the importance for all of us to question more and continue to clamor for justice.Out of the blue, Putin offered to swap some Russian intelligence agents for Browder, and in a joint press conference Trump said that he thought it was “an incredible offer”.