Senator Demands U.S. Confront Swiss Over Disregard of Magnitsky Sanctions After Daily Beast Story
IN RUSSIA’S POCKET
Senator Roger Wicker has written to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to demand the U.S. formally challenge Switzerland over a ruling that would send millions of stolen dollars back to Russians who have been sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act. The Daily Beast revealed last month that Swiss courts had ordered the return of frozen money despite clear evidence that it had been stolen in a notorious $230 million fraud. Trump Tower lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was part of a corrupt influence campaign to convince Switzerland to overlook the crime. Wicker, the senator from Mississippi who serves on the Armed Services Committee, has asked Blinken to urge the Swiss foreign minister to intervene and suggested an immediate review of the mutual legal assistance treaty with the Swiss government. “The U.S. should not reward the clear bad faith witnessed in this case and many other cases connected to Russian money laundering in Switzerland,” Wicker wrote.