121: Bill Browder: “We all need to be leaders, to stand up against wrong and for right”

This is a rather special episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State featuring a competition winner from a primary school who won the chance to make an episode with me.

I ran it for pupils at North West London Jewish Day School and so I was delighted when 11-year-old Bella Bolot stepped up to the plate and secured us an interview with Bill Browder.

Bill is an American-born financier based in London, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia.

But when he discovered his taxes to the Russian exchequer were being misappropriated by middlemen officials, he started exposing large scale systemic corruption in Russia.

With his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, he took on large Russian companies such as Gazprom, Unified Energy Systems, and Sidanco.

But when one takes on faceless power, the consequences can be brutal.

In retaliation, in November 2005, bill was refused entry to Russia, deported to the UK, and declared a threat to Russian national security.

And Sergei Magnitsky was tortured and murdered in prison for testifying on Bill’s behalf. Bill takes responsibility for this terrible crime. It totally changed the trajectory of his life, both private and commercial.

Bill now heads the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign.

He gives us a snapshot into what Russia’s become under Vladimir Putin and how life isn’t made up of comfortable decisions. Sometimes we have to take a stand.