Red Notice
A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Ratings43
Average rating4.3
Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia. In 2007, a group of law enforcement officers raided Browder's offices in Moscow and stole $230 million of taxes that his fund's companies had paid to the Russian government. Browder's attorney Sergei Magnitsky investigated the incident and uncovered a sprawling criminal enterprise. A month after Sergei testified against the officials involved, he was arrested and thrown into pre-trial detention, where he was tortured for a year. On November 16, 2009, he was led to an isolation chamber, handcuffed to a bedrail, and beaten to death by eight guards in full riot gear. Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life: he embarked on an unrelenting quest for justice in Sergei's name, exposing the towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin.
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A truly gripping, well-written and moving account of how a financier became a crusader of justice. One can't be blamed, however, if Bill Browder is truly the hero he paints himself to be, but it can't be denied that if not for his actions a wronged man's terrible death at the hands of corrupt officials in Russia would've remained buried, and a pivotal bill that will punish evil doers like these folks will never be passed.
I wrote a more detailed book review for The Star (Malaysia) newspaper: http://www.star2.com/culture/books/book-reviews/2015/10/24/red-notice-a-true-tale-of-high-finance-and-murder-in-russia/
Best book you'll ever read about hedge funds and tax fraud!
The heroes of this story are a tax attorney and a billionaire hedge fund manager. And heroes they are. This book tells the story of Bill Browder's career and life, and the crime that turned him from business man to human rights crusader.
Sergei Magnitsky was killed in police custody in Russia. Held for nearly a year on trumped up charges, his real crime was whistleblower. He uncovered a massive tax fraud committed in Russia. Despite his horrible treatment and his failing brotherhood in custody, Sergei never backed down and continued to tell the truth of what he had uncovered.
Browder tells this story with such heart and feeling. It reads like a political thriller, an excellent one. Read this book. You won't regret it!
The story's fascinating but the writing leaves something to be desired. I'd suggest seeing the movie instead but there isn't one. (Side note: There's a documentary called Justice for Sergei about the man who was murdered so if you're short on time, that might be the way to go.)
