Timeline Fraud case

June 4, 2007

Russian police raid Hermitage’s Moscow offices, seizing documents for three subsidiaries. The companies are then allegedly taken over by a “criminal organisation”

July-Nov, 2007

Forged contracts are used to file lawsuits against the companies using “forged powers of attorney”. The courts award judgments totalling around £652m

Dec, 2007

The judgments mean the companies’ losses are now equal to the profits on which they had paid tax – so they can apply for rebates. The alleged fraudsters submit applications on behalf of Hermitage for tax refunds totalling £155m. They are paid by the Russian treasury

June, 2008

Sergei Magnitsky gives testimony on officials allegedly involved in the fraud. He is arrested five months later

Nov 17, 2009

Magnitsky dies in prison, having been severely beaten. An investigation finds that his detention was illegal

Nov 10, 2012

Alexander Perepilichnyy, another Russian lawyer involved in the case, dies jogging near his home in Surrey. Inquest due in June

Feb, 2017

US Department of Justice document tracing money from the fraudulent tax rebate to a UK bank account of Renaissance Capital, is lodged in a New York court