GOP congressman slams 'billionaire tax exile' who accused him of violating Russia sanctions

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July 25, 2017 6:06 PM

A new complaint filed by investor Bill Browder alleges that California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and his staff director, Paul Behrends, violated the Magnitsky Act.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) speaks during a House Foreign Affairs Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats Subcommittee hearing.

A new complaint filed by investor Bill Browder with the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control alleges that California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and his staff director, Paul Behrends, violated US sanctions when they accepted anti-Magnitsky Act material from the Russian prosecutor's office and used it to try to undermine the legislation in Washington.

Browder, who spearheaded the passage of the Magnitsky Act in 2012, said Rohrabacher's anti-Magnitsky efforts amounted to providing a service to Russia's deputy prosecutor general Victor Grin, who was sanctioned as part of the Magnitsky Act and would benefit from its repeal.

Rohrabacher's spokesman, Ken Grubbs, responded to the complaint Tuesday morning, characterizing Browder's OFAC filing as an attempt to obfuscate Russia's side of the story and slamming the wealthy investor as "a

Magnitsky is believed to have

accepted a "confidential" document f which he then used to try to undermine the Magnitsky Act on Capitol Hill.

Browder alleged in the complaint that Rohrabacher provided "services" to Russia's deputy general prosecutor, Victor Grin, by attempting to stymie an expansion of the Magnitsky Act being deliberated in Congress last summer.

made personal introductions for lobbyists advocating the Russian government's and Grin's position against the Magnitsky Act." Those people, according to the complaint, include Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin — both of whom attended a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower last June to discuss a possible repeal of the Magnitsky Act.

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