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Book: Red Notice — from investing in Russia to the story of Sergei Magnitsky
I finished reading Red Notice, by Bill Browder, and found the story much more interesting than I expected.
I was also very curious because, until then, I did not know about the book’s connection to Sergei Magnitsky, especially because Brazil recently saw the Magnitsky Act applied to a justice of the country’s Supreme Federal Court. Official source: U.S. Treasury
What I did not know was where the name Magnitsky came from and how Bill Browder was connected to the creation of this sanctions mechanism.
How the story begins
Browder did not go to Russia as an activist. He went as an investor.
After the end of the Soviet Union, he realized that several large Russian companies were trading at very low valuations compared with their assets. The opportunity was enormous, but the environment was also extremely risky.
This is where a name very well known in Brazil appears: Edmond Safra.
Safra was one of the most important bankers of the 20th century. The Edmond J. Safra Foundation itself records that his family settled in Brazil and that he and his father founded Banco Safra. Later, Edmond created the Republic National Bank of New York and built an international banking operation. Edmond J. Safra Foundation
Browder secured Safra’s backing to create the Hermitage Fund and invest in Russia.
For me, this makes the beginning of the book especially interesting: it brings together a bold investor ready to enter a little-known market and an investor whose family is very well known in Brazil.
The death of Edmond Safra
Safra’s story has a strange and tragic ending.
On December 3, 1999, Edmond Safra died in a fire at his residence in Monaco. The Edmond J. Safra Foundation officially states that he was the victim of arson in his home. Institutional source
Browder grows in Russia — and starts picking fights
Hermitage grew and became one of the largest foreign investors in Russia.
Browder then began investigating companies in which he invested. According to his account, he found transactions that transferred value from companies to managers, controlling shareholders and people close to them, harming minority shareholders.
He began gathering documents and taking these stories to the press.
For a while, that worked in his favor.
Until, in 2005, Browder arrived in Moscow and was denied entry into the country. He then began managing his business from outside Russia.
Later, in 2007, authorities searched Hermitage’s offices and those of its legal service providers. Corporate documents were seized. Companies that had previously belonged to the group were later transferred to other owners and used in a scheme involving fraudulent tax refund claims.
The central amount in the story is approximately US$230 million.
The Council of Europe later documented the mechanism: companies were fraudulently registered in the names of criminals, profits were eliminated through fictitious judgments and liabilities, and taxes that had previously been paid were then claimed back from the Russian Treasury. Council of Europe — 2013 report
This is where Sergei Magnitsky enters the story
Sergei Magnitsky, 2006. Image: Voice of America / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.Sergei Magnitsky is often called “Browder’s lawyer,” but that is a bit of an oversimplification.
He was a Russian tax and accounting specialist who worked on legal and tax matters for Firestone Duncan. The European Court of Human Rights described him as an auditor, while the Council of Europe described him as a tax and accounting specialist.
Magnitsky analyzed what had happened to the companies linked to Hermitage and investigated the enormous tax refund.
According to documentation later examined by the Council of Europe, Magnitsky reported the scheme and identified public officials who, according to his findings, were connected to the case.
Then something remarkable happened: instead of the story ending with an investigation of the people he had reported, Magnitsky was arrested.
On November 24, 2008, he was placed in pre-trial detention, accused in a tax evasion case.
Magnitsky’s treatment in prison
This is probably the hardest part of the book.
Magnitsky remained in custody for almost a year.
His health deteriorated significantly. He developed serious medical problems and repeatedly requested treatment.
The case was later examined by the European Court of Human Rights, so at this point we no longer rely only on Browder’s account.
In 2019, the court concluded that:
- the medical care provided to Magnitsky was inadequate and contributed to his death;
- the conditions of his detention violated the European Convention on Human Rights;
- he was subjected to ill-treatment by prison officers shortly before his death;
- the subsequent investigation into that ill-treatment was inadequate;
- the length of his pre-trial detention violated his rights;
- the proceedings conducted against him after his death were unfair.
The decision is available directly from the European Court of Human Rights.
Sergei Magnitsky died on November 16, 2009, at the age of 37.
The Council of Europe also recorded that he died after being beaten with rubber batons, although there are contradictions in the records about his final moments and the precise sequence of events. Council of Europe report
Browder’s life changes completely
After Magnitsky’s death, Browder practically stops being only the investor we meet at the beginning of the book.
He begins an international campaign to hold people connected to the case accountable.
The logic was interesting: if it was difficult to hold them accountable inside Russia, it might be possible to target assets, bank accounts and freedom of travel in other countries.
This eventually contributed to the creation of the U.S. legislation known as the Magnitsky Act.
The first U.S. law, from 2012, was directly related to the Russian case. Later came the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, expanding the idea to sanctions against people from other countries accused of serious corruption or serious human rights violations.
It was precisely this global mechanism that returned to Brazilian news decades after Sergei’s imprisonment and death.
The videos Browder and his team published
One of the most interesting things is that the videos mentioned in this story still exist.
Browder and his team produced a series called Russian Untouchables, presenting documents and allegations about people they linked to the scheme. These are materials produced by Browder’s side, so they should be viewed as part of his investigation and campaign, not as judicial decisions.
Episode 1 — Artem Kuznetsov
Episode 2 — Pavel Karpov
Episode 3 — Olga Stepanova
The Magnitsky Files — Dmitry Klyuev
The Council of Europe’s own 2013 report cites some of these videos, including The Magnitsky Files and the episode about Pavel Karpov.
Bill Browder after Magnitsky
Bill Browder at an event about the Global Magnitsky Act, 2015. Hudson Institute / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.What I find most interesting is the character’s transformation throughout the book.
He starts out wanting to make money from Russia’s economic opening. He goes through privatizations, oligarchs, undervalued companies, corporate disputes and an enormous concentration of wealth.
After Magnitsky’s death, the story changes.
Browder’s goal becomes convincing governments to impose financial consequences and travel restrictions on people accused of serious violations.
Today he continues to lead the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign. Bill Browder’s official website gathers interviews, material about the book and information about his campaign.
What struck me most
For me, the book is almost two stories.
The first is about money: Russian capitalism after the Soviet Union, privatizations, foreign investors, banks, oligarchs and the opportunity to make fortunes in a market that operated far outside normal expectations.
The second begins with Sergei Magnitsky.
From that point on, it stops being essentially a story about investing and becomes a story about Browder’s attempt to hold internationally accountable the people he considers responsible for what happened.
And perhaps the biggest surprise for me was realizing that the “Magnitsky Act” that recently appeared in Brazilian news takes its name from this very man in the book: Sergei Magnitsky, a tax specialist who investigated a multimillion-dollar fraud, was arrested and died while in Russian state custody.
Sources to check
- European Court of Human Rights — Magnitskiy and Others v. Russia
- Council of Europe — Refusing impunity for the killers of Sergei Magnitsky
- Council of Europe — 2026 report on money linked to the fraud exposed by Magnitsky
- Edmond J. Safra Foundation — official biography
- U.S. Treasury — sanctions announced against Alexandre de Moraes on 07/30/2025
- Bill Browder — official Red Notice page
- Wikimedia Commons — photograph of Sergei Magnitsky