The mysterious death of an informant in the Sergei Magnitsky case has created suspicion of a second high-profile Russian murder in the UK.
Alexander Perepilichnyy – a 44-year-old Russian businessman with no known health problems – was found dead outside his luxury home in Surrey, England on 10 November.
British police made the case public on Wednesday (28 November), telling press that an initial post mortem was “inconclusive,” that the coroner will now hold an inquest, including toxicology tests, and that a senior officer has been assigned to find out what happened.
Perepilichnyy had sought refuge in the UK after giving evidence on Olga Stepanova, a senior Russian tax official, to a Swiss prosecutor.
Stepanova is one of 60 Russian officials on a US travel ban list.
The US imposed the sanctions due to credible allegations that she was part of a conspiracy in 2009 to embezzle hundreds of millions of euros of Russian tax money and to murder an accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, who exposed the scam.
Other names on the list include senior officials in Russia’s state security service, the FSB.
Andrew Rettman