FREEZING ORDER

A true story of Russian money laundering, murder and surviving Putin’s wrath by Bill Browder, author of international bestseller ‘Red Notice’.

It’s 2018 and Bill Browder finds himself arrested in Madrid and we the reader are immediately drawn into another story from the financier who had in the ‘90s entered a new financial frontier in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In ‘Freezing Order’ Browder scrolls back to the highs and many lows of working in Russia and how he had come to be black-listed with an extradition order in place by 2005. Whilst Browder moved back to London for safety, his young Russian lawyer colleague and friend, Sergei Magnitsky remained to fight a $230 million tax corruption scheme however he was arrested and died in a Moscow jail. Browder made it his mission to pursue justice and ‘Freezing Order’ brings the reader up to date on how money laundering and freezing assets became the new battle ground. Browder’s justice for his friend included lobbying and advocating the Magnitsky Act, a law to punish all Russian human rights violators all over the world as well as fighting the charges. His story shares his success of the Act, as well as his journey to clear his own name. This involved tracking down the money that flowed from Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas.

‘Freezing Order’ involves all the ingredients of a spy thriller including honey traps, bogus charges, ruthless villains and a cast of legal characters including an octogenarian judge (because there is no retirement age) and a renegade prosecutor named John Moscow no less!

It’s a thrilling and informative financial caper, a powerful page turner and a fascinating story of how one man ‘on the run’ takes on the enemy. Whilst the Den enjoyed 'Red Notice' more, Browder's new book, now in paperback is a brilliant wild card choice for book clubs and definitely a book of the moment!

Also see our Den review for 'Red Notice' in the library.