Local papers reported he had aided twelve wounded Russians and died while trying to rescue American photo journalist Otto Pohl who had been shot twice.
Magnitsky began to investigate what he alleged was a massive tax fraud scheme, whereby criminals obtained control of three companies managed by Hermitage Fund and arranged a fraudulent refund of $230 million from the Russian treasury.
According to the Russian President's Council on Human Rights, the prison had created deadly conditions which destroyed Magnitsky's health, and then denied him medical treatment.
Before the case could come to trial, President Donald Trump fired Preet Bharara, and, in May 2017, Prevezon agreed to pay a fine of $5.9 million to settle with United States federal prosecutors headed by Joon Kim, who was appointed by Jeff Sessions as the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York from March 2017 to January 2018.
[20] The case and players were highlighted again when reporters noted that Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who had represented Prevezon, had met with Donald Trump Jr, in 2016 during his father's presidential campaign.
Veselnitskaya was said to have lobbied for the removal of Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russian nationals in exchange for providing compromising information about Hillary Clinton, a fact President Trump personally denied in a statement drafted aboard Air Force One.
[31][32][33] In April 2016, Dana Rohrabacher and Paul Behrends, who is a member of his staff, traveled to Russia and returned with Yuri Chaika's confidential talking points memo about incriminating information on Democratic donors which were later discussed in the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016.