The letter, dated Oct. 9, 2015, was written by former US Attorney Preet Bharara's team of prosecutors and addressed to a New York federal judge. Sergei Magnitsky, the independent Russian lawyer who initially exposed this massive alleged money laundering operation, died in a Russian prison in November 2009. According to US investigators, corrupt Russian government officials allegedly teamed up with a powerful Russian organized crime organization to pull off that country's largest ever tax fraud. Russian tax officials were allegedly in on it, and, in December 2007, approved the $230 million refund, the single largest in Russian history. In 2011, Russian prosecutors put Magnitsky on trial posthumously for tax evasion.

Source: CNN April 26, 2017 18:11 UTC