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New York Times Bestseller

A TRUE STORY OF HIGH FINANCE, MURDER, AND ONE MAN'S FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

by Bill Browder ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015

It may be that “Russian stories never have happy endings,” but Browder’s account more than compensates by ferociously...

An American-born financier spins an almost unbelievable tale of the “poisoned” psychology afflicting business life in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

By 2000, Browder, founder and CEO of the Hermitage Fund, helmed “the best performing emerging-markets fund in the world.” Taking full advantage of the unprecedented investment opportunities available during post-Soviet Russia’s transition from communism to capitalism, a gangland business atmosphere where oligarchs operated with impunity, Browder’s firm became the biggest investor in Russia’s stock market. He owed his rise in part to his willingness to fight back, to alert Western business contacts, to inform the press and to file complaints with government authorities against those corrupting the business culture. For a while, his interests coincided with those of Putin, still busy consolidating power, doing his own bit to rein in the oligarchs. By 2005, however, secure in his authority, Putin revoked Browder’s visa, branding him “a threat to national security.” There followed a series of moves against Browder and Hermitage, including the raiding of the company’s Moscow offices on trumped-up charges of tax evasion and, most notoriously, the arrest, imprisonment, beating and death of tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who had helped expose government crime. Browder’s unceasing efforts to achieve justice for his murdered friend and employee culminated in the 2012 Magnitsky Act, a human rights landmark that named and shamed the responsible Russian officials. This well-paced, heartfelt narrative covers the author’s personal life—he’s the son of a famed mathematician and the grandson of Earl Browder, former head of the Communist Party USA—his business career, including brushes with the likes of fraudster Robert Maxwell and swashbuckling Ron Burkle; close relationships with billionaires Edmond Safra and Beny Steinmetz; his dealings on the Magnitsky Act with U.S. senators; and Putin’s vindictive retaliatory measures against Browder and the act.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4767-5571-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORY | BUSINESS | POLITICAL & ROYALTY | WORLD | GENERAL BUSINESS | GENERAL HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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BOOK REVIEW

by Bill Browder

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

More by Elie Wiesel

by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

From mean streets to wall street.

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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Watch CBS News

Book excerpt: "Freezing Order," on Putin, money laundering and murder

April 8, 2022 / 9:01 PM EDT / CBS News

As a financier working in Russia beginning in the 1990s, American-born Bill Browder soon learned that theft was rampant among oligarchs profiting from the privatization that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. While investigating a $230 million tax fraud perpetrated against his company, Browder's lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was imprisoned, tortured and killed by Russian authorities.

In response, Browder advocated for passage of the Magnitsky Act, aimed at freezing the assets of those involved in human rights violations. The Magnitsky Act has expanded beyond the United States to other nations around the globe – and has made Browder a target of the Kremlin.

Browder has followed his New York Times bestseller "Red Notice" with a new book, "Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath" (both published by Simon & Schuster, a division of Paramount).

Read an excerpt from "Freezing Order" below, and don't miss correspondent Seth Doane's interview with Bill Browder on "CBS Sunday Morning" April 10!

When we started investigating the $230 million tax rebate fraud that my lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed over, we'd had no idea that it would lead to any of these world-shaping developments or these unthinkable Russian reactions. Why hadn't Putin just thrown a few of his low-level officials under the bus for murdering Sergei? Why would he put a dead man on trial for the first time in Russian history? Why would he ruin his relationship with the West over the Magnitsky Act? Why would he hack Western elections? Why is he so committed to fomenting chaos?

Now we knew. There weren't just millions of dollars at stake. Or even billions. There was likely more than $1 trillion at stake. And Putin will do anything to protect this.

This amount of money also helped explain why so many people had been murdered. People like Sergei Magnitsky, Boris Nemtsov, Alexander Perepilichnyy, and Andrei Kozlov. It also explained why the Kremlin had attempted to kill Vladimir Kara-Murza and Nikolai Gorokhov.

As despicable as Putin and his regime's behavior is, none of this can happen without the cooperation of Western enablers. Lawyers like John Moscow and Mark Cymrot, spin doctors like Glenn Simpson, politicians like Dana Rohrabacher, and executives like those at Danske Bank — these people, along with many others, lubricate the machine that allows Putin and his cronies to get away with their crimes.

Nor can these crimes happen without the acquiescence of timid and ineffective governments that refuse to follow their own laws and stated values. Let's take Britain, just as one example. The largest amount of money associated with the $230 million crime didn't end up in New York or Spain or France or Switzerland, but right in my adopted hometown: London. This money has been used to purchase property and luxury goods, and despite all the evidence I've presented to British law enforcement, Parliament, and the British press, to this day not a single money laundering investigation connected to the Magnitsky case has been initiated in the United Kingdom.

As you've followed me through this story, you might have wondered, "The odds are so impossibly long, and there are so many risks. ... Why does he do all of these things?"

At first, I did them because I owed it to Sergei. He had been killed because he worked for me, and I couldn't let his killers get away with it. As with the theft of my childhood flute, but on an infinitely grander and more meaningful scale, I have been compelled to get justice. As the theft of my flute showed, this inclination toward justice is part of who I am. It's in my nature. To reject it would have poisoned me from the inside.

Then, as things escalated, it also became a fight for survival. Not only for myself and my family, but for my friends and colleagues, and all the people who were helping Sergei's cause inside of Russia.

But in the end, I've done these things because doing them is the right thing to do. For better or worse, I've been obsessed with this cause since the moment of Sergei's death. This obsession has affected every facet of my life, and all of my relationships, even those with my own children. These effects haven't always been for the better.

But this obsession has also introduced me to remarkable people who have not only changed my life, but the course of history.

Most important, my obsession has created a legacy for Sergei so that his murder wasn't meaningless, unlike so many others.

At the time of writing, there are Magnitsky Acts in 34 different countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the 2 7 countries of the European Union, Norway, Montenegro, and Kosovo. This doesn't take into account the British Overseas Territories and Crown Protectorates of Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands. New Zealand and Japan are on deck.

More than 500 individuals and entities have been sanctioned using these laws. In Russia, these include Dmitry Klyuev, Andrei Pavlov, Pavel Karpov, Artem Kuznetsov, and Olga Stepanova and her husband, along with 35 other Russians involved in Sergei's false arrest, torture, and murder as well as the $230 million tax rebate fraud.

But not only Russians. Magnitsky sanctions have now been applied to the Saudi assassins responsible for the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the Chinese officials who set up the Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang; the Myanmar generals responsible for the Rohingya genocide; the Gupta brothers, who stripped the South African government dry; and hundreds of others for similarly pernicious acts.

For every person or organization that has been sanctioned, there are thousands of human rights violators and kleptocrats who are waiting in terror to see if they will be sanctioned next. There's no question that the Magnitsky Act has altered behavior and been a deterrent for would-be murderers and thieves.

I can't bring Sergei back. And for that, I carry a heavy burden that will never go away. But his sacrifice has not been meaningless. It has saved, and will continue to save, many, many lives.

If Russia ever has a real democratic reckoning, future Russians will expand on these legal monuments by building physical ones to a true hero: Sergei Magnitsky.

For now, though, the fight goes on.

From "Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath" by Bill Browder. Copyright © 2022 by Bill Browder. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

        For more info:

• "Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath"  by Bill Browder (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover and eBook formats, available via  Amazon  and  Indiebound
• billbrowder.com

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Reviews of Red Notice by Bill Browder

Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice

by Bill Browder

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About this Book

Book summary.

A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin's corruption. Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia. In 2007, a group of law enforcement officers raided Browder's offices in Moscow and stole $230 million of taxes that his fund's companies had paid to the Russian government. Browder's attorney Sergei Magnitsky investigated the incident and uncovered a sprawling criminal enterprise. A month after Sergei testified against the officials involved, he was arrested and thrown into pre-trial detention, where he was tortured for a year. On November 16, 2009, he was led to an isolation chamber, handcuffed to a bedrail, and beaten to death by eight guards in full riot gear. Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life: he embarked on an unrelenting quest for justice in Sergei's name, exposing the towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin. A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world.

When the Russian government turns on you, it doesn't do so mildly— it does so with extreme prejudice. Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yukos were prime examples. The punishment for presenting a challenge to Vladimir Putin went beyond Khodorkovsky to anybody who had had anything to do with him: his senior managers, lawyers, accountants, suppliers, and even his charities. By early 2006, ten people connected to Yukos were in jail in Russia, dozens more had fled the country, and tens of billions of dollars of assets had been seized by the Russian authorities. I took this as an object lesson, and I was not going to allow the Russians to do similar things to me. I needed to move my people, and my clients' money, out of Russia as quickly as possible. I brought Hermitage's chief operating officer, Ivan Cherkasov, to London to help do these things. Ivan had joined Hermitage five years earlier from JP Morgan, and he was the one who hounded brokers, chased banks, and ...

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High finance and politics may not be among many readers' first choices when making a non-fiction selection, so I do wonder what type of audience Red Notice will attract. I hope that it will bring people out of their comfort zones, though, as it's a compelling narrative that deserves a wide readership. It's accessible enough that people who generally prefer fiction will almost certainly find that it will keep them entertained, and the subject matter is important enough that it will likely resonate with those who prefer books about social issues... continued

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Beyond the Book

Interpol and red notices.

The title Red Notice refers to one of the many alerts issued by Interpol, the world's largest international police organization. The idea of an international police force was originally proposed at the First International Criminal Police Congress in Monaco in 1914, although the organization didn't come into being until an initiative was passed in 1923 at the International Criminal Police Congress in Vienna. Formed as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) headquartered in Vienna, it fell under Nazi Germany's control in 1938 and was moved to Berlin in 1942. After World War II, ICPC was reformed as Interpol under the auspices of Belgium, and it was granted official status by the United Nations in 1949. (The name "Interpol,"...

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Red Notice: How I Became Putin's No. 1 enemy by Bill Browder, book review

Investor-turned-activist bill browder's exposé is a cautionary tale of a regime's fury, article bookmarked.

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A lot of books these days claim to lift the lid on the dark arts of the men in the Kremlin. Black deeds on Red Square are hot stuff in publishing. Just like the Tudors, there's always some new angle.

However, many of these peeks inside the Kremlin are samey. They start with a cover of a Romanov eagle, or a shot of Moscow taken from a sinister angle and segue into a cautionary tale of how the unwary author fell in and out of love with Mother Russia. At first sight, Bill Browder's book is just another exposé. And, it is hard at first to warm to the author, a turbo-charged capitalist who roared off east in the hunt for rich pickings in the rubble of Soviet communism.

By the end I was hooked, however. Browder's book is a real thriller. It also helps that he has packed two very different stories into one set of covers. The first, less interesting, tale is about a beady-eyed investor landing in the chaos of just-post-communist Russia and making a fortune by buying up underpriced assets whose value later soared. This part is instructive only in the sense that I now understand why so many Russians loathe Westerners. Act II veers off in a different direction, however. For a while, Vladimir Putin's clique put up with Browder's money-spinning fund – and with his complaints about the more flagrant crimes of the so-called oligarchs. But once Putin had dealt with the oligarchs who challenged his authority, the rest continued operating their scams under a kind of franchise, which is when Browder ceased to be a useful whistleblower and became a nuisance.

As the storm clouds gathered, Browder made his exit from Russia and cannily funneled out most of his investors' money at the same time. Putin's goons charged around, raiding banks and offices, searching for cash that was no longer there. Enraged to find the cupboard bare, they arranged a clever heist. After a tax demand for several hundred million dollars was slapped on Browder's fund, they got the corrupt tax office to funnel them the money. Getting their hands on this mega $230m "refund" was pure robbery. The tax demand was fraudulent and the money came out of the Russians' own pockets. Browder cried foul but was back in London by then. It was his Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who bore the brunt of the regime's fury – with his life – for exposing the way a favoured few had a licence to plunder the many.

What happened to Magnitsky – a naïve patriot who could not accept that "his" government would punish him for exposing an obvious crime – is heart-rending. Having disliked Browder to begin with, I was cheering him on as he retold his dogged fight to bring the fate of his murdered, gentle but stubborn lawyer to international attention. Clearly, you need deep pockets if you are going to take on the Kremlin and win. Russia has been described as a state that constantly wages war on its own people. Unfortunately, this book suggests that this harsh-sounding judgement is an accurate one.

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Watching the Daisies

Book review: red notice by bill browder.

Reading and reviewing books is a key part of being an author – crucial for improving our craft, and perhaps positive Karma?

In 2019, I read and reviewed 62 books for my Goodreads Challenge . My reviews were also posted on Amazon and Bookbub.

My favourite genres include inspirational memoirs, travel, environmental awareness, self help and crime thrillers.

Red Notice was my favourite read from last year. It is an inspirational memoir, but it reads rather like a John Le Carré spy thriller!

It also showcases the power we all have within us to promote positive change.

“Part John Grisham-like thriller, part business and political memoir.” — The New York Times

“[ Red Notice ] does for investing in Russia and the former Soviet Union what  Liar’s Poker  did for our understanding of Salomon Brothers, Wall Street, and the mortgage-backed securities business in the 1980s. Browder’s business saga meshes well with the story of corruption and murder in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, making  Red Notice  an early candidate for any list of the year’s best books” ( Fortune ).

This is a story about an accidental activist. Bill Browder started out his adult life as the Wall Street maverick whose instincts led him to Russia just after the breakup of the Soviet Union, where he made his fortune.

Along the way he exposed corruption, and when he did, he barely escaped with his life. His Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky wasn’t so lucky: he ended up in jail, where he was tortured to death. That changed Browder forever. He saw the murderous heart of the Putin regime and has spent the last half decade on a campaign to expose it. Because of that, he became Putin’s number one enemy, especially after Browder succeeded in having a law passed in the United States—The Magnitsky Act—that punishes a list of Russians implicated in the lawyer’s murder. Putin famously retaliated with a law that bans Americans from adopting Russian orphans.

A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade,  Red Notice  is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world, and also the story of how, without intending to, he found meaning in his life.

Bill Browder recounts his own journey as a rebellious young man from an academic family, to the creation of a hugely successful investment fund, built through scrupulous research of undervalued Russian public companies. Unfortunately, he and his team made many very powerful enemies in the process, which eventually led to the arrest, imprisonment, torture and death of young lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The author relentlessly campaigned for his friend Sergei, who was a modest but tireless investigator of the truth. The Magnitsky Act was signed into law in December 2012 by President Barack Obama. Since then it has been enacted in many other countries against human rights offenders, by freezing their assets and curtailing travel opportunities. If you are interested in human rights issues Red Notice is a must read.

Your Favourite Books

What was your favourite read of 2019? Please share.

Brigid  P. Gallagher is a  retired natural medicines therapist, passionate organic gardener and author of  “Watching the Daisies- Life lessons on the Importance of Slow,”  a holistic memoir dedicated to the art of mindfulness and healing from debilitating illness.

She lives in Donegal, Ireland –  an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/r5GCjaetgZk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/watchingthedai1

Facebook: https://facebook.com/watchingthedaisies/

Goodreads: https://goodreads.com/author/show/16119226.Brigid_P_Gallagher

30 comments

An important part of being a writer is reading and reviewing. That is a profound statement which I agree with. This book sounds highly interesting, I enjoy mysteries and thrillers too. My favourite read of 2019 is hard to pick as I read many books. I’d say The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin was most memorable. A story for young readers which throws light on how adults are perceived and how science can help find answers to our urgent questions. Nice review Brigid, a book I will put on my list.

Like Liked by 2 people

The Thing About Jellyfish is a terrific title. It sounds very inviting. I just finished John le Carre’s autobiography The Pigeon Tunnel. It was very enlightening.

Like Liked by 1 person

Ohhhh that is so true Brigid “Reading and reviewing books is a key part of being an author ” I find myself always reviewing while I’m reading, looking at structure and words in a way that I wouldn’t if I wasn’t a writer. In the last couple of years i haven’t read many books. My intent this year is to get back to my reading books, I have however been reading a lot of email content, I can’t seem to stick with reading a book, however I did read Pam Grout’s book E2 and I’m not a really good reviewer but I’ll say that the author goes on to prove that our thoughts do create our reality. Thanks for the review of this book, very interesting.

I think some readers are shy about leaving written reviews, but a sentence or two is all that is needed. It gives authors such a boost to know what their readers think. I leave mine on Amazon, Goodreads and BookBub. Happy reading Masha.

Fabulous post

Thank you. I hope it inspires readers to leave more reviews, and also to realise that one person speaking out in the world can instigate momentous change.

Wow! Brigid, I am in awe of your 62 books which you reviewed last year! That is impressive and how lovely of you to take the time and effort to share all these books! ‘Red Notice’ piques my interest and you’ve written an excellent review of an unusual book. One to add to my list! Happy Reading & Reviewing … and it’s good to remind authors everywhere of the importance of both! 😀

Thank you Annika. It is a terrific book. I love reading both traditionally published and Indie authors. There is such great talent that is not always recognised. Many authors are shy by nature, and reviews give everyone a boost.

Excellent and captivating review, Brigid. Poor Sergei to be killed just because you point out what loopholes are going on at the top brass in any country. The book sounds lovely. Happy reading and reviewing.

Thank you Kamal. Yes, he was a very brave man. One person speaking out created such momentous change. It is very inspiring.

This sounds like a fantastic read! It does inspire us readers to leave reviews for our favorite books 💗

Thank you Lisa. I think a lot of people are shy about writing reviews, but it means so much to authors. A couple of sentences is all it takes. x

Gosh, 62 books is an impressive tally, Brigid. You have prompted me, as your thoughtful review of Bill’s book reminded me that I read it last year. A story that stayed with me and I wept towards the end, especially knowing that it was true. Such courage on the part of both men and all involved in highlighting Putin’s Russia. I will leave a review for him. I have a much more structured plan for reading and reviewing this year. Thank you for this post. ❤

Thank you Jane. It was such an inspiring book. If people don’t speak out nothing will change. I hope many more have the courage to do so. Happy reading.

I just checked. I left a review for Bill on Amazon back in 2018 and have just added it on Goodreads. Yes, it takes huge courage to speak out. ❤

Wow, this sounds like a must-read Brigid! When I hear of some of the types of corruption that go on, I think, “surely that can’t really happen” and yet it does…. It’s so important for these things to be brought into the light. Thank you for giving me another book to put on my TBR list.

Thank you Terri. This book is an edge of the seat read. Sadly, very few people can speak out, such can be the cost on their lives.

As always, insightful. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Thank you Laura. Always a pleasure.

This sounds good. I have studied Russia a lot, as the Soviet Union and under the Tsars (before ‘red’ identified it. This sounds good.

Thank you Jacqui. It is edge of the seat reading. Excellent.

This sounds interesting, Brigid. I could see this being made into a movie 🙂

Yes. it would make a terrific movie Jacquie.

Sounds like an exciting book, Brigid. It’s interesting how some people actually live these “thriller-material” lives. You did a lot of reading last year. Thanks for sharing your favorite!

Yes, I do not know how they manage, but such a lot of good came out of this particular journey.

Wow that’s an impressive goal to read that many books & write reviews.Your suggestion here has me hooked. I’m definitely putting it on my reading list. What is your reading goal for 2020?

Hi Ali, My goal is 60 for 2020. I read 82 in 2018, but last year I discovered Netflix. Red Notice was an edge of the seat read.

I’m looking forward to reading it. Thank goodness for good books and Netflix.

Really love this post, Brigid, and this book sounds captivating.

Thank you Jennifer. I heard of it through a social media group. It makes compulsive reading.

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Freezing Order by Bill Browder review – life as a target of Putin

This incredible account of being framed by the Russian authorities – and the deadly fallout from fighting back – reads like a thriller

I n terms of western relations with Vladimir Putin , Bill Browder has performed the role of the canary in the coalmine – or perhaps goldmine would be more fitting. A graduate of Stanford Business School, he arrived in Moscow in the late 1990s, via a stint in London, determined to make his fortune.

As his previous book, Red Notice , detailed, that’s exactly what he did. He set up Hermitage Capital Management, with the help of the Monaco-based billionaire Edmond Safra (later to die in a fire started by one of his servants).

It was a time of wild profiteering, as post-Soviet state assets were sold off on the cheap, and a venal oligarchy was created. Business feuds were regularly settled by bullets, and the life expectancy of bankers was radically shortened. When Putin came to power on New Year’s Eve 1999, promising to stamp out corruption, Browder was a relieved man.

And he remained pro-Putin for the next three years, as the new Russian leader imposed state order on capitalist anarchy. In these years, Browder made a fortune, turning Hermitage into the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia . His big innovation was shareholder activism, in which he targeted corrupt practices in some of the biggest companies, such as Gazprom, and by doing so raised their share price.

Then in 2003 Putin jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, at the time the richest oligarch in Russia, and instead of opposing corruption, began putting the squeeze on the duly intimidated oligarchy. That meant putting a stop to Browder’s busy-bodying by deporting him from Russia in 2005.

Eighteen months later, Hermitage’s offices were raided by the Russian authorities and its paperwork removed. Those documents were then used by officers from the interior ministry to stage a $230m (£175m) tax rebate scam. They then blamed the scam on Browder, and when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, exposed the officers responsible for the fraud, those same officers had Magnitsky arrested.

Held for almost a year without charge, Magnitsky died a few days before he was due to be released – murdered, says Browder, and a number of independent investigators, by prison guards who beat him to death. Thereafter Browder, a naturalised Briton based in London, dedicated himself to gaining justice for his friend, primarily by lobbying for the Magnitsky Act – a bill that authorised the US government to sanction human rights offenders and freeze their assets. A smilar law has been enacted in 33 other countries, including the UK and EU.

Once adopted, however, the Magnitsky law remained mostly unused in the US, and particularly in the UK. It was only after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the UK authorities belatedly noticed the preponderance of corrupt Russian billionaires laundering their money in London. As Browder informs us at the end of the book, most of the $230m from the tax scam found its way to these shores. Characteristically, the British authorities did nothing about it.

But the Russian authorities did. They targeted Browder. He found himself embroiled in a US case against a Russian shell company that had used part of the stolen $230m to buy property in New York. The Russians hired a lawyer who had previously worked for Browder, a conflict of interest that eventually had the lawyer barred, but not before Browder feared his personal information had been passed on to the people who were out to get him.

He was also subject to a series of Interpol warrants, and at one stage in the book he is arrested in Madrid under a Russian-requested order. At first he’s not sure if the Spanish police are in fact Russian agents in disguise, and then he’s not sure if he will be held and extradited to Moscow – where he would likely have met the same end as his lawyer.

As terrifying as this incident must have been, in a way it pales by comparison with another moment in the book in which Browder recalls the 2018 Helsinki summit between Putin and Donald Trump. Out of the blue, Putin offered to swap some Russian intelligence agents for Browder, and in a joint press conference Trump said that he thought it was “an incredible offer”.

Browder was on holiday at his home in Colorado at the time, and imagined that blacked-out secret service land cruisers would arrive and he’d be rendered away to Moscow to face a rigged showtrial and a mysterious death behind bars.

It’s an incredible story, told with pace and panache, that reads like a thriller. There’s something deeply offending to our sense of justice about an innocent man framed by powerful forces. It’s a fear that Alexandre Dumas and Alfred Hitchcock tapped into to dramatic effect, but what is most troubling here is how acquiescent the western establishment has been to Russian crimes and lies.

Lawyers, politicians and the usual useful idiots have all been successfully recruited to the Russian cause, either through financial inducement, bribery, bovine anti-west sentiments, or perhaps worst of all, complacency. Representatives of each of these groups feature in this book, in which witnesses to Russian corruption die in bizarre circumstances, falling off roofs or from sudden heart attacks. There are also poisonings, threats, intimidation and the whole gamut of dirty tricks.

Throughout it all, Browder remains impressively upbeat and resolute. Perhaps the story of one very wealthy man going up against the Russian state seems indulgent against the backdrop of the nightmare unfolding in Ukraine. But they are related events, and as this book makes all too clear, we’ve taken far too long to recognise the true nature of the regime that connects them.

Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath by Bill Browder is published by Simon & Schuster (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply

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How Russia fought a U.S. rights law — and the man who championed it

The massive economic sanctions brought against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have not only punished Russian elites — they have also prompted many countries to examine their complicity in helping corrupt officials launder money and park assets abroad. Bill Browder’s new book, “ Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath ,” is an essential work by someone who understood long before the rest of the world did just how far corrupt Russian officials and businesspeople will go to defend their ill-gotten wealth, and how foreign lawyers, lobbyists and public relations firms enable them.

Browder is an American-born British financier who invested in Russia in the 1990s as the country was privatizing many businesses. His Hermitage Fund emerged as the one of the largest foreign investors in Russia in the early 2000s. As a minority investor in some of Russia’s largest companies, Browder became concerned when his investments suffered because of the fraud and corruption of the majority shareholders, many of whom had close ties to the Kremlin. After revealing the details of the shenanigans, he was barred from Russia in 2005 and was declared a threat to national security.

“Freezing Order” is a sequel to Browder’s earlier bestseller, “ Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice ,” which told the tale of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer working for Browder’s Moscow investment firm. Magnitsky uncovered a $230 million tax fraud, was arrested by Russian officials to cover up the crime and died in a notorious Moscow prison at age 37 in 2009. The earlier book recounted Browder’s dogged efforts to create a new legal instrument to go after the wealth and mobility of individual perpetrators of human rights violations, rather than target the governments in whose name they claimed to act. “Red Notice” culminated with Congress passing the Magnitsky Act in 2012, landmark legislation that allows for travel bans, asset seizures and visa freezes on human rights violators. The legislation has been copied in more than 30 countries and now is used against a range of individuals with ties to China, Venezuela and Myanmar, among other nations.

“ Freezing Order” picks up the tale and focuses on attempts by Russian officials and their hired guns in the United States and Britain to impede and unwind this legislation. Browder tells a complicated story with great clarity and keen pacing. A key feature of modern autocracies like Russia is the ability of powerful people to loot their economies at home and park their assets in safe havens in the West . The Magnitsky Act is designed to prevent this predation. “Freezing Order” recounts how one Russian-owned company called Prevezon fought back.

If in “Red Notice” Browder was playing offense, in “Freezing Order” he is playing defense. Key to the story are the Justice Department’s attempts to freeze properties in New York City purchased by Prevezon using assets generated from the tax fraud scheme uncovered by Magnitsky. Much of the tale centers on Prevezon’s creative attempts — through legal maneuvers, public relations efforts and even an appeal to the Trump campaign — to prevent the U.S. government from freezing its assets.

Like the Terminator, when the Russian side suffers a setback, it puts itself back together and charges anew. Its forces framed Browder for tax fraud in Russia, conducted smear campaigns against him in Europe and used very broad subpoenas in U.S. courts in hopes of gaining compromising information against him.

Browder is at his best in describing the hand-to-hand combat of his high-stakes legal battle: dodging subpoenas in Colorado, recognizing honey traps in Europe and playing the media in the United States. He expertly walks us through the ins and outs of various legal strategies and developments that include enough high drama, plot twists and colorful characters for a movie.

Browder also describes a series of increasingly macabre court cases brought against him in Russia, including one in which a Moscow court tried Browder in absentia and Magnitsky posthumously. If Browder were to be extradited to Russia, he would face more than 20 years in prison.

We also meet heroic Russians like Boris Nemtsov, a dissident politician who called the Magnitsky Act the most “pro-Russian law passed in the United States in the history of our countries” because it held the potential to protect ordinary Russians from the predation of state officials — and who was assassinated in 2015. We also learn of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a human rights activist who pressed hard for Magnitsky-style sanctions on Russian elites and who suspects he was twice poisoned in Moscow. This past Monday, Kara-Murza was taken into custody by police in Moscow.

Browder’s analysis is not burdened by subtlety. In his storytelling, there are good guys driven by a thirst for justice and bad guys motivated by greed. For Browder, the baddies are less the Russian officials in question than their enablers in the West, including the improbably named American lawyer John Moscow, who after giving legal advice to Browder ended up representing Prevezon against the U.S. government; Glenn Simpson, a former journalist who founded the investigation firm Fusion GPS and who, Browder writes, provided information about him to the Russians; and Dana Rohrabacher, a mild-mannered Republican congressman from California who, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy privately asserted , had accepted money from Putin. After 15 terms in the House, Rohrabacher was defeated in 2018 . Browder is far from a dispassionate narrator of “Freezing Order.” Indeed, one strength of the work is the passion he brings to the tale.

Browder’s story loses some focus in the rare instances when he pulls back from the details of the Prevezon case and links it to broader political events. He argues that a main impetus for the Kremlin’s intervention in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 was to gain a repeal of the Magnitsky Act. This may be true, but the Kremlin has been trying to intervene in U.S. elections in various ways for decades and had other reasons to do so in 2016, such as to prevent a victory by Hillary Clinton. Browder’s claim that repealing the Magnitsky Act was “Putin’s top foreign policy objective” and motivated his meddling requires more substantiation.

Browder’s detractors point out that he gave up his U.S. citizenship reportedly for more favorable tax treatment in Britain and that the Panama Papers revealed that he, too, used shell companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. He is not a Russian speaker, and his analyses of Russian politics tend toward the black and white. Still, Browder’s great courage, ingenuity and commitment are beyond question and are on full display in “Freezing Order.” And he has done something remarkable by coming up with a new tool — targeted sanctions against individuals — in international politics. That Russian officials try so hard to undo this achievement indicates the power of the legislation. For this feat alone, Browder deserves tremendous credit.

Two broader lessons emerge from “Freezing Order.” First, the system, even in its weak and problematic condition, can work. Despite attempts to discredit Browder, to intimidate witnesses and to buy the best legal counsel available, Prevezon ultimately lost the case, the sanctions remain in place, and Browder is not doing time in Siberia. Even President Donald Trump was cowed into submission after initially reacting positively to an offer from Putin to allow U.S. interrogations of 12 Russian intelligence officers charged in connection with the 2016 election, in exchange for Russian questioning of Browder, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and 10 other Americans. (The Senate sent a message to Trump by rejecting Putin’s offer in a 98-to-0 vote.) Second, it takes enormous effort and courage to make the system work. Beyond Browder’s team, we all owe a great debt to the talented researchers and journalists at organizations like the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project , who are incredible guides through the murky world of money laundering and asset hiding, and who provided much of the material for the Prevezon case and many other investigations.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has generated momentum in the United States, Britain and other jurisdictions to crack down on money laundering and asset hiding, but the window to make major changes may close quickly in the United States should the Republicans take Congress in 2022 or the presidency in 2024. Browder’s “Freezing Order” is not just a cracking good read — it is a reminder of the urgency of addressing the global plague of money laundering.

Timothy Frye is the Marshall Shulman professor in the department of political science at Columbia University and the author of “ Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia .”

Freezing Order

A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath

By Bill Browder

Simon & Schuster. 313 pp. $28.99

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice (Paperback)

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Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Audio CD – February 3, 2015

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Recorded Books, Inc. and Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (February 3, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1664704140
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About the author

Bill browder.

Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Since 2009, when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses. Before founding Hermitage, Browder was vice president at Salomon Brothers. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

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Rawson Marshall Thurber ’s “Red Notice” should work on paper. It’s got a charismatic cast sent globe-hopping to beautiful places on a treasure hunt straight out of an “Indiana Jones” movie. How could it go wrong? Well, for starters, Thurber and everyone involved forgot a little thing called personality. Rarely have I seen a movie that feels more processed by a machine, a product for a content algorithm instead of anything approaching artistic intent or even an honest desire to entertain. And while there have been quality blockbusters produced by the Hollywood machine for generations (I miss those days), it feels like we’re increasingly reaching the point where they are so calculated and programmed that the human element is completely drained from them, making them as disposable as a fast food cheeseburger. Worst of all, that “content” approach is pulling the life from stars who have shown so much of it in the past. When the poster for “Red Notice” was released, most people lamented its Photoshopped, bland nature. They didn’t realize how honestly it captured the movie.

Thurber, the director of “ Central Intelligence ” and “ Skyscraper ” (two movies I enjoyed enough on their own terms, for the record), reunites with his muse, Dwayne Johnson , who plays the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley. The film opens with an awkwardly inserted info dump about three coveted eggs that were once the property of Cleopatra. Only two have been discovered, making the missing golden egg into a Holy Grail for treasure hunters, including one of the world’s most notorious criminals Nolan Booth ( Ryan Reynolds ). In the film’s relatively effective opening sequence, Hartley catches Booth trying to steal one of the eggs, inadvertently tying the two for the rest of the film into a classic buddy comedy dynamic—the muscle guy and the fast talker. They battle the authorities, a few bad guys, and another criminal mastermind nicknamed The Bishop ( Gal Gadot ) as they bounce around the world, trying to obtain all three eggs and sell them to the highest bidder.

Films like “ Raiders of the Lost Ark ” and “ National Treasure ” were clear inspirations on “Red Notice” but to say this movies lacks the identity of great action/adventure movies would be an understatement. Thurber’s direction seems to have been simply to put Reynolds, Johnson, and Gadot on camera and allow their screen presence and familiar techniques to carry the story, and one can literally see the weight of that on their shoulders. Johnson has never been this wooden, unable to find the hero or everyman in a non-character. He needs to figure out what's next because he seems to be tired of parts like this one and he's too charismatic to convey tired for the next chapter of his career. Reynolds makes out a little better, but you can almost see him growing weary of his attempts at witty schtick as more of his attempts at humor thud than usual. It feels like everyone thought casting would be all it took to make “Red Notice” charming and then forgot to give their actors charming things to actually do. Oh, there’s a lot of running and a lot of banter, but it starts to blend into cinematic paste.

People have lamented the growing sensation that Netflix increasingly makes product that’s designed to be watched with a phone in your hand, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt this more strongly than while watching “Red Notice.” Made for $200 million, none of that fortune was spent on anything that retains a human touch—it’s the iPhone app of action movies. Look up and see a beautiful person in a beautiful place running or shooting something—go back to your phone. While there are some truly goofy and yet somehow predictable twists, there’s almost no real story here, certainly not a memorable one. And the settings, while often gorgeous, somehow lack personality too. Even the title sounds like something grabbed out of an Action Movie Screenwriter program.

So much money, so much charm, so much movie, and yet it adds up to so very little. “Red Notice” is as disposable a movie as you’ll see this year, something that most Netflix subscribers will have trouble remembering exists weeks later. It sets up a potential franchise in its final scenes (because of course it does)—let’s hope everyone involved forgets about that too.

In theaters tonight, November 4 th . On Netflix on November 12 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Red Notice (2021)

Rated PG-13 for violence and action, some sexual references, and strong language.

116 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley

Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth

Gal Gadot as Sarah Black

Ritu Arya as Inspector Urvashi Das

Chris Diamantopoulos as Sotto Voce

• Rawson Marshall Thurber
• Michael L. Sale
• Julian Clarke

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• Markus Förderer
• Steve Jablonsky

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A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice

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Table of Contents

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About The Book

About the author.

Bill Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Since 2009, when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses. Before founding Hermitage, Browder was vice president at Salomon Brothers. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 20, 2015)
• Length: 416 pages
• ISBN13: 9781476755748

Browse Related Books

• History > Russia & the Former Soviet Union
• Business & Economics > International > General
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Raves and Reviews

"Hard to put down . . . Red Notice is part John Grisham-like thriller, part business and political memoir."

– Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times

“Reads like a classic thriller, with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city . . . but it’s all true.”

– Lee Child, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

"The first half of Red Notice traces Browder’s improbable journey from prep-school washout through college, business school, and a series of consulting and Wall Street jobs before becoming Russia’s largest foreign investor....This book-within-a-book does for investing in Russia and the former Soviet Union what Liar’s Poker did for our understanding of Salomon Brothers, Wall Street, and the mortgage-backed securities business in the 1980s. Browder’s business saga meshes well with the story of corruption and murder in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, making Red Notice an early candidate for any list of the year’s best books."

– Norman Pearlstine, Fortune

"The story of Sergei Magnitsky's life and death is a shocking true-life thriller, and Bill Browder was the man to write it."

– Tom Stoppard

“In Red Notice , Bill Browder tells the harrowing and inspiring story of how his fight for justice in Russia made him an unlikely international human rights leader and Vladimir Putin's number-one enemy. It is the book for anyone interested in understanding the culture of corruption and impunity in Putin's Russia today, and Browder’s heroic example of how to fight back.”

– Senator John McCain

"This book reads like a thriller, but it's a true, important, and inspiring real story. Bill Browder is an amazing moral crusader, and his book is a must-read for anyone who seeks to understand Russia, Putin, or the challenges of doing business in the world today."

– Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators

"A fascinating and unexpected story."

– Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie

"Browder’s true story is a heart-in-your-throat page turner, and the only close-up look I know of what it’s like to take on Putin. It is also a moving account of a man who found his calling, and ended up winning in the end."

– Bryan Burrough, co-author of Barbarians at the Gate and author of Public Enemies and The Big Rich

"A fascinating, heart-stopping account of how to take on Putin--and win. It's exciting to read about Browder's roller-coaster ride to wealth in Russia, and to learn how his compassion for Sergei Magnitsky, his murdered lawyer, inspired his memorable struggle against the venal apparatchiks of a corrupt state. This is the gripping--and absolutely true--story behind the Magnitsky Law, a signal advance in human rights."

– Geoffrey Robertson, human rights lawyer and author of Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle For Global Justice

"This indispensable look at the brutal realities of the Putin regime is of even greater relevance thanks to Bill Browder’s unique expertise and personal experience inside the belly of the beast.”

– Garry Kasparov, Chess Grandmaster and author of How Life Imitates Chess

"Bill Browder has become one of the most sincerely hated men in the Kremlin over the years--and that is something to be incredibly proud of. . . . This book shows the difference that one person can make when they refuse to back down, as told by a fellow soldier in the battle to hold Putin to account."

– Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina, members of Pussy Riot

"Browder’s narrative lays out in vivid detail the often murky mechanisms of Russia’s kleptocratic economy, culminating in an engrossing account of what would surely be the heist of the century were it not so representative of business as usual. It’s also a chilling, sinister portrait of a society in which the rule of law has been destroyed by those sworn to enforce it. The result is an alternately harrowing and inspiring saga of appalling crime and undeserved punishment in the Wild East."

– Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An almost unbelievable tale . . . well-paced, heartfelt . . . It may be that ‘Russian stories never have happy endings,’ but Browder's account more than compensates by ferociously unmasking Putin's thugocracy.”

– Kirkus Reviews

"[Browder's] freewheeling, snappy book describes the meteoric rise, and disastrous fall, of a buccaneer capitalist who crossed the wrong people and paid a steep price. . . The high stakes make for a zesty tale."

– New York Times

“[A] riveting account of Browder’s journey through the early years of Russian capitalism….Begins as a bildungsroman and ends as Greek tragedy…. ‘Russian stories never have happy endings,’ Magnitsky tells Browder, in the book’s most memorable line. Perhaps not, but they do have inspiring ones.”

– The Washington Post

“A swashbuckling story that’s been justly compared with Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker .”

– Vulture.com

“In his new book, Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice, Bill Browder writes the way he talks—which is always a good strategy. His autobiography is bracing, direct and honest, with only a little less swearing than you encounter in person. It is both a political thriller and an argument for morality in foreign policy that he could never have expected to make when he began his roaring career in finance.”

– The Daily Beast

“Bill Browder, the unexpected hero and author of this suspenseful memoir, is no ordinary investment banker. . . . It is fascinating to follow him as he navigates the kleptocratic Russian economy. . . Most of the story is about finance, revolving around things like valuation anomalies and share dilutions, and all of it comes surprisingly alive."

– Boston Globe

"I don’t know anything about investment banking except what Browder has taught me in Red Notice , yet as a reader I was fully engaged by the book’s monumental presentation of the risks, rewards, and personal and financial dangers of doing business in Russia....An unusually affecting book...What Browder says he intends to do now is to 'carry on creating a legacy for Sergei [Magnitsky] and pursuing justice for his family.' A book as resounding as Red Notice may be a step in that direction."

– Christian Science Monitor

"It's a riveting account--and really, how could it not be?...Engrossing."

– The New York Times Book Review

“An impassioned personal broadside against the Kremlin.”

– Financial Times

“A jaw-dropping account.”

– The Bookseller (UK)

“A sizzling account of Mr. Browder’s rise, fall and metamorphosis from bombastic financier to renowned human-rights activist."

– The Economist (UK)

"Rattling through the high-finance world of New York and London, and then on to the seedier side of life in Moscow, Red Notice sometimes stretches credulity. But just as Browder really is a hedge fund manager turned human rights activist, so this story of courage combined with a dash of obsessiveness is about the real here and now. . . . He reminds us that heroism sometimes lies in unlikely places. Browder deserves our respect."

– The Independent (UK)

“An unrelenting parable of how Russia’s rulers cheat and harm their citizens…a very Russian tale, as well as an important one.”

– The Spectator (UK)

“A fascinating exposé.”

– The Guardian (UK)

"A tale that makes the dirty dealings of House of Cards look like Snow White."

– The Toronto Star

“The financial thriller book category just met its match.”

– Pensions and Investments

“Riveting…Browder’s story of investing bravado turns into a thriller as compelling as any John le Carré spy novel.”

– Institutional Investor

“A scathing indictment of Putin’s brutal kleptocracy.”

– Value Walk

“A gripping read…fascinating.”

– Management Times (UK)

“Fast-paced… It is a story worth reading for anyone interested in Russia, but also for those contemplating business or life opportunities in regions where Western ethics do not apply.”

– Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Browder's book is, to my knowledge, the first unveiling of the intrinsically mafia-like nature of Putinism in all its breathtaking scope and horror.”

– The Huffington Post

“Red Notice is a dramatic, moving and thriller-like account of how Magnitsky’s death transformed Browder from hedge-fund manager to global human rights crusader.”

– The Guardian (US edition)

"Read this book in two days. Could not put it down.”

– Marney Rich Keenan, The Detroit News

"A frightening account of corruption and murder and deceit at the highest levels. . . . A fascinating report that reads more like a mystery thriller."

– Boston Herald

Awards and Honors

• Heather's Pick - Fiction

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Tracking Abortion Bans Across the Country

By The New York Times Updated May 1, 4:40 P.M. ET

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Twenty-one states ban abortion or restrict the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade, which governed reproductive rights for nearly half a century until the Supreme Court overturned the decision in 2022.

In some states, the fight over abortion access is still taking place in courtrooms, where advocates have sued to block bans and restrictions. Other states have moved to expand access to abortion by adding legal protections.

Latest updates

• The Arizona state legislature voted to repeal an 1864 ban on nearly all abortions. Officials warned that the near-total ban may be briefly enforceable this summer until the repeal takes effect in the fall. A 15-week ban remains in effect.
• A ban on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy took effect in Florida , following a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that the privacy protections of the state’s Constitution do not extend to abortion.

The New York Times is tracking abortion laws in each state after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , which ended the constitutional right to an abortion.

Where abortion is legal

In a few states that have enacted bans or restrictions, abortion remains legal for now as courts determine whether these laws can take effect. Abortion is legal in the rest of the country, and many states have added new protections since Dobbs.

Ban in effect

Note: TK note here.

Legal for now

State details.

More details on the current status of abortion in each state are below.

An earlier version of this article misstated the legal status of abortion in Utah. As of 4 p.m. on June 24, the state attorney general had issued a statement saying the state’s abortion ban had been triggered, but it had not yet been authorized by the legislature’s general counsel. By 8:30 p.m., the counsel authorized the ban and it went into effect.

A table in an earlier version of this article misstated which abortion ban is being challenged in Texas state court. Abortion rights supporters are challenging a pre-Roe ban, not the state’s trigger ban.

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the legal status of abortion in Indiana. While Indiana abortion providers stopped offering abortion services in anticipation of an abortion ban taking effect on Aug. 1, the law did not take effect.