Bill Browder

Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour.

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

Red Notice

Patrick Book

This is remarkably fascinating stuff! Browder does a relatively good job of acknowledging and accepting that he is an evil, predatory capitalist who is culpable for the death of his lawyer. He does a lesser job of acknowledging that his actions seem to have helped Putin consolidate and increase his power, but I guess none of us is perfect.

Andrew John Kinney

If you haven't been paying attention to Putin's systematic intimidation and not infrequent execution of his opponents, this book will make you sit up and take notice. It is a page-turner of a non-fiction book that reads like a fast-paced novel. It is also an interesting primer about how privatization of state industries was massively bolloxed up in the Yeltsin era, resulting in the current government-by-oligarchs with Putin as the master of all. But mostly, it explains how Russia is today under Putin, and it is above all, a country without rule of law. It is the old Soviet Union, but with leaders who are among the richest men in the world, all of whom are interested only in protecting their wealth, and Putin is, as far as can be estimated, the world's richest man. He is also utterly without conscience, and a killer - in a word, he is evil beyond words.

Bill Browder tells the story of his time in Russia and after like a top-flight fiction writer, except this is a true story which offers a truly valuable window into Putin's Russia. Having read this book, I am much more concerned than previously that Putin has some sort of influence over Trump, either via Kompromat, or by virtue of loans made to bail out Trump. We shall see. Given the political situation in the US, this book should be required reading.

March 2022 update - it is very satisfying to see what is happening to Putin just now, as the GDP of his country gets reduced from its 2021 level at somewhat less than Italy's to unknown depths yet to be achieved. And Putin becomes much less rich, presumably, though the Ukrainians and the Russian people will have to suffer as he is taken down a notch. The world can only hope he gives himself a stroke soon.

From hedge fund manager to human rights activist, Bill Browder has done much. After reading this, I can't say he was a great man, but I can say that after Magnitsky's death, he changed for the better. He made mistakes but has worked hard to bring the oligarchs who had Magnitsky killed brought to justice; even if he couldn't get that done in Russia, he was able to sanction a Passport ban on them, which is a light punishment, in my opinion, but is at least some form of justice. Magnitsky isn't the only one who suffered at the hands of the Russian elite, there are many more, but this is a start. I hope that through Bill's efforts, changes can be made, although it doesn't seem likely. I believe that Russia is a land that has so much potential, but after years of leaders abusing that potential and power, it has fallen so deep, it will be extremely difficult to ever become a destination people will want to live in. For Russia to change, it needs to be changed from within by people such as Magnitsky, who believe in their land and that it can change. Overall, I'd say this book is worth the read.

Frank Enns

Róbert Istók

Was I actually reading a thriller based on real-life events? That can't be that case, this story is too absurd to be true.

But it became clear quite soon that this is not fiction. This story has happened, and it's one of the many human rights abuse stories happening daily in Russia.

I always knew something is off with Russian politics, but never really understood just how messed up the whole system is. Ignorance is bliss, right?

If you are in a similar situation and fancy a fascinating and terrifying read, look no further.

Vivek Chand

Fabulous gripping read of a real and tragic story. Exposes the sordid truth about the Government and the corruption. You feel the emotion of the story.

Cindy Lieberman

Read this book to help keep Bill Browder alive. His journey from a brash, money-hungry trader to a human rights advocate had him playing Russians for fools in the early years of privatization and, no surprise, the Russians retaliating by punishing his business. When the secret police turned their attentions to Browder and his associates, things got very difficult, especially for those without the luxury of a British passport.

Jason Long

Wow. Just wow. 

This book deserves five stars on so many levels. The story is more gripping than most fiction and the Audible narrator is superb. Like many, I was aware of Russia’s reputations for corruption in the abstract, but it was jaw-dropping to hear how purely evil and deep it runs. Not until the end, do you get a sense of how brave the author is for publishing this story. It also brushes up against the 2016 US election enough to fill in a little of the collusion gray area.

Artas Bartas

As a political science graduate who wrote his Master thesis on the Russian foreign policy, I have read a fair share of books, memoirs, and academic papers on the post-Soviet Russia. The image of the country that emerges from this literature is bleak and depressing: a long tale of squandered opportunities, failed policies, and pointless human sacrifice perpetrated by callous bureaucrats and cartoonish oligarchs. 

To this day, I'm reluctant to pick up another book about Russia fearing a gloomy spectacle it will unveil, which is why I consistently avoided Bill Browder's memoir until now. What broke my resolve was hearing Browder talk about the book on a podcast. Browder came across as a very eloquent speaker, capable of explaining complex topics in a way that anyone - from a supermarket cashier to a bearded Millennial - would understand. 

But it was his personal story that intrigued me. His grandfather Earl Browder was the leader of the Communist party in the US. His grandmother was a Jewish emigre from war-torn Europe. His father and brothers are mathematical geniuses with distinguished academic careers. Sent off to a boarding school at a young age, he has gone through tumultuous teenage years. And after all this, he became the biggest foreign investor in Russia? I had to know more!

The memoir covers three distinct periods in Browder's life. In his early years (1989-1996), he is bouncing between jobs in the City as he slowly discovers an appetite for investing in Russia. From 1996 to 2005, he is running a super successful hedge fund in Russia, a role that turns him into a shrewd observer and a celebrated investor. Finally, after 2005, Browder finds himself exiled from Russia, leading a proxy war against corrupt insiders raiding his business. That is where the story of financial triumph turns tragic, for the standoff with corrupt cops ultimately leads to the murder of his business associate Sergey Magnitsky.

In the classical Greek tragedy, a hero rises to fame and fortune before committing a fatal error leading to his downfall. Browder's life closely resembles this story arc: through his perseverance, he raises $25M to establish the first foreign hedge fund in Russia; through his grit and ingenuity, he grows this investment into a $4B fund; and through his obstinance, he sets off a chain of the events that leads to Magnitsky's death.

Where Red Notice departs from the classical story arc is in Browder's reaction to this tragedy. Rather than retreat and admit a defeat, he becomes a political activist and lobbies Western governments to pass the Magnitsky Act, an anti-corruption legislation targeting officials implicated in the death of Sergey Magnitsky. After numerous false starts, he succeeds, causing great indignation among the Russian elites. 

The truly surprising thing is that this story told in such an engaging way. A few reviewers have mentioned that the book is hard to put down and this was my experience as well. Red Notice features a colorful cast of characters: whizz analysts, valiant lawyers, disgruntled employees as well as corrupt cops, arrogant aristocrats, and thuggish oligarchs, not to mention two femmes fatales. And the action moves at a fast pace and across many locations, suffusing this memoir with the atmosphere of a thriller.

"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"--Amazon.com.

Red Notice A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice

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