A significant step forward in the global fight against corruption

The day after a public inquiry in London opened into the highly suspicious death of Alexander Litvinenko, a fugitive officer of the Russian secret service, U.S. senators took a significant step forward in the global fight against corruption.

A new bipartisan bill introduced on 28 January 2015 by Senators Ben Cardin and John McCain, gives the U.S. government the power to impose sanctions in the U.S. on foreign nationals responsible for corruption and other human rights abuses in foreign jurisdictions.  Sanctions would include withholding visas to the U.S. and freezing U.S-based assets.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer and father of two, who died in prison in Russia after blowing the whistle on an alleged 2005 large-scale tax fraud committed by corrupt Russian officials.  He was imprisoned for almost a year and, after being denied medical care, died in an isolation cell in 2009.

Proposed new U.S. bill aims to punish government officials responsible for corruption worldwide