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

Bill Browder

Feb 2015 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Freezing Order, the follow-up to Red Notice, is available now! “[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).

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

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.

Ratings and reviews

Great book hard to put down , have to remind yourself this nonfiction. Hopefully the abuse in Russia will end with Putin one day need their own operation Valkyrie and for it to successful one can wish I guess .

Reads like a thriller, complete with diamond magnates! Could not put it down (or rather couldn't stop listening to the audio book narrated by the author). Bill Browder has seen the sordid underbelly of the New Russia as few have. While he ventures to Russia out of purely capitalistic motives, his push for basic corporate governance soon makes him the enemy of Putin cronies that were rising to power at the time. With his own life in danger -- keep in mind the events described here occur before Putin starts ordering the death of his detractors abroad such Litvinenko and Skripal -- Browder carries forward the memory of Sergey Magnitsky, the real hero of the story whose courage and grit are something few of us would display in similar circumstances.

Bill Browder gives a comprehensive account of his journey to becoming a success in Russia, and then the Russian government's role in stealing a significant portion of the fruits of that success. This riveting story of how the corrupt Russian government systematically lied on and pursued the people whose businesses they stole and unmercifully imprisoned, tortured, and murdered Sergei Magnitsky will keep you on the edge of your seat. The pure evil is shameful...

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.