Soon thereafter he got into a scrape with Andrei Kazmin, president of state-owned Sberbank, over a dilutive share issue. Although the offer proceeded, regulators banned such deals in the future.
Now Browder has launched a flanking attack on the former managers of Russia’s biggest company, Gazprom, in the form of a frontal attack on the oil-and-gas goliath’s auditor, accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Hermitage has filed suit in Moscow’s Commercial Court, accusing PwC of releasing false and misleading audits of Gazprom, and the investment firm has asked the Russian Ministry of Finance to suspend PwC’s license.
“The former management of Gazprom was embarked upon a stealing orgy of unparalleled proportions,” declares Browder. The company’s managers were fired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Under pressure from Hermitage and other shareholders, Gazprom was forced to conduct a forensic audit of its accounts last June. The auditor selected to review PwC’s work? PwC.
What does Browder think of the 150-page review? “It is a whitewash,” he says.
For its part, PwC states, “Our work met all applicable legal and professional standards, and we shall be defending the claims vigorously.” Troops are massing at the borders.
