Freezing Order

Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
By Bill Browder
Published in April 2022
336 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5

This book is a fast paced action packed account of how the author, Bill Browder, exposed a massive Russian state backed money laundering network. I listened to the audiobook, which is masterfully read by Adam Grupper - one of the most pleasant audiobooks I have heard in awhile.

Bill Browder is a creep with bad physiognomy. Google him, and find a picture of him. He is your stereotypical spooky fund manager. I’ve met a lot of guys who look like him at finance conferences in Zurich and Washington DC, and that kind of person is always bad juju.

The truth about Bill Browder’s story depends on who you trust. These facts are uncontested: he founded Hermitage Capital Management in 1996. Hermitage went into Russia right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and participated in the privatization of Russian state assets. The investments wildly succeeded, seeing a 2500% plus return on investment.

If you believe Browder, he invested in Gazprom. Russian mobsters worked with crooked cops to forge documents, and stole 10% of Hermitage’s assets. If you believe the Russians, Browder worked with corrupt officials to steal his own assets.

Obviously Browder paints a good picture of himself and a very sinister picture of Russia. He describes himself as an “activist investor,” trying to stomp corruption out of the companies where he invested. I don’t know the details, but in my own career, I have seen other people describe themselves as “activist investors.” Often, they are pro-socialism and pro-imperialism investors who complain about “diversity” or “climate change,” then use those causes to bully people. Once again, I do not know the details of Browder’s investments - but am suspicious of people who use that language.

Russia responds to Browder’s investments violently. They first expelled Browder from Russia. Then they slowly start jailing, arresting, and intimidating his associates. Sergei Magnitsky is imprisoned, then tortured to death. Boris Nemtsov is murdered. One of Browder’s friends was poisoned, and survived with life changing injuries. Another was thrown off a roof by mobsters or spies posing as construction workers, and slowly and painfully died from his injuries.

I personally know people who have been tortured by the Russian government. I know people who participated in anti-Putin protests, and had to endure absolutely horrible treatment at the hands of police. I also know people associated with the band Pussy Riot, who also had horrible things happen to them. I have no doubts that the mistreatment by Russian officials that Browder describes are completely real, and unexaggerated.

The Russians also harass Browder in many other ways. They put out false interpol arrest warrants, which get him detained at the Geneva airport and later in a hotel in Spain. They hired the corrupt American lawyer John Moscow to gain Browder’s trust, obtain secret information, then betray him. They hired private investigators to disrupt him while he was skiing in Colorado with his family.

Browder also admits to using dirty tricks, although his dirty tricks are far less dirty. He dodges subpoena servers, which is illegal in the United States. He also uses defamation lawyers to censor his opponent’s movie, and prevent it from getting screened.

Browder denies that he is a US intelligence asset. I am sure that he is, but do not have any proof or evidence. You rarely can get into the mind of the hedge fund managers pillaging countries on behalf of US intelligence agencies. This autobiography is absolutely fascinating, and I recommend it highly.

Finally, I want to end on a final note. Many people have a retarded “our team” versus “their team” worldview. I know people who correctly mistrust the US government, which has a very bad recent track record of truth telling, but instead blindly believe Russian propaganda that they see on RT and Telegram. I also know people, including many Russian exiles, who distrust Putin’s government, but believe everything that they see on CNN and in the New York Times.

The reality is that we live in a world where good and moral governments are rare - usually confined to places like Singapore and Switzerland. Most governments are imperial states, which collude with private finance, to violently crush all opposition. The reader should see this as not just a cautionary tale about Russia, but a cautionary tale about what happens to enemies of the state in general.

This is a fantastic book, and I recommend it highly.

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