In his New York Times best-selling Red Notice, Browder chronicled his founding of Hermitage Capital Management in post-communist Russia and the 2009 murder of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison in 2009 after uncovering a $230 million fraud traceable to the Russian government. His new book explains how that fraud benefited Putin directly and how Putin has retaliated when Browder tried to make him accountable. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Browder (Red Notice), an American-born British subject known for his indefatigable struggle with the Putin regime in pursuit of justice for his murdered anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, brings to this book a deep familiarity with all aspects of Russian politics, money laundering, and its deadly criminality. Browder, who founded Hermitage Capital Management, the largest foreign investor in Russia, was "indicted" in Russia on a bogus charge of stealing 230 million in taxes siphoned off by Dmitry Klyuev's crime organization. He sought to expose the money's destination and the criminal enterprise "Prevezon." This account begins with Browder's illegal arrest in Spain, ending with the exposure of massive money laundering in Scandinavian banks. Putin fails to have the Trump administration exchange Browder and his colleagues for convicted Russian intelligence operatives in Russia. The title comes from the key tool of freezing Western assets purchased by laundered money. The complexity is highlighted by Browder's determined Russian allies, the opposing craven cadre of Western "enablers," the importance of imaginative attorneys, and the sheer luck of such events as exposing the infamous "Panama Papers." VERDICT Highly recommended fast paced, quality drama exposing the realities of official Russian criminality.—Zachary Irwin

Financier and political activist Browder returns with a riveting follow-up to his bestseller Red Notice, which recounted how his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was "taken hostage by corrupt Russian officials and ultimately killed in jail" for exposing a $230 million tax fraud scheme. Through impressive financial sleuthing and with the help of a Barron's reporter, a Russian whistleblower (who was later poisoned), an East European watchdog, and others, Browder—who managed a hedge fund in Russia worth $4.5 billion from 1996 until 2005, when Putin expelled him as a threat to national security—traces the dirty money trail from bank accounts in the Baltics and Cyprus to posh real estate in Manhattan. His goal is to persuade European and American political leaders and bank chiefs to freeze Russian assets and to adopt measures like the 2016 Magnitsky Act, but as his successes mount, so does Russian pushback. Browder documents threatening encounters with lawyers, mobsters, and intelligence agents; the Kremlin disinformation campaign that accused him of stealing the $230 million; and his hiring of bodyguards and wielding of social media to protect himself and his family. Though some of the financial and legal matters are hard to grasp, this is an eye-opening exposé of the lengths Putin's cronies will go to hide their crimes and punish their accusers. (Apr.)