Bill Browder says Putin, some Russian oligarchs stole $1 trillion

Bill Browder, a political activist and former hedge fund manager, said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and some Russian oligarchs have stolen a lot of money from the people of Russia.

Browder said at a Manhattan event in celebration of the publication of his book Freezing Order that Putin and Russian oligarchs stole at least $1 trillion from the people after the Soviet Union fell.

According to Yahoo News, Browder said that money was supposed to be spent on health care and education, roads and services.

Everyone tries to think about Russia as a sovereign state and Putin as a leader acting in national interest, he told Yahoo News.

People don't go into government to serve the country. They go into government to steal money. Bill is the grandson of American communist leader Earl Browder and made billions through Hermitage Capital Management in 1996. The former hedge fund manager was once the largest foreign investor in Russia before he turned into a Putin critic.

He was a thorn in the Russian president's side after his attempts to expose the corruption in Russia in his book Freezing Order. Browder's attorney Sergei Magnitsky helped him uncover a multi-million dollar tax fraud scheme that involved Russian officials and Putin. Magnitsky was later accused of fraud by the Kremlin and tortured and killed in 2009.

Magnitsky's name was affixed in a number of bills passed by the U.S. Congress, including The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which punishes those who commit human rights abuses.

Browder said that he realized how far Putin was willing to go to pursue people Russia perceives as enemies of the state. Browden is an investor and a human rights campaigner, besides being a Putin critic.

Browder's second book was published nearly a week after he testified in Washington during a hearing on the Enablers Act. The bill would tighten the rules around money laundering.