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Hermitage was about to become victim of what is known in Russia as corporate raiding, or seizing companies and other assets with the aid of corrupt law enforcement officials and judges. The phenomenon has flourished under Mr. Putin.
In the weeks after the police seized the corporate documents, someone used them to transfer the ownership of three of Hermitage’s holding companies to an entity based in Kazan, a provincial capital 450 miles east of Moscow. The entity’s registered owner was a man with a murder conviction, records show.