MOSCOW, April 17 (RAPSI) – Former Interior Ministry investigator Pavel Karpov is ready to file a defamation suit against William Browder and Jamieson Firestone and their companies Hermitage Capital Management Limited and Management UK Limited, Izvestia newspaper writes.

Karpov claims that Browder and Firestone have been working for the past few years to ruin his honor, dignity and business reputation.

“They have accused me publicly on many occasions of committing serious crimes, posted incriminating videos on the Internet, and also made these allegations in their interviews with media outlets,” Karpov said. “The fact that I was put on the Magnitsky List amounts to a serious crime charge.”

The former investigator said these campaigns led to sanctions against him. Karpov intends to file a suit with a Russian court to prove that he is innocent and also to demand moral damages from Browder and Firestone. He did not name a sum, but said it would make the defendants happy.

Sergei Magnitsky was an auditor at the Moscow law firm Firestone Duncan and represented the investment advisory firm Hermitage Capital Management, which was accused of tax evasion and tax fraud by the Russian Interior Ministry. He was arrested on fraud charges in November 2008 and was found dead in his Moscow cell in November 2009.

Following a public campaign for justice in Magnitsky’s case, President Obama signed The Magnitsky Act in December 2012. The act bans Russian officials thought to be connected with the lawyer’s death from entering the US, as well as freezing their US-based assets.

Karpov, who is No. 4 on the list, was implicated by Magnitsky in embezzling government funds and is allegedly tied to organized crime. Karpov says he is innocent.