MOSCOW, January 15 (RAPSI) – The Russian Interior Ministry believes that Hermitage Capital, which employed the late Sergei Magnitsky, is trying to discredit the Russian law enforcement authorities, the ministry announced on Wednesday.

Prior to this, several media outlets published a statement citing the Hermitage Capital’s press office and reading that Magnitsky has been named a suspect in a criminal case involving the embezzlement of 5.4 billion rubles (over $162 million).

“The investigation sees the Hermitage Capital statements published by the media as a fresh attempt to discredit the actions of Russian law enforcement agencies,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, Russian investigators are working to determine “the mechanism of financial operations and other transactions with the monies embezzled in 2007 and 2008 and the group of individuals involved in their laundering.”

“The investigators’ efforts to establish the truth have worried certain individuals concerned and they have issued false statements to the media in an attempt to cast a negative shadow over the investigation and put its results in question. In particular, the media allegations that the complaints filed by Sergei Magnitsky’s family with the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee have been ignored are untrue,” the ministry said.

Hermitage Capital auditor Magnitsky was arrested for tax evasion and died in a Moscow pretrial facility in November 2009.