November | 2013 | Criminal Cartels Blog

Foreign Ministry of Belarus has indicated that the extradition of Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner from Belarus to Russia is soon to be completed.

Uladzimir Makei, Belarusian Foreign Minister, is reported to have confirmed during a press conference in Moscow that he was “confident the problem will soon be solved completely in a lawful manner.” He added that he was unable to give the precise date of the extradition, but that to his knowledge only a “few minor things are left to be done.” Makei noted he had agreed with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that “private issues” would not have a negative impact on the co-operation between the two countries. Mr Makei’s announcement comes after the Belarusian Prosecutor General, Alexander Konyuk, confirmed on 14^th November 2013 that there were no obstacles to the extradition, although he emphasised that Uralkali’s CEO faced similar charges in Moscow to the ones he faced in Minsk.

As mentioned in a previous blog on 17^th October 2013, Baumgertner is currently under house arrest in Minsk on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power. His arrest in August 2013 came in the wake of Uralkali’s decision to withdraw from a cartel with Belarusian potash producer, Belaruskali, leading to a collapse in prices. Together the two companies controlled approximately forty per cent of global potash exports. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko made clear his strong opposition to the termination of co-operation between the two companies. Potash, a soil nutrient, provides twelve per cent of the state revenue of Belarus and ten per cent of its export income.

On 4^th November 2013, the US Senate unanimously passed legislation to extend whistleblower protection for employees providing information to the Department of Justice relating to criminal antitrust violations.

The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act was jointly introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat, Vermont) and Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican, Iowa), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senators were the authors of previous whistleblower provisions within the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in the aftermath of the collapse of Enron. Senator Grassley was reported as commenting that “Too often whistleblowers who risk their careers to expose waste, fraud and abuse are treated like second-class citizens.”

The recent Bill was based on a report released in July 2011 by the US Government Accountability Office. It adds a civil remedy for those who have been fired, or otherwise discriminated against, after blowing the whistle on criminal antitrust activity. Employees who believe they are victims of retaliation may file complaints with the Secretary of Labor. The new Act provides for those employees to be reinstated to their former status if the Secretary of Labor finds in their favor. Senator Leahy commented that “The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act does not provide employees with an economic incentive to report violations. The legislation simply makes whole employees who have been fired or discriminated against for blowing the whistle on criminal conduct.” Critics of the measure have pointed to the absence of an economic incentive as an obstacle to the effectiveness of the legislation.

Commentators have pointed to the case of Marty McNulty as exemplifying the kind of injustice that Leahy and Grassley’s Bill is intended to eliminate. In 2005, McNulty claimed to have discovered that his employer, Arctic Glacier International, had agreed with Home City Ice to keep the prices of its packaged ice artificially high. He repeated the allegation to the FBI. Both companies were ordered to pay $9 million in fines. McNulty was fired and claimed to have been blackballed within the industry. Supporters of the new measure point out that McNulty would have both kept his job and been able to claim for damages suffered in the process.