MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI) - Defense of Hermitage Capital's head William Browder appealed the 9 year tax evasion sentence imposed by the Tverskoi District Court of Moscow, attorney Kirill Goncharov told RAPSI.

The Tverskoi District Curt in Moscow last week found Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder guilty of tax evasion and sentenced him in absentia to nine years in a low security correctional prison. Hermitage Capital maintains that it paid 5.4 billion rubles ($180 million) in taxes, but the money was stolen by corporate raiders with the help of law enforcement officials.

Hermitage's auditor Sergei Magnitsky, who died in pretrial detention in Moscow in 2009, was prosecuted for this theft. The case was closed after his death, only to be reopened later. Under Russian law, a person can be prosecuted after their death. On July 11 he was found guilty of tax evasion.