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On September 10, 2013, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, together with other law enforcement officials, announced the filing of a civil forfeiture complaint against the assets of nine corporations controlling real estate in Manhattan, including four luxury residential units and two high-end commercial properties, as well as against the assets of two related companies. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks the imposition of civil money laundering penalties. It alleges that these corporations laundered a portion of the proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax refund fraud scheme involving corrupt Russian officials that was uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in pre-trial detention in Moscow under suspicious circumstances.[1]