ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Magnitsky Act

Okay, imagine you have a bunch of toys. Some of them belong to your friends, but you take them anyway and say they're yours. That's not fair, is it? Well, some grown-up people do something similar with money. They take money that belongs to other people, usually from their own country, and they hide it somewhere else so nobody can find it. This is called "stealing."

So, the Magnitsky Act is a law that was made in the United States to punish people who steal money from their own country and hide it somewhere else. The law is named after a man named Sergei Magnitsky who was a lawyer in Russia. Sergei found out that some people who worked for the Russian government were taking money that belonged to the Russian people and hiding it in other countries. He told the police about it, but instead of the police punishing the people who did this, they punished Sergei! They put him in jail and didn't give him enough food or medical help, and he died there.

After Sergei died, his friend named Bill Browder told people all over the world what happened to Sergei and how unfair it was. Bill Browder also found out who the people were that stole the money and hid it in other countries. He asked the United States to make a law that punishes the people who did this. The United States agreed, and they made the Magnitsky Act.

The Magnitsky Act stops the people who did bad things from coming to the United States or doing any business with the United States. This makes it harder for them to hide their stolen money because they can't use it to buy things or go places in the United States. The law also punishes the people who did nothing to help Sergei Magnitsky when he was in trouble, like the police officers who put him in jail.

So, in summary, the Magnitsky Act is a law made in the United States to punish people who steal money from their own country and hide it in other countries. The law is named after a man named Sergei Magnitsky who died in jail after he reported that some people who worked for the Russian government were stealing money from their own country. The law makes it harder for the people who did bad things to go to the United States or do any business with the United States.