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Russian tycoon targeted again
By Washington Post
Published February 6, 2007
MOSCOW - Russian prosecutors have leveled new charges against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and one of his partners, accusing the fallen businessmen of money laundering and embezzlement in the theft of $20-billion from Yukos, the oil company they ran. Khodorkovsky called the charges "insane and absurd," according to one of his foreign attorneys, Robert Amsterdam. In a conference call with reporters, Amsterdam said the charges are an attempt to keep Khodorkovsky in prison through presidential elections in early 2008 and legitimize the state's seizure of Yukos' remaining assets. The defendants, already serving eight-year terms, pleaded not guilty at a hearing Monday in Siberia. If convicted, they could be sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison. Khodorkovsky and his partner, Platon Lebedev, would be eligible for parole in October. The very slim chance that they might have been released has now vanished, Amsterdam said. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office confirmed the charges in a brief statement Monday, but provided no details on the case except to say the alleged financial crimes were "large-scale." Yukos was forced into bankruptcy and its assets are being sold off to pay creditors and billions of dollars in back taxes. The state-controlled oil company Rosneft snapped up Yukos' richest oil fields. Khodorkovsky's defenders say he was targeted because of his political activity, particularly his funding of opposition groups that challenged the policies of President Vladimir Putin, who is in a second term and ineligible for re-election. According to press reports in Moscow, the new case relates to the alleged sale of oil at below-market prices between subsidiaries of Yukos in 2000-03. Prosecutors apparently allege that billions of dollars in undeclared profits were shifted through these transactions to offshore accounts before being redistributed to other parties.
[Last modified February 6, 2007, 01:33:25]
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