The International Herald Tribune, 1 July 2008

Russian prosecutors have brought new charges against the jailed former oil businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his legal team said Monday.

The lawyers said they had yet to establish what the new charges were but believed they were a version of money laundering charges prosecutors have been preparing for more than a year.

Khodorkovsky, who controlled the now-dismantled Russian oil company Yukos,
has served just more than half of an eight-year prison term on fraud and tax evasion charges.

The new charges were presented Monday, his defense team said in a statement posted on its Web site. Prosecutors said they could not comment immediately .

Khodorkovsky has maintained his innocence and said the charges against him were fabricated as punishment for challenging the Kremlin. Russian officials say he is a criminal who received a fair trial.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers said they believed the new charges were a recycled version of those existing money laundering charges.

They said they believed pressing new charges was a device by prosecutors to play for time.

The lawyers' statement said, ''The defense can find no explanation other than the lack of certainty among the prosecutors and - taking into account changes that have happened at the top of the government - its desire to play for time, in the hope of receiving new instructions and confirmation of support from the top.''

The Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, took office in early May and has promised to improve legal standards. Medvedev has yet to give any indication of his views on the Khodorkovsky case.

Yukos was presented with huge tax bills and was split up in state-ordered auctions. Most of the firm's assets have been absorbed into the Russian state-controlled oil firm Rosneft.

One of Khodorkovsky's lawyers, Robert Amsterdam, said the new charges were without foundation.

''The Russians have a problem, as the charges, as in earlier proceedings, are on the face of it absurd,'' he said in an interview.

''This buys them time, and while we have not completed a review of the charges, they seem similar, if not identical. This is an entirely political case and it can only be resolved at a political level,'' he said.

Kommersant, by Ekaterina Zapodinskaya, 1 July 2008

Yesterday Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were charged with a theft of some 350 mln tons of oil and laundering 487 bln roubles and $7.5. You can hardly render this accusation new: Compared with the previous version, only stylistic inaccuracy has been improved, and some of the paragraphs have been swapped. The lawyers of those accused do not rule it out that the investigators decided to protract the process to demonstrate their activity while waiting for a political decision regarding Mr Khodorkovsky's fate.

Yesterday Russian Prosecutor General's Office investigators Mr Ibiev and Ms Shapovalova handed over a 145-page order to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, which reads that they are accused of a theft and laundering money. It's a new version of the charge that was brought against them in February, 2007. At that time the paper was signed by a reputed investigator Salavat Karimov. Now Valery Alyshev, investigator with the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, put his signature on the document.

According to the renewed version, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev illegally acquired stocks of the Apatit JSC in 1994-1996 (which was mentioned in the first case - Kommersant) and then kept on with their criminal activity. In particular, they gave their subordinates orders to draft fake agreements on an exchange between the VNK JSC and four Cyprus companies, which were under their control. As a result, 38% of the VNK stocks (36.2 bln roubles) was exchanged for 37 mln Yukos stocks (222 mln roubles). This deal was assessed by the investigators as a theft of 38% of the VNK stocks - a state-owned company.

Then, according to Mr Alyshev, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev transferred the 38% of the VNK stocks to Yukos by means of carrying out illegal bill operations. Their next step was operations with non-liquid bills, which resulted in giving the right of ownership of 52% Yukos’ stocks to Yukos Universal Ltd registered on the Isle of Man and Hulley Enterprises Ltd registered on Cyprus. The two off-shore companies were under control of Group Menatep Ltd, which was set up in Gibraltar by a group of natural persons headed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

After it Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev stole 349.3 mln tons of oil from 1998-2004. To this end, they allegedly organized concluding agreements between Yukos and its affiliates Yuganskneftegaz JSC and Samaraneftegaz JSC in 1996. In 1998 a similar agreement was signed with the Tomskneft VNK JSC. The agreements provided for giving the right of ownership of their production to Yukos as soon as the oil was extracted from the wells. It was not beneficial to the affiliates, in the view of the investigators. The agreements were fake because Yukos was not the buyer of the oil - the production was delivered to other affiliate companies as well as Russian and overseas consumers. The price Yukos bought the oil at was set by the members of the group headed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, and it was 2-4 times lower than the market one. Stealing the oil, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev sold it at market prices making 487.4 bln roubles and $7.5, and laundered it via off-shores.

Mr Khodorkovsky's lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, told Kommersant that the accusations brought by Salavat Karimov and Valery Alyshev do not differ that much. "The volume and legal qualification are practically the same. Only some paragraphs have been swapped, and the language improved." According to Mr Klyuvgant, the defense has two basic suppositions: The investigators have decided to procrastinate while waiting for a political decision, or Khodorkovsky's opponents just demonstrate their activity.

It need be reminded that Russian President's political decision will determine the fate of Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev. As he addressed the European Parliament, Dmitry Medvedev said on June 5, "Any convict, Khodorkovsky included, can seek a pardon."

Mr Klyuvgant told us that after studying the charge Mikhail Khodorkovsky wrote that it was unintelligible to him, and he woldn't admit his guilt. Platon Lebedev's lawyer Yelena Liptser told Kommersant that her client called the charge absurd.

Yesterday Kommersant interviewed Yukos’ former staff, who believe that the new charge is the prosecution's another attempt to prevent those charged from studying the 140-volume case (which has lasted for a year already) and to add new evidence to it. In particular, it concerns interrogation protocols of Yukos managers who stayed abroad and have recently returned to Russia. Kommersant sources with the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed this version saying that Mikhail Dodonov (ex- business manager of Rosprom and Yukos, and godfather of one of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's children), Oleg Sheyko (former Yukos vice-president) and Sergey Gorkov (former Yukos -Moscow vice-president) have been interrogated in connection with the Khodorkovsky case.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were told that they'll be once more interrogated, too. In an answer to the lawyers' question, what kind of interrogation it is going to be, the investigators answered that they haven't got any order from Moscow yet. According to Russia's Penal Code, those charged must resume studying the case before July 8, because on August 8 the 18-month term provided for detaining Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev expires, and they must have a month at least to study the materials.

The Washington Post, by Peter Finn, 1 July 2008

Russian prosecutors have leveled fresh charges against the imprisoned tycoon and Kremlin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his lawyers said Monday.

Khodorkovsky, who is serving an eight-year sentence in a Siberian prison camp for fraud and tax evasion, has been the subject of an additional investigation for at least a year on allegations of money laundering while he was head of Yukos Oil Co. The company was dismantled in a series of auctions organized by the state, with many prime assets absorbed by the state-controlled oil company Rosneft.

The new case, which could significantly extend Khodorkovsky's time in prison, comes as Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, has spoken repeatedly about the need to establish the rule of law in Russia.

For his supporters here, and many people in the West, Khodorkovsky's case symbolized the Kremlin's absolute control of the courts and its ability to use the judicial system to punish enemies of Vladimir Putin, who was president during the prosecution and became prime minister earlier this year.

One of Khodorkovsky's attorneys, Yuri Schmidt, said in a recent interview that the treatment of his client will be an early test of Medvedev's commitment to an independent court system.

Putin, in a recent interview, said Khodorkovsky should receive no special treatment.

In a statement posted on their Web site Monday, Khodorkovsky's lawyers suggested that the latest charges may stem from unanswered questions about the new president's attitude.

"The defense can find no explanation other than the lack of certainty among the prosecutors and -- taking into account changes that have happened at the top of the government -- their desire to play for time, in the hope of receiving new instructions and confirmation of support from the top," the lawyers' statement said.

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said the new charges include stealing government shares, illegal oil trading and laundering $25 billion earned from oil sales from 1998 to 2004.

Khodorkovsky's attorneys said the charges seemed to be based on old material. "The defense has not been able to understand what is actually 'new' after reading a 145-page . . . file," they said. "It was the same set of absurd and baseless accusations of misappropriation . . . of all oil extracted over the six years of Yukos' life."

Russian prosecutors insist that Khodorkovsky was a criminal businessman who flouted Russian law and received the appropriate punishment. Officials had no immediate comment on the new charges.

Several Western courts have described the prosecution as politically motivated and have refused to cooperate with Russian prosecutors seeking legal assistance in related cases.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers spoke recently of applying for early release for their client because he has served more than half of his sentence.

They expressed the hope that the courts would reject the new charges as baseless. "Our client was informed of the fresh charges on his birthday, which indisputably points to the mean and rancorous character of those who stand behind this criminal initiative," their statement said.

"We are convinced that whichever legal gimmicks may be in the works, the referral of the case to a court with the slightest sign of independence will cause these far-fetched charges to fall apart."

The Associated Press, 1 July 2008

The jailed founder of Russia's Yukos oil company on Tuesday rejected new official charges against him as absurd.

In testimony to investigators who questioned him at a Siberian jail, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said the new charges lack the substance required for consideration by a court.

"The investigators have repeated the same absurdity about me stealing the entire Yukos oil output during six years," Khodorkovsky said.

His lawyers described the new set of charges filed Monday as a slightly modified version of theft and money-laundering charges filed against him in February 2007 but never brought to trial.

The attorneys said the new charges appeared to be an effort by prosecutors to buy time and keep Khodorkovsky's case running while waiting for signals from the Kremlin.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was convicted in 2005 of fraud and tax evasion, and sentenced to eight years in prison, in a case that many critics called Kremlin revenge for his criticism and apparent political ambitions.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers said they have advised him to seek release on parole now that Vladimir Putin is no longer Russia's president. They voiced hope that Russia's courts could be more objective after President Dmitry Medvedev's inauguration last month.

Khodorkovsky has not yet decided whether to take that step, his lawyers said.

Prime-Tass, 1 July 2008

Russian investigators confirmed Tuesday that a revised version of new charges had been filed against former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, ITAR-TASS reported.

Under the revised version, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are accused of stealing 350 million tonnes of oil and laundering 487 billion rubles and U.S. $7.5 billion, said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the investigative committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, as cited by ITAR-TASS.

Under the first version of the new charges, which was filed in February 2007, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were accused of laundering 450 billion rubles and U.S. $7.5 billion in 1998-2004.

Khodorkovsky, who is a former CEO and majority owner of the now-defunct oil company Yukos, and Lebedev were originally sentenced to eight-year prison terms in 2005 on other charges of tax evasion and fraud at Yukos.

Russia's Federal Tax Service also filed multibillion-dollar back tax claims against Yukos, effectively bankrupting the company. A court declared Yukos bankrupt in 2006 and its assets were sold at auctions in 2007.

RIA Novosti, 1 July 2008

Russian prosecutors have brought new charges against jailed Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev of stealing 350 million metric tons of oil and laundering $28.3 billion.

"Today the suspects will be questioned in the presence of their lawyers," the Main Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office said in a news release on Tuesday.

Khodorkovsky, who turned 45 on June 25, and Lebedev, 41, were found guilty of tax evasion and large-scale fraud by a Moscow court in May 2005 and sentenced to nine years in prison. The Moscow City Court later reduced their terms to eight years.

The two men are currently serving their sentences in East Siberia. Both men have maintained they are innocent of the charges, with Khodorkovsky claiming the sentence was retaliation for his support of Russia's tiny opposition movement.

Defense lawyers called the new charges on Monday "an assortment of absurd and groundless allegations relating to the theft and legalization of the entire volume of oil produced by the Yukos oil company over a six-year period."

The new charges were pressed shortly after Khodorkovsky's defense announced that they had prepared a parole application for their client.

The Russian daily Vedomosti reported last week that Khodorkovsky could be freed next year if Russia's parliament approves a bill to review sentencing as part of a move to cut the prison population.

The jailing of Khodorkovsky and other executives of what was once Russia's largest independent oil producer has been widely criticized in the West and seen as part of the Kremlin's drive to regain lucrative energy assets.