Tax dodger and the head of the company “Yukos-Moskva” decided to hide himself from prosecution in the Federation Council. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on October 27, 2003.
On this day 20 years ago, on October 27, 2003, the Legislative Assembly of the Evenkia Autonomous Area delegated Vassily Shakhnovsky, the head of the company “Yukos-Moskva”, to represent it in the Federation Council of Russia. By way of such ingenious move, the billionaire Vassily Savelyevich Shakhnovsky, freshly minted senator, acquired for himself parliamentary immunity. He decided to hide himself in the upper chamber of Parliament from criminal prosecution on charges of tax evasion to the tune of 53 million 366 thousand rubles, including fines and penalties.
(See also the article “On this day, the tax dodger Shakhnovsky was made to get into gears”.
See also the feature “Clever Vassya”)
HOW THEY GOT RID OF THE PREVIOUS SENATOR AND ELECTED A NEW, RICH SENATOR
The scheme for Shakhnovsky to evade responsibility for tax crimes was being prepared in advance. On the background of taking into custody of Alexey Pichugin (murders and attempted murders), arrest Platon Lebedev, head of “Menatep” (economical crimes), intense investigative actions of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation with regard to the machinations of Yukos management, including with taxes, Vassily Shakhnovsky decided to obtain a parliamentary immunity.
And, on October 11-13, 2003, Nikolay Anissimov, the representative of Evenkia in the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, under a specious excuse was got rid of in connection with "the deterioration of health of the senator", and in the Parliament of the region, a decision was pushed on termination of his authorities. Thus, the senator chair became vacant.
Taking into consideration that the operation to free the place of a senator, to a large extent, had been carried out by the then governor of Evenkia and former head of the company “Yukos-RM” Boris Zolotoryov, it was clear that the vacancy would be filled by Shakhnovsky. So much so that the time pressed – on October 17, a charge was brought against Shakhnovsky. And the tax swindler was urgently needed of the status of a member of the Federation Council, from where a summoning for interrogation, by virtue of parliamentary immunity, becomes surrounded by additional difficulties.
In particular, for carrying out investigative actions with regard to a senator, as per regulations, consent of the Federation Council is needed. In Russian such tricks have been successful. It suffices to recall bored and yawning in the assembly hall of the Russian State Duma Sergei Mavrody, the creator of “finance pyramids” who before being transferred to jail had decided to be engaged in lawmaking. Or Boris Abramovich Berezovsky fussing around between chairs in the same room, for the road, before escaping to London. To say nothing of trying of figurants of various criminal cases to slip into Parliament directly from pre-trial detention centers. So, Shakhnovsky had every reason to think that the old trick is still working, and so much so with the experience of “Menatep” and Yukos regarding the cunning taking part in sham tenders and auctions.
SCHEME OF APPOINTMENT LIKE FALSE TENDERS
The nomination and confirmation of Vassily Shakhnovsky, in fact, looked like the memorable loans-for-shares auctions, but, to tell the truth, instead of "tamed firms-competitors" there were resolute competitors with strange behavior.
“Four candidates were proposed for the vacant position. The candidature of one of them, of the vice-governor Vladimir Sturov, was not discussed, as from his side, the necessary documents had not been presented. Another two – Alexander Bokovnikov, president of the sulgan’s (the Parliament of Evenkia) Committee on industry, subsurface use and natural resources, and Vladimir Odnolko, first vice-speaker of sulgan, withdrew their names. Following the results of the voting by secret ballot, it turned out that all the deputies present (21 on the whole) voted to confirm Mr. Shakhnovsky as the representatives of the District Parliament in the Federation Council”, in such a way the newspaper “Kommersant” described the “unanimous” procedure.
A simple formula of "false tenders" – one firm was very interested, but could not complete the paperwork in time, two other competitors, five minutes before the beginning of the tender, dropped out – and “the chair from the palace” goes to a man from Yukos. To tell the truth, Vassily Shakhnovsky, the beneficiary of the deal himself, could not come into view for the people’s deputies. He was sitting in Moscow under travel restrictions. Nevertheless, he, acting remotely, received by a unanimous vote a high status of a member of the Federation Council.
Apparently, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, creator of “democracy and civil society”, understood democracy, as well the role in it of civil society” like this – a sham auction with a sole beneficiary in the person of a billionaire-swindler, nothing more.
Still, for Shakhnovsky’s assumption of the office, there were details of technical character. The main of them was the procedure of affirmation of the new senator by the Federation Council. This action was planned to be carried out at the session on November 19, 2003. However, according to the law, taking effect at once after the decision of the regional parliament on the “appointment” of the candidate, it was already enough for elected one to become “immunity”. And it seemed that Vassily Shakhnovsky nearly avoided the retaliation of prosecution.
“WERE NOT SURE OF CAPACITIES…”
However, the joy was not long. The Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, on October 29, 2003, filed a protest in court regarding the decision of the Evenkia’s Parliament. And the reasoning of the agency gave to understand – impunity under the shelter of parliamentary immunity goes out of fashion.
On November 1, 2003, emerged the details of the claim. "In the objection of the Office of the Prosecutor General”, pointed out the newspaper “Kommersant”, “was indicated that the suglan of Evenkia had violated the procedure while taking its decisions. In particular, the election of Shakhnovsky took place at the special session the preparation of which had lasted seven days instead of ten days prescribed by the local legislation. Apart from that, the prosecutor had doubts as long as, in the course of the preparation of the session, the deputies had not received a supposed agenda, and during the session, they didn’t assure themselves of the capacities of the candidate as well as of his age. The Office of the Prosecutor General especially noted that there had been no alternative candidates.
The latter circumstance looked rather curious not because all alternatives had been lost before the “tender”, but because the fact that Vassily Shakhnovsky was one of the active participants of the notorious “Khodorkovsky’s column” created for the election to the Russian Parliament in 2003, the members of which liked fervently discourse of the necessity of “alternative and competition”. However, Khodorkovsky also proclaims it on every corner. But this is all theory. In practice - the whole scheme of Shakhnovsky’s appointment looks like a zero option “rigged game” adopted unanimously.
VASSILY’S ABDICATION OF THE CHAIR
The process of taking the “sick” senator Anisimov back to the chair in the upper chamber of the Parliament and declaring invalid the decision to appoint Shakhnovsky took place on November 5, 2003. The substantive provision of the decision was as follows – “senator Nikolay Anisimov is reinstated in his position, the decision to elect Vassily Shakhnovsky member of the Federation council is ruled illegal”, pointed out the newspaper “Kommersant”.
Shakhnovsky’s lawyers, it stands to reason, noisily criticized this verdict. And that could be well explained – the Shakhnovsky’s operation to dodge the responsibility, in fact, failed. Shakhnovsky himself, apparently, was so sure of his success that before his short term sitting in the senator’s chair he had delegated all his authorities in the company “Yukos-Moskva” to his successor – to Steven Michael Theede who was at that moment first vice-president of the Oil Company Yukos.
But soon, Shakhnovsky was forced to write a letter to the Parliament of Evenkia saying that “the current situation around him doesn’t allow him to worthily represent the interests of Evenkia in the highest legislative body of the country”. After that, he willingly refused of senator's authority.
It took place on November 24, 2003. And already on October 31, 2003, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia informed Shakhnovsky that the investigation of his criminal case under Article 198, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Evasion by a Natural Person of Paying a Tax (or) a Fee on an especially large scale, to the tune of 29 million rubles) is completed. So, instead of lawmaking, Shakhnovsky, after all, had to be tried”, noted the website Prigovor.ru.
(See the previous article “On this day, the newspapers “RBK” and “The Guardian” hit Khodorkovsky with rifle-butts”. From the history of fakes: “On the way Khodorkovsky fell, he was several times kicked and beaten with assault rifle-butts”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on October 26, 2003.
