"From 2000 to 2003, the managers of the Oil Сompany Yukos stole and siphoned abroad about 7 billion US dollars. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on October 5, 2005.
On this day 18 years ago, on October 5, 2005, an investigation group of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia with operative escorting made up of officers of the Department of Economic Security of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, was carrying searches and withdrawals of finance and other documents substantiating large scale operations of Yukos of siphoning and laundering money obtained by illegal means.
“Stole and legalized by way of funneling abroad”
“The investigation drew out schemes made for steeling of proceeds of oil extraction by way of paying dividends to front companies, registered in several foreign countries”, reported the Office of the Prosecutor General. “For these operations were engaged various persons, including lawyers, employees of different commercial entities and banks”. It also pointed out that "between 2000 and 2003, some managers and employees of the Oil Company Yukos stole and legalized by way of siphoning abroad pecuniary means to the amount of about 7 billion US dollars".
Investigative actions, searches, and seizes were made at the following addresses: law office "ALM-Feldmans”, JSC “Investment bank “Trust”, JSC “National Bank “Trust”, JSC “Yukos-FBTs”.
Representatives of the mentioned banks perceived calmly the work of the operatives and called the situation "a usual routine".
Yukos’ Dutch Laundry
On the same day, the Dutch police also worked – there a large-scale seizure of documents took place. The operatives visited the office of Yukos Finance B.V. To this service firm from Holland, “transparent” Yukos had managed to transfer assets funneling them outside Russia.
As it was reported, "employees of the Department of the criminal investigation of the Dutch Ministry of Justice accompanied by representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia came to withdraw documents in the Yukos Dutch “affiliate” Yukos Finans B.V. This Amsterdam company manages the whole assets of Yukos abroad”.
The mentioned firm, fearing the cooperation between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries, began “to leak” assets to other firms and tried, in fact, to hide them, thus depriving foreign creditors of access to the money, which Yukos owed them. The creditors became unnerved and initiated the return of this money.
There is not much point to remind that the notorious "foreign property of Yukos" was not taken from the thin air, but had been systematically acquired on money obtained by using criminal methods, and its acquirement was, in fact, a money-laundering operation – everybody understands all this, including foreign specialist in fighting against money laundering. But, under open pressure of American and European politicians as well as officials, and for money, the large-scale criminal activity of Yukos was presented as a "struggle for democratic values".
Extracts from the Verdict of the Moscow Khamovnichesky District Court of December 27, 2010:
“The evidence demonstrates that the organized group headed by Khodorkovsky M.B., as agreed with Lebedev P.L., were committed actions directed to the structural reorganization of the external companies. It should also be noted that the company “Yukos Finance B.V” in Holland, where the sole shareholder was the company JSC “Oil Company Yukos”, outwardly and mainly for auditors, remained the parent company for external firms. Actually, in pursuance of criminal intention, directed at channeling of illegally obtained assets abroad and legalizing them there through the Dutch company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, and other members of the criminal group formed other external companies, including "Yukos Capital S.a.r,l” (Luxembourg).
The sole shareholder of its shares is "Yukos Finance B.V." which was specially created in 2003 to legalize (launder) pecuniary assets stolen upon selling the stolen oil…”
(See the previous article “On this day, Alexey Pichugin appeared before a jury trial”. The organizer of the bloody “Nevzlin-show”. Pichugin was brought to court “on the merits”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on October 4, 2004.
