52% of participants of a poll said Khodorkovsky didn’t interest them. The American Theede: “I refuse of my position”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on July 20, 2003, 2004 and 2006.
On this day, on July 20, 2003, the oil company NK Yukos learned that its massive information releases about criminal problems of the company and its “borehole leadership” didn’t arouse compassion of Russian citizens at all. This was shown by a sociological poll conducted among 1500 respondents in mid-July.
YUKOS FRUITLESS CAMPAIGNING
“Although all central mass media, for more than a week, have been paying special attention to the situation around Yukos and the arrest of one of its shareholders, more than half of Russians (53%) said they “heard of it for the first time”.
By the arrest to “one of the shareholders” was meant the arrest on July 3, 2003, of the head of the International Financial Association MFO “Menatep” Platon Lebedev within the framework of the case over stealing of the 20% stock of shares of the JSC “Apatit”.
Moreover, 67% of the participants of the poll living in big cities, including Moscow, know about the company Yukos, or, at least, “heard something about it”. Positive attitude towards the company expressed only 20% of the participants, and 17% had a negative view of it. And more than half of the respondents – actually, 52% of the participants of the poll – said they were indifferent with regard to Khodorkovsky*.
HYPOCRITICAL TIPS OF KHODORKOVSKY*
On the same day, on July 20, 2004, Anton Drel, lawyer and henchman of Khodorkovsky, handed over to the press on behalf of Khodorkovsky a yet another statement, in which the former head of Yukos hypocritically called the oil company Yukos to abide by the court’s decision and to try to find a compromise solution with the government.
“As to my personal position, it is unmistakable – to abide by the decision of the court, search for a compromise allowing the company Yukos to survive”, was pointed out in Khodorkovsky’s statement.
The hypocrisy of Khodorkovsky’s “unmistakable position” was that one of the charges brought against Khodorkovsky within the framework of the first case, was his non-abiding by the decision of the court connected with giving back by Yukos swindlers the shares of the JSC ‘Apatit”. As to the part regarding “the search for a compromise with the government”, Khodorkovsky, who had ignored this aspect before his arrets, was also cunning.
(See also the article “Tax mechanics of Khodorkovsky as a physical person”)
The swindler-billionaire Khodorkovsky didn’t even try by way of active repentance to get rid of the charge (Article 198, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) pertaining to tax evasion as a physical person by paying the whole sum imputed to him – 54 million 532 thousand 186 rubles. He didn’t pay it, as he didn’t pay penalties set by the ruling of the Meschansky District Court of Moscow (more than 17 billion rubles) accrued accumulatively to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev within the framework of a civil claim by the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation on compensation of damage.
“I CAN NO LONGER…”
On the same day, on July 20, 2006, in the press was cited a letter of the president of the oil company NK Yukos Steven Michael Theede addressed to the Board of Directors of the company.
“A can no longer undertake anything that would bring to the company material profit. I refuse of this position, because a cannot solve these four main tasks:
- to fulfill all commitments to employees;
- to cancel all legally received credits;
- to return in full volume the rights of Yukos in “Yuganskneftegaz” which were illegally taken away from the company (Theede lied – “Yuganskneftegaz” was sold in accordance with market rules);
- to conserve the property of the company in Russia and beyond its territory”, reported Theede with pathos typical for failed colonists.
It’s strange that Mr. Theede was too modest – he had foreign assets. In the United Stated, as a memory to call itself Yukos, there remained the American shell company “Yukos USA Inc”, which, as the tricksters were assuring, bears evidence that Yukos has powerful assets in America, and on that basis an unseen American commerce is “boiling”. They cleansed the firms in 2007, thus wiping out traces of their own fiascos and failures.
YUKOS WAS RUINED BY DEBTS MADE BY KHODORKOVSKY*
“However, there was nothing for Theede to be nervous about – the bottom line , at the moment of Theede being tired, the company was worth about 15 billion dollars, and its debts, made, first of all, by the organized criminal group of Khodorkovsky, exceeded 17 billion dollars (before the selling of “Yuganskneftegaz” at the auction, the debts of “the most transparent” oil company amounted to around 25 billion dollars). Such number spoke of the fact that the play “to save Yukos” was over – remained were only arbitration formalities which, with regard to the bankruptcy, were initiated by Western creditors of Yukos who, imprudently, had granted to the swindler Khodorkovsky a credit to the tune of 1 billion dollars”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, American shareholders lodged a complaint against swindlers from Yukos”. Multimillion tax arrears of Yukos were hidden from Americans. Conflict of interests of Judge Olga Mikhailova. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on July 19, 2004).
*On May 20, 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice included M.B. Khodorkovsky in the list of physical persons executing functions of a foreign agent.
