$5 billion, arrested in Switzerland, were misrepresented as “pension savings” of Yukos employees. The suffering of the frozen physical persons. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on March 13, 2004.
On this day, on March 13, 2004, the most “transparent” oil company of Mikhail Khodorkovsky was in an extremely nervous state. On the eve, the Basmanny Court of Moscow upheld a motion of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia on the arrest of Yukos accounts in Switzerland. At the same time, a message came from Switzerland about the freezing of bank accounts of twenty persons connected with Yukos and “Menatep” to the total amount of more than $5 billion.
At the beginning, as suffered were mentioned: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, Leonid Nevzlin, Vladimir Dubov, Mikhail Brudno, Alexander Temerko, and a number of persons left off screen. It was stressed in the Office of the Prosecutor General that “the question is not about assets, shares or other security papers, but about personal bank deposits of physical persons, who, in one way or other, have been involved in embezzlement of state assets on an extremely large scale”.
This was indirectly confirmed by Leonid Nevzlin, who had fled to Israel and later was exposed as mastermind of a series of murders and attempted murders. He started to write for the press, recklessly saying that he, certainly, had suffered, but not badly, and that he had at his disposal on accounts, for current expenditures, “about 100 thousand U.S. dollars”, but “they are not the last”.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arrested and under investigation, made a statement arguing that the information about the arrest of 5 billion dollars “is an absolute lie”. After that, he started to explain that there were not 5 billion dollars, but 4.5 billion.
“This money has an absolutely transparent source – these are dividends on shares and earnings from selling of a small stocks of shares to portfolio investors”. According to him, “these assets directly or through specialized entities have been invested mainly in Russian assets or have been put at the disposal of charity organizations. “The mentioned financial means, belonging to structures of the group “Menatep”, are not frozen and not under arrest. There are no other big pecuniary means at the disposal of the group”, said the “robber-baron”.
(See also the article “On this day, swindlers from Yukos used the tactics of "scorched cash register". From $2 billion declared dividends, $1.4 billion they siphoned to the offshores – “Hulley Enterprises Limited”, “Yukos Universal Limited” and “Veteran Petroleum Limited”).
“MENATEP” AND YUKOS GOT ENTENGLED WITH TVIDENCE
Thus, Nevzlin said that his personal accounts were arrested. Khodorkovsky vocalized about “absolute lie” and reports that “nothing has been arrested”. And, according to the law, the sanction of the Russian court should go also through a court procedure in Switzerland. Yet, on March 13, 2004, the Bacchanalia went on.
“Menatep”, the money of which “was neither blocked nor under arrest”, instead of trying calmly to sort out the situation, decided to narrate that “the money on bank accounts in Switzerland, arrested by the ruling of the Basmanny Court of Moscow, belongs to the foundation “Veteran Petroleum” – a trust company, beneficiaries of which are about 40 thousand employees of the company Yukos with working life of more than 10 years”.
I.e., the swindlers from the “main shareholders” of the company has tried to cover themselves with a human shield of employees, with a “social component”, to make it look more pitifully. Such a “picture” was painted by numerous media outlets.
In the context of Switzerland, the position pf Khodorkovsky’s lawyers didn’t sound that persuasively, saying that Khodorkovsky had no foreign accounts at all. “He had had one single account in one of foreign banks, which had been opened on the license of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, but it was closed last year. I think that my client would be happy to know that he has a billion bank account in Switzerland”, said Khodorkovsky’s henchman Anton Drel. On the whole, he lied, as usual.
(See also the article “On this day, a Swiss trace of Khodorkovsky was found”. While Khodorkovsky sewed mittens in prison, his 6.2 billion Swiss francs traveled through Swiss banks. Khodorkovsky’s “chemical” firms).
“So, for instance, in 2011, “during the inspection of data of clients of the affiliate of the Swiss bank “Julius Baer” in the town Muenster, in the west of Germany, investigators who were interested in finding tax abusers in Germany, found out, en passant, financial traces of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. It was pointed out that Khodorkovsky “had invested in the bank from 15 to 20 million euros – on his own name and on the name of his relatives”. Apart from that, in Ireland, 100 million British pounds, belonging to “borehole” swindler Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were discovered and frozen”, noted the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, in Spain «The White Whale» exposed Yukos. “Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, Nevzlin, Brudno, and Dubov tried to hide their connection to the bank “Menatep”. Illegal siphoning off money to Spain. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on March 12, 2005.
