“Taxes were paid in the amount equal to 35-50% of their real volume”. Thievish common fund of Khodorkovsky. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on April 22, 2004.
On this day, on April 22, 2004, officers of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for tax and economic crimes were conducted legal proceedings in the central office of the Oil Company Yukos. Lawyers and employees of Yukos unwillingly, but voluntary delivered all documents the investigators asked for.
The investigative measures were being taking within the framework of the fulfilling of the assignment pertaining to criminal cases under Article 1999, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Evading Payment of Taxes by Legal Persons). Under the investigation were shadow activities of two Yukos subsidiaries – “Tomskneft” and “Samaraneftegaz”. Based on the results of the withdrawal, a protocol was drawn up, which was signed by employees of Yukos Legal department and representatives of the investigative group. It was indicated that all actions in the office of the Oil Company Yukos were conducted “absolutely correctly”.
“ACTUALLY, IT WAS SALES OIL”
A bit later, it was found out that the investigators actively worked on Khodorkovsky’s “borehole scheme”. “From 1996 to 2000, leaders of “Samaraneftegaz” and JSC Oil Company Yukos used an illegal scheme of buying and selling based on the so-called “borehole liquid”. According to this scheme, Khodorkovsky declared that he was selling unrefined oil, but, in fact, it was refined high quality sales oil. As the result of these machinations, taxes were paid in the amount of not more than 35-50% of their real volume. In case with the company “Samaraneftegaz”, according to a preliminary investigative line, the sum of the tax evasion was in the interval from 3 to 10 billion rubles. The final sums of the tax abuses, including those of the subsidiaries of the Oil Company Yukos, amounted to about $25.79 billions.
AFFILIATES-TRICKSTERS
Yet, the criminal schemes pertaining to “borehole optimization” were realized not by themselves, but by the leadership of Yukos headed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and directors of the “affiliates” that later became defendants in criminal cases.
(See also the article “On this day, a henchman of Yukos escaped court for a short while”. Pavel Anisimov, a “soldier of Yukos”, executed orders. Misappropriation of oil on account of considerable and cynical understatement of price,
the article “Sergey Shimkevich came out earlier, the former has sited only half of his 13 years term; and the article “On this day, in Nefteyugansk a henchman of Yukos was sentenced”,
the article «Guilmanov formalized trading of marketable oil as crude oil”. Tax evasion to the amount of 3 billion 607 million 118 thousand 338 rubles and 33 kopeks).
It’s interesting to note, that, having receives their terms, the members of the “borehole” regional directorate, took an active “witness” participation in exculpating of the defendants Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev on the case of oil embezzlement and legalizing (laundering) of assets.
From the materials of the Khamovnichesky Court on the case of Khodorkovsky M.B. and Lebedev P.L.:
“The witnesses Guilmanov T.R. and Anisimov P.A. testified that in 1999-2003 there had been no instances of oil embezzlement in volumes equal to the volumes of month’s or year’s production, as it had been impossible from the physical point of view. All produced oil had been delivered into the pipeline and had been transported to customers”.
However, the court perceived critically such testimonies and pointed out that nobody had brought a charge of oil embezzlement against the defendants – the oil had been stolen, i.e. had been misappropriated by way of re-issuing the property rights of it. To put it simpler, it had been stolen de-jure.
The testimonies of these witnesses, on totality, contradicted the materials of the case and testimonies of other witnesses. And there was one more thing the court paid attention to – “the court perceived critically the testimonies of the mentioned witnesses, as they could not give truthful testimonies against the defendants who paid them high allowances”. As it was stressed in the verdict of the Khamovnichesky District Court from December 27, 2010, “the payment of high allowances to the managers of the Oil Company Yukos, producing companies and other entities, was made by the defendants Khodorkovsky M.B. and Lebedev P.L. from the so-called profit center, but, actually, from legalized means from selling of stolen oil. Moreover, the size of bonuses was determined in accordance with the degree of contribution of these persons to committing embezzlement and legalizing”.
“In other words, Khodorkovsky and his henchmen had their own thievish common fund”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, a penalty on Yukos to the amount of 170 billion rubles was confirmed”. Yukos created a network of interdependent companies… “with the purpose to economize on taxes”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on April 21, 2005).
