Criminal case No 18/432766-07. “Nevzlin, at the behest of Khodorkovsky, was to provide the neutralization of counteractions from business rivals. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on April 7, 2009.
On this day, on April 7, 2009, in the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow, the prosecution started to read out the letter of accusation on the criminal case No 18/432766-07. Previously convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were charged with “committing embezzlement by way of misappropriation on an especially large scale under Article 160, paragraph 4, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as of legalizing (laundering) monetary means, acquired as the result of the crime committed by them on an especially large scale under Article 174.1, paragraph 4, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
(See also the article “They conducted criminal activity in the oil complex of the country…”
Within the framework of the current criminal case, the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation accused Khodorkovsky and Lebedev of legalizing 450 billion rubles and 7.5 billion U.S. dollars, committed in the period from 1998 to 2004. The criminal episodes of the activities of the leadership of the Oil Company Yukos were connected with embezzlements of shares, belonging to the state, and with misappropriation of oil and legalizing of pecuniary means received from its sale.
But, before going directly to the episodes of the criminal activity imputed to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, the introductory part of the document was read out with description of the organized group which members had committed criminal wrongdoings.
The Prosecutor Valery Lakhtin reminded the court the circumstances of the criminal case and the guilty verdict of the Meschansky District Court of Moscow delivered upon Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in May 2005, in which were mentioned various machinations of the defendants with shares of the JSC “Apatit”, as well as crimes connected with tax evasion.
“In the course of committing new crimes – embezzlements by way of misappropriation and legalizing of property acquired by illegal methods, Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and other members of the organized group used the same methods of committing crimes on behalf of shell commercial organizations, registered at the request and with the use of pecuniary means, belonging to members of the organized group both on the territory of the Russian Federation, and abroad”, reported news agencies, avoiding specifics.
As the result, an impression was being made through the press of certain general and vague claims against “the most transparent” company and its robber-barons. Still, in the materials of the case everything was presented crystal clear. In order to explain the difference of the reception, we will bring one fragment of the case.
OFFSHORE GEOGRAPHY OF BOREHOLE SWINDLERS
“The organized criminal group headed by Khodorkovsky, while committing new crimes, continued to use services provided by the international holding secretarial company “Valmet Group Limited”, Bermuda (previous name “Riggs Valmet”) which had subsidiaries in Switzerland (“Valmet S.A.”, Geneva), on the Isle of Man (“Valmet Isle of Man Limited”, Douglas), and in Holland (“Valmet Trust Management B.V.”, Rotterdam), as well as in Gibraltar, Spain, Cyprus, Mauritius, Seychelles Islands.
The mentioned secretarial company provided Khodorkovsky and acting together with him persons from the company with jurisdictions registered in offshores, as well as with services of nominal directors and account executives acting at their instructions. Apart from that, the co-owners and the directors of the company “Valmet” Peter Bond, Christian Michel, and Christoph Samuelson provided Khodorkovsky with the company “Jamblick Limited” registered on the Isla of Man.
(See also the article The history of blossom and funeral of the firm “Jamblick Limited” from The Isle of Man. “From the documents obtained upon request from Great Britain follows that, in fact, on June 15, 1991, Mrs. Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin, Brudno, and Dubov were appointed directors of the company “Jamblick Limited”.This was a scheme of cheating American shareholders of Yukos).
When the state prosecutor proceeded to the description of the organized criminal group (OPG) of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, immediately emerged the name of the escaped to Israel Leonid Nevzlin who, in 2008, had been adjudged guilty of a series of contract murders and attempted murders “in the interest of Yukos” and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment.
(See also the article “The bloody price list of Nevzlin”, and the article “On this day, a killer tipped off Nevzlin and pointed at Khodorkovsky”).
In this connection, the prosecution found it necessary to point out that Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been giving Leonid Nevzlin assignments to neutralize rivals. According to the investigation, Nevzlin, being part of the organized group, had been carrying out the role entrusted to him as curator of juridical processing of machinations, “fictitious civil deals with securities” regarding to scams with shares.
Apart from that, the investigation pointed out, Nevzlin, at the behest of Khodorkovsky, was to guarantee the neutralization of counteractions from business rivals, as well as possible claims from the part of controlling and other state entities, as well as voting of member of the Board of directors and shareholders of stock companies engaged in deals. Khodorkovsky gave to this part of Nevzlin’s action plan a code mane: “To provide a political component”.
(See also the article “On this day, the Moscow City Court started to examine the criminal activity of Nevzlin”).
Within the framework of ensuring this “political component”, as it was found out in courts, bandits from Volgograd and Tambov, acting at the behest of Leonid Nevzlin and Alexey Pichugin, had been committing their bloody crimes.
AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
Apart from Nevzlin as member of the organized criminal group (OPG), part of this criminal gang were several persons who had fled, had been put on the wanted lists, their cases had been considered separately, or had been dropped.
For instance, according to the letter of accusation, on Vasily Shakhnovsky, in his capacity of president of the JSC “Rosprom”, was” imposed a duty to predispose employees under his control to signing documents”.
On lawyers from the legal department headed by Vasily Aleksanyan and Dmitry Golubev – to formalize legally documents and deals.
And Ramil Byrganov, the executive officer of the CJSC “Yukos EP”, as a member of the Board of Directors of the JSC “Tomskneft”, was obliged to guarantee adoption by the Board of Directors decisions in interests of the organized group and signing documents on illegal deals with shares and property”. However, their role and their place, from a legal perspective, was not discussed within the framework of the court proceedings, as the criminal case was dealt only with two swindlers – Lebedev and Khodorkovsky.
(See also the previous article “On this day, Khodorkovsky’s henchmen planted $5 million before the court’s door”. The status of “uncleared payment”. Four tranches from henchmen. “The money has no relation with the criminal case”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on April 6, 2005).
