Nevzlin L.B. was found guilty of misappropriation of shares of the West Oil Company (VNK). Six years were added to the lifelong sentence for homicide. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on June 24, 2013.
On this day, on June 24, 2013, the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow sentenced to six years of imprisonment the former shareholder of the oil company Yukos Leonid Nevzlin. To him was imputed the misappropriation of shares of the West Oil Company (VNK) committed as part of a group of persons (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The stolen shares were valued at 3 billion rubles. The proceedings of the court took place in absentia, as Nevzlin in 2003 had fled to Israel where he became citizenship and hid himself from Russian justice.
The guilt of the defendant of misappropriation and embezzlement of the shares by previous concert on an especially large scale was proved by the side of the prosecution during the court’s investigation, said the court, pronouncing the verdict. Nevzlin’s lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov, working in the process by default on this episode, insisted that “Nevzlin’s role” in his case “had been minimal”. Obviously, the court took into consideration this circumstance and sentenced the defendant Nevzlin to six years in prison, although the state prosecution demanded for Nevzlin seven years of imprisonment.
According to the materials of the investigation, Leonid Nevzlin, in 1998, as part of an organized group, misappropriated 38% stock of shares of the companies “Tomskneft” VNK, “Achinsk Refinery NPZ” and others that the state had invested in the nominal capital of the “East Oil Company VNK” to the amount of more than 3 billion rubles. As pointed out in the statement of the Investigative Committee of Russia, earlier, on this episode had been sentenced major shareholders of Yukos, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky*, Platon Lebedev, managing director of the company “Yukos EP” Ramil Burganov.
THE CASE OF THE VNK RIPPERS STARTED LONG BEFORE “YUKOS CASE”
The criminal case on fraudulent deals with shares of VNK “affiliates” had been filed before the “Yukos case” – in January 2000. In June 2001, recalled the newspaper “Vedomosti”, the indictment under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Misappropriation or Embezzlement) was brought in absentia against the former managing director of the company “Yukos EP” Ramil Burganov. According to the materials of the case, Burganov had signed swap contracts and attested documents by his signature. Burganov had fled to London. He was arrested in absentia and put on the wanted list. As the result of the actions of law enforcement agencies, the shares of VNK “affiliates” were given back to the enterprise. Yet, that didn’t abrogate the committed crime.
(See also the article “On this day, investigators searched traces of Nevzlin”).
The investigation of the machinations exposed the names of the participants of this affair. They were the head and employees of the legal department Vasily Aleksanyan, Svetlana Bakhmina and Dmitry Gololobov, each in his or her own role. Leonid Nevzlin, as the investigation assumed, was coordinating these machinations.
(See also the article “Illegal disposition of shares and other property of the affiliates of the OJSC VNK” and the article “On this day, Svetlana Bakhmina was served with "Vasyugan” and “Vakh”. “Bakhmina, being part of the organized illegal group of persons, has committed theft to the amount of more than 8 billion 60 million 122 thousand rubles”).
GREED OF ROBBER-BARONS
The most “transparent” person in the world – Mikhail Khodorkovsky – was aware of the whole criminal scheme that was being pulled off by his henchmen and subordinates with the shares of the company VNK. It became clear in 2010 during the process against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in court, when the witness of the defense Herman Gref was interrogated.
(See also the article “On this day, the witness of the defense Herman Gref exposed Yukos predacious essence”).
The witness told the court that he had had a conversation with Khodorkovsky about dubious operations with the shares of the company VNK. “We (the state), at that time, had plans regarding the privatization of the oil company VNK, and we found out that there was no filling inside it”, said Gref. In his words, he met with Khodorkovsky and proposed to give back to VNK the filling. However, Khodorkovsky proposed to buy the oil company VNK for $18 millions without the filling. Gref said it was impossible, VNK could be sold only with the shares.
According to Herman Gref, in order to take the question off the table, an agreement was prepared obligating to give the shares back. Khodorkovsky refused to sign this agreement. Then, said Herman Gref, we warned that the shares “would be recollected by other way”.
From testimonies, one can see that the state, in the person of Herman Gref, proposed to Khodorkovsky to settle the situation in a pre-trial order. By his refusal to settle the issue by agreement, Khodorkovsky created problems not only for himself, but also doomed Vasily Aleksanyan and Svetlana Bakhmina to criminal prosecution.
SIX YEARS WERE ADDED TO LIFE LONG SENTENCE
It could be said that Leonid Nevzlin, the ordering customer of murders, almost didn’t suffer from the “economic” verdict of the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow, while the fugitive criminal Nevzlin L.B. on August 1, 2008, had been sentenced by the Moscow City Court to life imprisonment for a series of murders and attempted murders. The episode with the shares of the oil company VNK only highlighted the fraudulent essence of Yukos “major shareholders”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, Yukos funeral detachment radiated optimism”. “Yukos doesn’t plan in the future to declare about its own bankruptcy or liquidation”, narrated Viktor Geraschenko. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on June 23, 2005).
*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.
