| The Prosecutor General's Office conducts international investigative actions The Prosecutor General's Office announced yesterday a new series of massive searches and seizures in banks and companies associated with YUKOS, whose main shareholders - Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev - have already received 8 years in prison. According to the official report, investigators, with the support of employees of the Department of Economic Security (DES) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, visited the offices of the law firm ALM-Feldmans, Investment Bank Trust and LLC YUKOS-FBC. In most of these structures, searches continued until late yesterday, and what exactly, and in connection with what the investigators were looking for and seizing there, their representatives could not say. However, the Prosecutor General’s Office itself directly indicated that these events are connected with the case of laundering funds “obtained by criminal means by a number of employees of the Yukos Oil Company.” Considering that the Prosecutor General’s Office six months ago, before the verdict of the Meshchansky Court, promised to add this article to the list of claims against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, it is quite possible that the investigators have now decided to move from words to deeds. At least, the amounts that were discussed about legalization and the method of laundering pointed specifically to the top officials of YUKOS.
Official representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office twice - on May 13 and 31 - promised to bring these new charges “in the very near future.” “We are talking about the legalization of criminally acquired funds, which amount to billions of rubles. Astronomical sums were stolen. The state and citizens were shamelessly robbed,” Natalya Vishnyakova, a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, said at the time. Now the investigation has detailed these claims, telling how exactly and how much money Khodorkovsky and Lebdev, in their opinion, were able to launder. “The investigation has information that during 2000-2003, some managers and employees of the Yukos Oil Company stole and legalized funds in the amount of about $7 billion by transferring them abroad,” stated the statement from the Prosecutor General’s Office. “The investigation “Schemes have been identified designed to steal proceeds from oil production and then legalize it by paying dividends to shell companies registered in a number of foreign countries.”
It is obvious that it was the readiness to bring new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev that became the reason for yesterday’s searches. Although in their very fact, as it turned out, there was nothing new. The unified press service of the Investment Bank "Trust" and the National Bank "Trust" (these credit institutions have the same board of directors) "Vremya Novostei" confirmed information about the searches being carried out: "Routine seizure of documents has been going on for several months now and is related to the investigation affairs around NK YUKOS. It is not clear why what is happening is presented as news. The activities carried out by the special services do not in any way affect the work of both banks.”
Against this background, the real reason for the loud reminder from the Prosecutor General’s Office about the “YUKOS case” was most likely events that took place outside of Russia. As news agencies reported, employees of the criminal investigation department of the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands, accompanied by representatives of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, came to seize documents at the office of the Dutch subsidiary of YUKOS - YUKOS Finans BV. This Amsterdam company manages all foreign property of YUKOS. In April 2005, she created another company - YUKOS International BV. As far as is known, shares of other enterprises of the oil corporation were transferred into it so that they could not be alienated by the Russian authorities to pay off YUKOS's gigantic tax debts. And now a consortium of foreign bank creditors of YUKOS is in litigation with this company for the right to unfreeze its assets. It is worth noting that the lawyers of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev themselves yesterday were most excited not by the searches in companies affiliated with YUKOS, but by the fate of their colleague Anton Drel. In addition to the actions listed in the official statement of the Prosecutor General's Office, as it turned out, the office of Khodorkovsky's lawyer, Anton Drel, was also searched. As he himself told a Vremya Novostey correspondent, he came to his bureau on a call from the Prosecutor General’s Office, when he was notified of the upcoming investigative actions. However, upon arrival, Mr. Drel found himself in front of tightly locked doors, and was unable to get into his own office. “I’ve been wandering around my office for six hours now, and I can’t even imagine what’s going on there,” he complained to Vremya Novostey over the phone. It was approximately 21.00. An hour later, he told his colleagues that he was going inside, after which his phone no longer answered.
In this regard, other lawyers, in the absence of information, speculated, even fearing that Mr. Drel might be taken into custody. “The same thing is happening as always,” said Lawyer Evgeniy Baru. “Certain actions are being taken against lawyers, because the Prosecutor General’s Office has no desire to tolerate their professional activities. The searches of lawyer Drel are the fulfillment of those very promises to bring new charges that the Prosecutor General's Office has repeatedly announced. Anyone can get here, including those who previously provided legal assistance to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. The task has been set, the goal has been defined. The convicts have already received a ruling from the Moscow City Court on the entry into force of the verdict of the Meshchansky Court. And now a new round of actions is taking place aimed at bringing new charges. If you read the verdict carefully, you will see that it says a lot about Yukos lawyers and Anton Drel in particular.”
Igor Babenko received temporary asylum in Lithuania
Meanwhile, the Lithuanian authorities yesterday announced the provision of temporary asylum to another participant in the “YUKOS case” - the former manager of the Stavropol branch of the MENATEP St. Petersburg bank (now the Trust national bank) Igor Babenko. As Lithuanian lawyer Babenko Vitoldas Petravichyus told RIA Novosti, the corresponding decision was made by the Migration Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania last week. A criminal case against Igor Babenko in May 2005 by the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Stavropol Territory. According to investigators, having entered into a conspiracy with two businessmen, he issued them loans for 119 million rubles, which were stolen. On June 15, the court of the city of Essentuki issued an arrest warrant for the accused, they were put on the international wanted list, and on July 1, Babenko was detained in Vilnius. According to lawyer Babenko, his client’s entire guilt lies in the fact that he headed a branch of the MENATEP bank, which was associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s entourage. But the National Bank Trust (formerly MENATEP St. Petersburg) stated that there is no politics in the Babenko case, “this is pure criminality.” According to the bank, when the loan was not returned to the bank's branch in Stavropol, it conducted its own investigation. As a result, having failed to return the money, the bank removed Igor Babenko from his position and contacted law enforcement agencies. Victor PAUKOV, Ekaterina BUTORINA, Alexey IVLEV |
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