Translated material
Witness, did you receive a salary?
Prosecutors decided to find out the property status of those who give evidence that is not entirely satisfactory to them.
Day one hundred and fortieth The first witness in 2010 was Mikhail Rudoy, now the chief specialist of Rosneft, in the past he worked for almost 10 years in Yukos, in particular, in a subsidiary of the company - Yukos-RM. The witness was there...
day one hundred and forty
The first witness in 2010 was Mikhail Rudoy, now the chief specialist of Rosneft, in the past he worked for almost 10 years at Yukos, in particular, in the company's subsidiary, Yukos-RM. There, the witness held the position of head of the oil trade and transportation directorate. For the criminal case, the preparation for Transneft of applications for the preparation of route instructions, which show the entire route of oil movement - from the producer to the consumer directly through the state pipeline, which excludes secret withdrawal of oil, was of the greatest importance for the criminal case.
“Our enterprises handed over oil to Transneft, then pumping, transit went on, distribution to exit ports or to the border went on,” Rudoy said.
The next witness is Vitaly Polzik. Now he works at Gazpromneft, in the past he was the chief accountant of Yukos subsidiaries: Bryansknefteprodukt, Ulyanovsknefteprodukt, and was engaged in sales at Yukos-RM.
— How did Yukos-RM sell oil products? the prosecutor asked.
- To subsidiaries, which then sold them to gas stations, and in bulk YUKOS-RM sold oil to collective farms, settlements, to the armed forces ...
A paradox: the investigation interprets the sale of Yukos oil as "legalization", and if so, then the accomplices of the Khodorkovsky-Lebedev criminal group are the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Border Service and the prosecutor's office. That is, all these government agencies participated in the laundering of about 15 million tons of oil - exactly how much did they buy from Yukos?
- You explained that wholesale sales were also used for defense needs. Where else? - Mikhail Khodorkovsky expanded the circle of "suspects".
- State Reserve, Ministry of Transport, energy, Ministry of Emergency Situations ... - Polzik listed.
- Tell me, did you also supply these government agencies at prices below world prices? Khodorkovsky specified.
- As far as I know, they corresponded to domestic Russian prices.
- The witness is not an academician of sciences! - said the prosecutor Lakhtin. "Your Honor, don't mock the witness!"
day one hundred and forty one
A man with a legendary biography appeared in court - Viktor Valentinovich Ivanenko, former chairman of the KGB of the RSFSR, major general, former adviser to the minister of the Russian Federation on taxes and fees. Ivanenko also gave five years to Yukos, where he worked as vice president: he oversaw the security service. Entering the hall, he nodded respectfully in the direction of the "aquarium", Khodorkovsky and Lebedev answered him in the same way.
The strangeness of his interrogation in court was that he worked at Yukos until 1998 - that is, before the commission of the acts incriminated by the defendant. Lakhtin did not ask about the theft of oil, he was interested in the circumstances of the first - tax - case, in which the defendants are already serving time: privatization, loans-for-shares auctions ...
Lakhtin brought to the witness stand the volume of the case, the volume contained an agreement according to which the MENATEP group guaranteed a number of beneficiaries - and Mr. Ivanenko was among them - certain monetary payments. The witness confirmed that he received money, but declared all his income. Lakhtin's answer did not satisfy him, and he read out that under one of the agreements Ivanenko received more than 612 million rubles.
- I emphasize once again: I declared all my income. This can be checked with the tax office.
— Viktor Valentinovich, please explain, did you work for Yukos on a paid basis? Khodorkovsky asked.
- Yes, for a fee.
- I think it will not be a secret for you that the prosecution says that the payments that were made to you from 1996 to 2003 were my “bribery” of you. Tell me, please, did you perceive these payments as bribery?
- No, I perceived these payments as a monetary reward for my activities.
- That is, I didn’t ask you to do anything that contradicted your perception of conscience and decency?
- No, Mikhail Borisovich, they did not ask.
Thus, the witness refuted the allegations made in the indictment: Khodorkovsky, having become the owner of Yukos, allegedly bribed its former leaders.
day one hundred and forty two
Sergey Uzornikov is the financial director of Enel Rus, previously an auditor of the well-known company PwC, then an employee of Yukos-Moscow and Yukos-RM. For the prosecutor's office, the witness is valuable because he was engaged in consolidated and financial reporting in Yukos, and they are interrogating him about the profits of Yukos, "brought abroad."
The prosecution has many questions about foreign companies of Yukos, including such names as Michel Sublen, Bruce Misamore (former financial director of Yukos), who is just one of the signatories of the corporate complaint to Strasbourg, which is scheduled for March 4 this year.
Everything that happened was more like an interrogation in the framework of a case that could be brought against Uzornikov himself. And in the evening, prosecutor Lakhtin turned to a delicate topic - what kind of money Uzornikov himself received while working in Yukos.
“Your honor, the prosecutor in this trial is either investigating some other criminal case against the witness, or is simply putting psychological pressure on him,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky noted.
- Oh-oh-so-soothing topic for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev! Lakhtin said loudly. “Because of the stolen funds…
“Wait a minute to tell about the stolen goods,” said lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant.
Khodorkovsky also wanted to add something, but the prosecutor interrupted him:
- So, sit down, Khodorkovsky! From the stolen funds, appropriate remunerations were paid to employees in the form of bonuses. So the defendants get up and interrupt me.
“Your Honor, I ask you to draw the attention of the distinguished prosecutor to the fact that I was not charged with paying, firstly, the stolen funds, and, secondly, the payment of money or rewards from the stolen funds. I was charged with stealing oil! Khodorkovsky once again informed the court. - And do not mislead the witness that his wages were paid from "stolen funds." This is not in my charge!
The judge did not make any remarks to anyone. Prosecutors continued:
— Who determined the amount in contracts for the provision of consulting services?
“I don’t know who exactly,” the witness answered nervously.
- Were these funds transferred to you in some bank or were they issued in cash at the cash desk of the enterprise?
- "At the box office of the enterprise"? Lebedev laughed along with the audience. What zoo did you get caught in?
- What is not clear here ?! I get paid in cash. I am also interested in how ... - the prosecutor began to explain.
- The question is removed! the judge ruled.
day one hundred and forty three
Yesterday's witness was never released. Lakhtin read out his testimony given during the investigation. In the opinion of the prosecutor, in the current “not all the nuances” are disclosed ... True, there was one but, which the prosecutor kept silent about.
“The witness was not interrogated in our criminal case,” said Platon Lebedev.
As it turned out, Uzornikov was interrogated in the framework of the “YUKOS mother case” currently being investigated - No. 18 / 41-03 ...
The judge was not bothered. And it began. Investigators Mikhailov and Johann questioned Uzornikov about the same things that the prosecutors had the day before: about where the company's profits were made, and about the employees who "hid" abroad. Uzornikov told the investigators that by 2003, the "main node" where almost all of the Yukos funds that were "withdrawn abroad" began to accumulate was the Britany company. After 2003, according to him, 6 billion dollars were withdrawn abroad, and part of this money from Britannia was formalized by issuing a loan to another Yukos subsidiary, Yukos Capital Sarow.
“Name specifically the persons who, after 2003, continued to direct the processes of disposing of YUKOS profits?
- ... The management of the issues of financial redistribution remained with the former management of Yukos (Misamor is the same), who went abroad <...> That is, all the international assets of Yukos began to be managed by someone from abroad <...>.
With that, the accusation ended the reading. Thus, the court was hinted at: a) the origin of Yukos' profits is a complete crime; b) profits from Russia sailed away seriously and for a long time. Why this was done, if we exclude the psychological moment, is a mystery, because these testimonies of the witness refuted the accusation: if there was a profit, then there was no embezzlement as a result of which this profit was formed.
Khodorkovsky began the interrogation:
- The prosecution, Sergei Evgenievich, assumes that in one year, having received a profit on some company included in the Yukos consolidation perimeter, the next year we excluded this company from the consolidation perimeter along with its profit. And we are talking about billions of dollars. You worked from 2000 to 2003 with the consolidated financial statements of Yukos. Was there such a thing?
- I don't remember that. There was no such thing.
Q.E.D. Further, the former head of Yukos was interested in what Yukos profits were spent on. The witness clearly explained: dividends, capital investments, expenses for investments in enterprises.
In the "aquarium" Khodorkovsky set up an easel and began to record the witness's answers on paper. 15.8 million dollars - the total profit of the company for 1999-2003, 17.3 billion rubles - a loss for a difficult 1998 ...
— Please remove the question! The witness is not the author of the consolidated financial statements. Let Khodorkovsky invite the author of the consolidated financial statements to court.
“I was the author of the consolidated financial statements,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky noted, and moved on to Uzornikov’s conclusions during the investigation, in particular, to the assertion that the Britany company had $6 billion. But Uzornikov, who during the investigation called Britannia “the main hub for the accumulation of all Yukos funds,” now did not remember anything.