Prosecutor Says Khodorkovsky Headed Criminal Group

Detained Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky founded a criminal group that aimed to acquire shares in privatized companies fraudulently, a Russian prosecutor said Thursday.

State prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin told a Moscow court that one of Khodorkovsky's co-defendants, Platon Lebedev, had joined the group for the specific purpose of acquiring shares of big Russian companies during mass post-Soviet selloffs of the 1990s.


"Lebedev in 1994 joined the organized criminal group led by Mikhail Khodorkovsky with the aim of acquiring shares through deception of major Russian companies in the privatization period," Shokhin said, reading from an indictment.


Lebedev faces specific charges of unlawfully acquiring 20 percent in the Apatit fertilizer firm in 1994, valued at $283 million. He is also alleged to have hindered legal attempts to force him to return the shares to the state.


Khodorkovsky, main shareholder in the YUKOS oil giant, has been in detention since October 2003 and is charged with massive fraud and tax evasion. The company has also been served with bills for payment of back tax of about $7 billion, which it says it cannot pay at the moment.


One of a handful of "oligarchs" who acquired colossal fortunes by buying up state property on the cheap after the end of Soviet rule, he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.


Many observers say Khodorkovsky's trial represents Kremlin retribution for the oil magnate's political ambitions.



HERE