Criminal Case Launched Against Top Manager of Yukos Subsidiary Tomskneft

Tomsk region police have opened a criminal case against a senior executive at Yukos production subsidiary Tomskneft, which was earlier accused of dodging more than 1 billion rubles ($34 million) in taxes and stealing hydrocarbons.

The new criminal case against the top executive focuses on tax evasion, and while the suspect has not been named officially, the earlier investigation involved director general Nikolai Logachev, accused of engineering the alleged tax evasion, the Interfax news agency reported, citing a source in the regional police.

The law on tax evasion says that if convicted, the perpetrator can face from two to seven years in prison.

Yukos has been slapped with $7.5 billion in back tax bills for 2000 and 2001 and its main production subsidiary, Yuganskneftegaz, was handed a tax claim on Wednesday for nearly $1 billion for 2002.

As MosNews reported earlier, Tomskneft is accused of embezzlement and withholding taxes for 1999 and 2000.

(From Moscow News)