Judge says Khodorkovsky guilty of money laundering

[Dong Zhuo]

Judge says Khodorkovsky guilty of money laundering

MOSCOW, Dec. 27 | Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:00am EST

MOSCOW, Dec. 27 (Reuters) - A Russian judge on Monday found jailed ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of laundering stolen oil funds, a key charge in the second trial against the former head of oil major Yukos.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, and his business partner Platon Lebedev were also pronouced guilty of stealing oil from the now defunct Yukos.

(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk and Maria Tsvetkova; writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Steve Gutterman)

 

[Dong Zhuo]

Khodorkovsky found guilty in test for Russia

Jailed Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky stands in the defendants' cage as a judge reads the verdict in his second trial in Moscow December 27, 2010. A Russian judge said on Monday that Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were guilty of embezzling property, the main charge in the second trial against the jailed former oil tycoon. Credit: Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva

By Alexei Anishchuk and Maria Tsvetkova

MOSCOW | Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:52am EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Russian ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of money laundering and theft of billions of dollars on Monday at a trial that has renewed doubts about the Kremlin's commitment to the rule of law.

Khodorkovsky's lead defense lawyer told Reuters he would appeal the verdict, which government critics say suggests longstanding Kremlin promises to reform a court system marred by corruption and political influence are insincere.

Prosecutors are seeking an additional six-year prison term for the former Yukos oil company CEO but it could take judge Viktor Danilkin days to read what lawyers said was a 250-page verdict and announce a sentence.

Khodorkovsky is in the last year of an eight-year sentence imposed in 2005 after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial that shaped Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency.

Now prime minister but the dominant figure in Russia's ruling tandem with President Dmitry Medvedev, Putin this month said Khodorkovsky had blood on his hands and that "a thief must be in jail."

Khodorkovsky's lawyers said the comments in a December 16 television appearance were designed to exert influence in the case, which has accentuated a sense of personal rivalry between Putin and a business mogul who was once Russia's richest man.

"What we are hearing leaves us no doubt that pressure was put on the court -- that the court was not free when adopting this decision," lead defense lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said during a brief break in Danilkin's rushed verdict reading.

Medvedev signaled his disapproval of Putin's comments, saying in a nationally televised interview on Friday that no official had the right to comment before a verdict was reached. Putin said later he was referring to Khodorkovsky's first conviction.

The current trial has been closely watched in Russia and abroad ahead of a 2012 presidential election that could put Putin back in the Kremlin.

The European Union was following the verdict "very closely" and "expects Russia to respect its international commitments in the field of human rights and the rule of law," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

GUILTY VERDICT

In the Moscow courtroom judge Danilkin said the court had established that Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev "carried out the embezzlement of property entrusted to the defendants."

The judge said the two men were also guilty of laundering stolen oil funds. Enclosed in a glass-and-steel courtroom cage, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev pointedly ignored the judge as he read out the widely expected guilty verdict, talking to each other in hushed tones and reading.

Hundreds of protestors gathered in sub-zero weather outside Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court, holding pictures of the defendants and chanting "Freedom!" and "Shame!"

Itar-Tass news agency said some 30 were detained. Prosecutors say Khodorkovsky stole $27 billion in oil from Yukos subsidiaries through pricing schemes and laundered some of the money, charges his lawyers dismissed as an absurd, politically motivated pretext to keep him behind bars.

The verdict "is meant to show that the boss in our country is Putin," said Yuri Korgunyuk, an analyst at Indem think-tank. Putin dominates a ruling tandem with Medvedev even though as prime minister, he is subordinate to the protege he steered into the presidency in 2008.

Both men say they will decide together who will run for president in 2012 as the Kremlin's shoo-in candidate, but many Russians suspect it is Putin who will make the choice.

JUSTICE SYSTEM

Monday's conviction deepens doubts that Medvedev, who has championed a progressive Russia underpinned by the rule of law, will shed Putin's shadow and bring meaningful change to Russia.

Despite Medvedev's public urgings, little progress has been visible and Russians who support those goals fear his talk amounts to little more than window-dressing for Putin's more restrictive policies and his continued rule.

A six-year sentence would keep Khodorkovsky in jail until late 2017, close to the end of six-year term of the president elected in 2012 -- keeping him out of electoral politics and shadowing Medvedev if he stays in the Kremlin.

Khodorkovsky fell foul of the Kremlin during Putin's first term after he aired corruption allegations, challenged the state's control over oil exports and funded opposition parties.

After his arrest in 2003, Yukos was bankrupted by back-tax claims and its assets sold off, most ending up in state hands, deepening Western concerns about property rights and the rule of law in Russia under Putin.

Russia's markets showed no immediate reaction to the verdict, with the MICEX stocks index and the rouble holding on to modest losses on year-end profit-taking.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel, Thomas Grove and John Bowker; writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Jon Boyle)

 

[Dong Zhuo]

Convicted Khodorkovsky faces six more years in jail

Tom Parfitt

<cite>December 27, 2010
</cite>

Guilty ... Mikhail Khodorkovsky in court yesterday. Photo: AFP

MOSCOW:The jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty yesterday in his second trial, this time on charges of embezzlement. A Moscow court also found his co-accused, Platon Lebedev, guilty of embezzlement, the Itar-TASS agency reported.

Yesterday's judgment followed revelations in secret cables made public by WikiLeaks that US diplomats believed Khodorkovsky's trial showed the Kremlin preserved a ''cynical system where political enemies are eliminated with impunity''.

<small></small>Attempts by the Russian government to show the rule of law was being respected during Khodorkovsky's trial were ''lipstick on a political pig'', according to a cable from the US embassy in Moscow last December.

Vadim Klyuvgant, the lead defence lawyer, said: ''The trial was a charade of justice, the charges were absolutely false, but I fear the sentencing will be very real.''

Khodorkovsky, 47, an oil tycoon who was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to eight years' jail for fraud two years later, appeared in court in Moscow yesterday to hear the guilty verdict.

Supporters of the man, once Russia's richest, say the Kremlin ordered the prosecutions in revenge for his funding of opposition parties.

Khodorkovsky could now get six more years in jail at the end of his current sentence, due to end in October. He will be sentenced this week or after January 10 when Russia's New Year holidays end, the lawyers said.

While US officials have publicly criticised the trial, which began in March last year, the baldness of the language in the secret cables is striking.

Writing to Washington last December, a political officer in the US embassy in Moscow noted that one international legal expert believed the trial judge was trying to give Khodorkovsky's defence lawyers a chance.

However, in a withering assessment, the officer adds: ''The fact that legal procedures are apparently being meticulously followed in a case whose motivation is clearly political may appear paradoxical.

''It shows the effort that the [government of Russia] is willing to expend in order to save face … by applying a superficial rule-of-law gloss to a cynical system where political enemies are eliminated with impunity.''

The diplomat's assessment reaffirms those made in US cables made public earlier by WikiLeaks, in which Russia is described as a kleptocratic ''Mafia state'' in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are inextricably linked.

It refers obliquely to a meeting in 2000 when Vladimir Putin, then president, met Khodorkovsky and 20 other oligarchs and reportedly warned them to stay out of politics in return for their businesses being left in peace.

''There is a widespread understanding,'' writes the diplomat, ''that Khodorkovsky violated the tacit rules of the game: if you keep out of politics, you can line your pockets as much as you desire.''

Mr Putin, now Prime Minister, brushed off criticism of the trial. Russia had ''one of the most humane court systems in the world''. He said: ''It is my conviction that a thief should be in jail.''

Yukos, Khodorkovsky's oil company, was confiscated and sold to state-controlled firms after his conviction. Last week he mocked Mr Putin's recent television appearances with his dog, Buffy. ''Love of dogs is the only sincere, good feeling that pierces through the icy armour,'' he wrote. ''A love of dogs has become a substitute for a love of people.''

A source close to Khodorkovsky predicted he ''would likely remain in prison as long as the Putin administration is in power'', according to the secret US cables.

Guardian News & Media, Agence France-Presse