Russia's Khodorkovsky found guilty of four charges

[Scurrilous]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=760590

<snip>

"Judges on Monday found Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of four charges in his fraud trial at the end of a 22-month case in which his YUKOS oil firm has been torn apart.

Khodorkovsky, who is on trial with business associate Platon Lebedev, was convicted of theft with conspiracy, damage to property rights via fraud, malicious failure to obey a court order and personal tax evasion.

Judges still had to announce their verdicts on three remaining charges. Sentence was due to be passed later.
The 11-month trial has scared investors and soured President Vladimir Putin's image abroad."

<snip>

"The billionaire and Lebedev face seven counts of fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion and theft that have their roots in alleged deals going back to the murky days of post-Soviet privatization in the mid-1990s.

The affair, widely seen as part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy Khodorkovsky for his political ambitions, has drawn criticism from the United States.
Khodorkovsky was arrested 17 months ago and has been held in prison. His YUKOS oil firm has since been crushed under the weight of a $27.5 billion back-tax bill."

[0007]

1. This doesn't sound good!

[lies and propaganda]

2. wouldnt it be awesome .....

if that said Ken Lay instead? Ha.

[Scurrilous]

3. The 5-Minute Briefing: The Mikhail Khodorkovsy verdict

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=638628

<snip>

Who is he?

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, 41, used to be Russia's richest oligarch or businessman. Forbes magazine estimated that the tycoon was worth $15.2bn (€8.2bn) at the height of his powers. However, his wealth is reckoned to have shrunk to $2bn since he was arrested at gunpoint and thrown into jail 18 months ago. He made his millions by buying formerly state-owned assets on the cheap after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. He founded a bank and then built what was widely considered to be Russia's most successful oil company, Yukos, most of which has, in effect, been renationalised. Like many of the other oligarchs who became rich in the 1990s, Khodorkovsky is Jewish.

What is he accused of?

Of not paying his taxes and of buying up the assets that made him wealthy for a fraction of their worth in a series of rigged, insider auctions. Of being part of a "criminal enterprise" that defrauded and embezzled money from the Russian state to the tune of $1bn.

What do his supporters make of the charges?

Not much. They contend that the charges are trumped up and that he is being punished for having dared to upbraid President Vladimir Putin on television for doing too little to root out corruption and started funding opposition parties. The Kremlin, it is argued, thought he was getting too big for his boots. He also allegedly broke an informal pact the oligarchs made with the Kremlin never to become involved in politics. Russian liberals compare his ordeal to the show trials orchestrated by Josef Stalin in the 1930s.

What do the Russian people make of his trial?

There isn't much sympathy for Khodorkovsky among ordinary Russians who view most oligarchs as slippery crooks who stole from the state. Soviet-era state benefits have recently been cut back and a third of the population lives below the poverty line. However, Russia's liberal opposition has rallied around Khodorkovsky.

[salib]

4. Also, the UK is VERY skewed on this one.

Those Russian Oligarchs, the same ones who were hvaing residents "rubbed out" in "rent controlled" property in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and did indeed rape the economy for whatever they could, set up pyramid investment schemes that would make anything in the US look tame. These guys are the worst of the profiteering type. It is pathetic that anyone would feel sorry for them, or support them. Live by ruthlessness, die by ruthlessness.

Still, it is at least some form of legal due process that is being followed. THis is not simply a "show trial." It is simply a reflection of the fear of all of his "buddies" that they may have to face the same music.

Yeah, it would be wonderful to hear that it was Lay who was being convicted. It is good that at least one of them in Russia has been forced to own up.