A Moscow court on Monday sentenced two former executives of one-time Russian oil major Yukos to prison for embezzlement and money laundering, Russian news agencies reported.
The Basmanny District Court gave Vladimir Malakhovsky, former head of Yukos subsidiary Ratibor, a 12-year term and Vladimir Pereverzin, ex-deputy director of Yukos' external debt division, 11 years.
The court said the two had embezzled US$13 billion and subsequently laundered US$8.5 billion of that sum.
The Basmanny court also ruled in favor of oil-production facilities Yuganskneftegaz, Samaraneftegaz and Tomskneft, which had sued for a total of US$13 billion. All of those facilities have either been sold by Yukos recently or are expected to be sold soon.
A third defendant--Antonio Valdez Garcia, a Spanish citizen and former head of Yukos subsidiary Fargoil--was reported missing last month while reportedly under house arrest. Garcia's hearings have been stopped for the time being, Interfax reported.
"The defendants ... bought crude oil at artificially low prices via Yukos subsidiaries, then selling the oil at higher prices," the court's decision read, according to Itar-Tass.
The decision, which was read over the course of three days in a closed session, said Malakhovsky and Pereverzin sold crude for 3.5 times the price they bought it at.
It also ruled the pair were members of an organized crime group and in addition to embezzlement and money laundering found them guilty of "other illegal machinations," Interfax reported.
Yukos, once the country's largest oil producer, has been reduced to bankruptcy as a result of a US$25-billion backtax campaign begun after the arrest of founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev on charges of tax fraud.
Proponents of the pair, who while serving out 8-year prison sentences were charged last month with embezzling US$32 billion, allege the charges are revenge for Khodorkovsky's political activities.
On Monday, lawyers for Malakhovsky and Pereverzin said the two would appeal their sentence, which Pereverzin called "absurd" and the lawyers said were illegal, Itar-Tass reported.
Prosecutors, who had asked for 11 years of imprisonment for both defendants, said they were satisfied with the sentences, according to the news agency.
(Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 05/03/2007)