Yukos Founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of six out of seven charges of fraud and tax evasion when the reading of his verdict finally concluded.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison after an 11 month long trial. It took twelve days just for the judges to get through reading the verdict after it was postponed. The sentence will more than likely be increased, as the judges are preparing to bring more charges against him.
Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky’s business partner, who was also on trial, received the same sentence. Lawyers of both defendants will appeal the verdict and are expected to do so within the next 10 days, which is the time allowed under Russian law. Andrei Krainov, another defendant in tthe case, was only given a five-and-a-half-year suspended sentence.
“Khodorkovsky and Lebedev entered into an organized group with the aim of illegally appropriating other people’s property and then selling the assets for their own gain,” chief judge Irina Kolesnikova said. “The court finds (the defense arguments) to be groundless.”
The court is not expected to consider the petition to reverse the judgment on the case until September of this year according toKhodorkovsky’s lawyer, Genrikh Padva. RIA Novosti reports:
Padva said the defense would lodge an appeal against the ruling in the Moscow City Court, a superior court, within ten days after it gets hold of the copy of the sentence. “It will take a long time too. I don’t know when the application for reversing the judgment will be considered – in September or October,” the lawyer said in a live interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
He specified that all the parties to the process would have to study the many-volume minutes of the court sessions.
Yukos itself used to be worth $40 billion, but that amount has sunk like a brick in water since the arrest of Khodorkovsky. The company’s shares have fallen by 95%.
“Any time the business community sees something that impacts business and doesn’t really understand why, then that’s a setback because then businesses will not want to invest,” said US commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Ealier this year, Yukos was acquired by a state-controlled oil company at a controversial auction. The company’s back tax bills totaled up to nearly $28 billion.
Chris is a staff writer for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
