On Wednesday, police searched the offices of Russian companies
that did business with Yukos, and Dutch police searched the
Amsterdam office of a Yukos subsidiary that manages the oil
company's overseas assets. Prosecutors said the searches were
part of an investigation into a $7 billion money-laundering
scheme.
If anyone should be man of the year, it's Putin. In recent postings
we've examined Russia's key leadership role in today's geopolitics,
at the center of global initiatives to check the power of the Anglo-
American oil pirates. Here he continues to clean up the nest of
domestic traitors.
Drel's law office was searched as part of the probe. Police
also pored through files and computers at a nongovernmental
organization, the Open Russia Foundation, which was set up in
2001 by Khodorkovsky to promote exchanges with the West.
And guess who's on the board of the "Open Russia Foundation"?
http://www.openrussiafoundation.org/Board_of_Trustees.asp
The Board of Trustees
The Honourable Henry Kissinger
The Honourable Arthur Hartman
Lord Jacob Rothschild, OM GBE
Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky
Who's Arthur Hartman?
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Arthur_Hartman
...in 1981 President Ronald Reagan named him Ambassador to
the Soviet Union, a post he held for over five years. Ambassador
Hartman retired from public service in 1987 as a Career
Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service."
Who's Jacob Rothschild?
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jacob_Rothschild
Lord Jacob Rothschild , OM GBE was born Nathaniel Charles
Jacob Rothschild , the fourth Baron Rothschild. He is head of
the English branch of the Rothschild family and chairman of
RIT Capital Partners plc .
need I say more?
rkm
--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100600814.html
washingtonpost.com
Raids on Yukos Affiliates Presage New Charges
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 7, 2005; A15
MOSCOW, Oct. 6 -- Russian prosecutors have launched a series
of raids at banks, businesses and offices associated with the
foundering oil company Yukos and its founder, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, in what appears to be the preamble to new
charges against the jailed magnate.
On Wednesday, police searched the offices of Russian companies
that did business with Yukos, and Dutch police searched the
Amsterdam office of a Yukos subsidiary that manages the oil
company's overseas assets. Prosecutors said the searches were
part of an investigation into a $7 billion money-laundering
scheme.
The Russian business daily Kommersant reported that new
charges against Khodorkovsky were imminent. He "won't be
surprised by the most absurd new charges that might be brought
against him in response to continuing public and political
activities," one of his attorneys, Anton Drel, told reporters
Thursday. "For two years we have been witnessing a tragedy of
justice. Now it is time for a farce."
Drel's law office was searched as part of the probe. Police
also pored through files and computers at a nongovernmental
organization, the Open Russia Foundation, which was set up in
2001 by Khodorkovsky to promote exchanges with the West.
On Thursday, another of Khodorkovsky's lawyers, Olga
Artyukhova, was disbarred by the Moscow Chamber of Lawyers,
the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The money-laundering probe is apparently related to Fargoil, a
Yukos subsidiary, which prosecutors first said they were
investigating two years ago. Prosecutors have charged that
Yukos used Fargoil to siphon billions of dollars from oil
sales illegally into offshore accounts.
"The investigation has information that between 2000 and 2003
some executives and members of the staff of Yukos stole and
laundered $7 billion by means of taking these funds out of the
country," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. After
the raids, the prosecutor's office said it had seized
"accounting reports, stock transactions, supplements to
contracts listing dummy and offshore companies, electronic
databases, seals and forms of other organizations."
Officials at Yukos have denied the allegations, saying that
the company's use of Fargoil and another subsidiary, Ratibor,
was completely open.
The fallen magnate's supporters say his prosecution was
instigated by the Kremlin to silence a political rival. With
time served and good behavior, Khodorkovsky could be eligible
for release before presidential elections in 2008, but fresh
charges would likely extend his prison time even if he is not
ultimately convicted.
Moreover, if he is the subject of a new investigation,
Khodorkovsky can be kept at a pretrial detention center in
Moscow, where he is now held under close monitoring. "We are
in no doubt that the authorities will use any pretext to keep
him where he is and to maintain full control over him,"
another of Khodorkovsky's attorneys, Yevgeny Baru, told Echo
Moskvy radio.
Last December, a state-owned company, Rosneft, bought Yukos's
prize asset, the Yuganskneftegaz oil fields, which yield 1
million barrels a day. The state forced its sale by auction to
recover some of the $28 billion in back taxes that it says
Yukos owes.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
--
http://cyberjournal.org
"Apocalypse Now and the Brave New World"
http://www.cyberjournal.org/cj/rkm/Apocalypse_and_NWO.html
List archives:
http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists=newslog
Subscribe to low-traffic list:
•••@••.•••
