Speaking from behind the bars of a courtroom cage, Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky offered on Monday to relinquish his stake in the beleaguered oil company Yukos to pay its tax debt.
The offer came on the first day of Khodorkovsky’s fraud and tax evasion trial since the state moved toward seizing Yukos assets as collateral for the multibillion-dollar tax claim. Khodorkovsky said he and his partners are prepared to give up their 44% stake in Yukos, the Interfax news agency reported.
”If the government considers saving the company from bankruptcy to be necessary and in its interests, it is possible to ‘unfreeze’ the packet of Yukos shares belonging to me and my partners. And then we are prepared to give this packet to the Yukos management in order to eliminate the company’s tax debt,” Khodorkovsky was quoted as saying through lawyers.
Khodorkovsky had made a similar offer last week.
Khodorkovsky and his close associate Platon Lebedev are being tried on charges including tax evasion and fraud in connection with their activities as core shareholders in Yukos. Both face prison terms of up to 10 years if convicted.
Their trial is part of a complex web of legal cases against Yukos and its owners, which the government insists is part of as a drive against corruption. Many observers, however, say the legal campaign has more to do with the Kremlin’s displeasure over Khodorkovsky’s political activities in the run-up to last year’s parliamentary elections and his increasing financial and political clout.
The Moscow Arbitration Court ruled late last month that Yukos must pay 99,4-billion rubles (US$3,4-billion) for a 2000 back taxes claim, while the Russian Tax Service sent the company a new demand for a nearly identical amount in back taxes for 2001. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said that the company could expect more tax claims for the following years.
Bailiffs last week began work to freeze accounts in Yukos’ daughter production companies in Siberia.
Interfax reported earlier that Yukos offered to voluntarily pay US$8-billion in back taxes from 2000-2003 if it is given three years to make the payments. But the government has said it won’t restructure the bill and has shown no enthusiasm for the other proposals, including Khodorkovsky’s offer to give up his stock.
Khodorkovsky said on Monday that that he is prepared for ”any method of saving the company, absolutely any.”
Citing a high-level source in Yukos, Interfax reported that the offer to pay US$8-billion was made to the government by Yukos CEO Steven Theede on Thursday. But analysts said the government is unlikely to consider the proposal.
”Why sully the country’s reputation when they’ve gone down this path only to back off at the end?” said James Fenkner, head of research at the Troika Dialog brokerage in Moscow.
”If there was a time to do a deal it was a year ago.”
The government’s position has led to speculation that it intends to seize choice Yukos assets and redistribute them to Kremlin-friendly hands.
At Monday’s hearing, the court rejected a defense-supported request from journalists and a rights organization to organize broadcasts of the proceedings by setting up a microphone in the courtroom, defense lawyer Yuri Shmidt said.
He said the prosecutor had argued that the broadcasts would distract participants.
Only a handful of journalists have been allowed into the courtroom for the trial, which Russian president Vladimir Putin said should be open.
The judges also rejected three defense motions related to Lebedev’s health – one requesting an independent medical exam, while another requests his release from jail. The third motion requests a halt in the trial pending a diagnosis.
Outside the court, Toronto-based lawyer Robert Amsterdam said Lebedev’s health has deteriorated since his jailing last July, particularly in recent weeks. ”He can hardly stand,” Amsterdam said.
Sitting in a cage in the courtroom, both defendants looked more glum than in their first joint appearance last month. Khodorkovsky wore a black polo shirt and jeans, while Lebedev, clad in a tracksuit, read newspapers and passed a bottle of what looked like milk back and forth between his hands.
In a rare and minor victory for the defense, the court satisfied a motion to include information about Lebedev’s health from a Western doctor, John O’Grady of the Institute of Liver Studies at King’s College Hospital in London, in the case documents despite the prosecutor’s opposition.
In a letter distributed by a representative of the defendants, O’Grady said that while the official diagnosis has been chronic persistent hepatitis, he believes Lebedev may be suffering from cirrhosis or cancer.
A defense lawyer, Yevgeny Baru, said Lebedev has not been examined in four months. — Sapa-AP