| Date: | Friday October 24, @08:16PM |
|---|---|
| Author: | admin |
| Topic: | Corporate Crime |
| from the AP dept. | |
Update: Yukos Oil Names U.S..
Citizens as New Chief Executive (11/04)
By DEBORAH SEWARD, Associated Press Writer
AP -October 25
MOSCOW - Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of Russia's largest oil producer, Yukos, was detained early Saturday by security forces at an airport in Siberia, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Yukos company officials.
Special forces in camouflage and black uniform boarded the plane, reportedly shouting "FSB, put your weapons down or we'll shoot." The FSB is the acronym for the Federal Security Service, a successor of the Soviet-era KGB. A representative of the security forces then told Khodorkovsky to accompany them and he agreed.
For months, the Russian prosecutor's office has been investigating Yukos company officials and Yukos shareholders seeking evidence of tax evasion and theft of state property.
When the plane landed in Novosibirsk shortly before dawn, two buses full of men in camouflage drove up the plane. Khodorovsky was taken away from the airport. "At present, the oil company Yukos is unaware of the whereabouts of M. Khodorkovsky," Interfax quoted Shadrin as saying.
AP -November 4
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's embattled Yukos oil giant said Tuesday that it had appointed a U.S. citizen as new chief executive to replace Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been jailed on charges of fraud and tax evasion in what some see as a politically driven probe. In a brief statement, Yukos said it had appointed Simon Kukes to the post. Khodorkovsky resigned Monday, saying he wants to deflect the blows from his company. A U.S. citizen, the Russian-born Kukes was elected chairman of Yukos' board of directors in June.
The statement said Khodorkovsky would not seek any executive position within YukosSibneft, the world's fourth largest oil company, which will be created by Yukos' agreed takeover of another major Russian oil producer, Sibneft.
The company also said it had appointed Steven Theede, an American, as executive director of Yukos-Moscow, a subsidiary under which many of Yukos' central corporate functions are incorporated. Bruce Misamore, also a U.S. citizen, remains the group's chief financial officer.
The appointment of foreigners was seen as a further attempt to protect Yukos from Russian prosecutors. Kukes was president and chief executive officer of the Tyumen Oil Company or TNK, which merged with British Petroleum's Russian subsidiary earlier this year.
Khodorkovsky's resignation came nine days after he was jailed in Moscow amid a 4-month-old investigation of the oil company that has caused the Russian stock market to plunge and raised questions about Russia's economic and political course.
The price of Yukos shares shot up by 3.9 percent in Moscow trading on Monday immediately after Khodorkovsky's announcement, ending up 12 percent at $12.65. They are still more than 20 percent below their all-time high, which was posted shortly before Khodorkovsky's arrest.
Critics say Khodorkovsky was chosen as a target by President Vladimir Putin's fellow ex-KGB officers in the Kremlin to curb his growing financial and political clout. Khodorkovsky has funded opposition parties.
Putin has denied any political motives behind the probe. He denied that the investigation was aimed at revising results of the controversial privatization of the 1990s, in which tycoons such as Khodorkovsky won quick fortunes by snapping up state assets at rock-bottom prices.
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printed from Russia Detains Head of Largest Oil Company on 2004-06-03 13:10:53