Class-action suit filed against Yukos in US

In the meantime, the state prosecutor started reading the indictment on Platon Lebedev's case

Class-action lawsuit against oil giant Yukos has been filed in the US, Prime-Tass reported with reference to Connecticut-based law firm Scott+Scott LLC. The lawsuit was filed on the behalf of investors. Plaintiffs affirm, Yukos has violated American federal laws. They believe the company's spokespeople have created a network of fake enterprises to avoid the taxation of oil production, refining and sale.

Yukos's major shareholders have announced their intention today to call a special prescheduled meeting of shareholders. The meeting will be devoted to the question of removing the company's  board of directors chairman Viktor Geraschshenko from the position. Shareholders will gather for the meeting in connection with the request from company’s former head Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

In the meantime, State Prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin started reading the indictment today issued against Menatep head Platon Lebedev in a Moscow district court. The prosecutor confirmed the charges against Lebedev. Shokhin stated, when Platon Lebedev was the president of Menatep Bank in 1994, he became a member of an organized criminal group. The group was formed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky to fraudulently acquire the shares of Russian enterprises during privatization. The prosecutor said, Khodorkovsky was supposed to lead and supervise the activities of the group, while Lebedev gave bank guarantees to commercial organizations used to acquire the shares of privatized companies. 

Dmitry Shokhin noted, both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were aware of the fact that those commercial organizations did not have any indications of a legal entity. In fact, the organizations were fake. The Office of the Prosecutor General believes Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky acquired the state-owned 20-percent shareholding of the company Apatit in the sum of more than $283 million.