Court finds Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty of appropriating Apatit funds

The Meshchansky District Court found ex-head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and head of Menatep group Platon Lebedev guilty of embezzling the funds received by Apatit for the sale of apatite concentrate. According to the results of investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General's office, the defendants used a network of controlled organizations to sell apatite concentrate to intermediaries for lower prices. In their turn, the intermediaries re-sold the concentrate for market prices. As a result, during 2000-2002, Khodorkovsky received profits in the amount of 6,168,043,000 rubles ($1 = 27.97 rubles), the prosecutors claim.

The prosecution believes such actions caused grave harm to the state, which owns 20% of Apatite's stake, and to other shareholders.