Mikhail Khodorkovsky foundation says court has frozen its bank accounts

Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Open Russia foundation said Friday that its bank accounts had been frozen on the order of court bailiffs.

Photo: Mikhail Khodorkovsky foundation says court has frozen its bank accounts

"Today without any explanation all the ... accounts were frozen," the foundation said in a statement on its Web site.

It said that the Trast bank's security service had reported that bailiffs visited the bank on Friday.

Open Russia, which Khodorkovsky founded in 2001, said it had educational, social and rights advocacy programs under way in 48 of Russia's 88 regions.

Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion in a Siberian prison camp after a politically charged trial. The Yukos oil company he founded likewise has been carved up to pay off billions of dollars in back taxes, in what observers say was punishment for Khodorkovsky's political ambitions and a step to reassert state influence over the strategically important oil sector, reports the AP.

D.M.