The news is already being reported by AFP, the AP, and the BBC. Below is his full statement to the court, as well as some of the slides he presented which show that the charges brought by the prosecutors fail to demonstrate any criminal act. Read more about today's events in court at khodorkovskycenter.com.
to Federal Judge V.N. Danilkin
from
M.B. Khodorkovsky
STATEMENT
(in relation to guilt under the charges that have been brought)
I will formulate how I have understood them after all the indistinct explanations. If I make a mistake, - I ask the court to correct it.
The charge of theft in the period from 6 through 12 November of the
year 1998, of blocks of shares in subsidiary companies belonging to
VNK, entrusted to me by the owner, in secret from the owner, under
contract (Art. 160 (3)).
I do not admit myself guilty, because:
- The will of the owner existed, expressed in a valid contract.
- None of the shareholders contested the contract.
- Shareholders, auditors, and state agencies had been informed (the latter by myself personally among others).
- The swap agreement was right from the start not final, but a REPO, i.e. with a reverse swap, which was carried out in 2001.
- The contract was not one without exchange for value, but a swap, i.e. with reciprocal consideration, having a market value.
- The objective of the transaction was not seizure without exchange for value, but a temporary exchange with the objective of protection from a raider.
- I, as representative of the main (parent) company, controlled the safekeeping of the property and approved its use in the interests of VNK and with mediation - of YUKOS. VNK had no other will, besides my own, and it could not have one by law.
- Damage, even in the form of foregone benefit, was not caused. The
RFFI [Russian Federal Property Fund] included the shares mentioned in
an assessment of the VNK block during its realisation in the year 2002,
various other shareholders performed the exchange of their shares for
YUKOS shares and never contested this exchange. And now they can not -
YUKOS is no more.
The charge of «laundering» the registered shares of VNK subsidiaries in the period from 1998 through 2000.
I do not admit guilt, because my professional experience guarantees the impossibility of me having intent to «conceal the source of origin» of the controlling block of registered shares, all the more so by way of their transfer per accounting records in the register.
My intent - protection of the blocks from a raider attack - is ordinary, understandable and corresponds to the real factual steps. As the representative of the main (parent) company, I had the right to grant or approve the authority to realise these steps. My management decisions are not contested by anybody, while in connection with the liquidation of VNK 5 years ago they can no longer be contested. And on the contrary, they are confirmed by many years' worth of implicative actions of other shareholders, including the state, with respect to the approval of annual reports, with respect to the realisation of the given property in open tenders - both within the composition of VNK in 2002 and separately in 2007.
With respect to the charge of theft of the oil of YUKOS from 1998 through 2003 by way of «transfer onto the balance-sheet» of entrusted property in secret from the owner (slides 4, 9).
Guilty I do not admit myself, because the fact of the seizure (physical removal from possession) and/or the conversion (i.e. segregation and/or concealment) of the oil is not established and is not described.
The method of seizure (physical removal from possession) and/or conversion (i.e. segregation and/or concealment) of 350 mln. t of fluid indicated in the bill of indictment is knowingly deprived of meaningful content. But this is not even important, in connection with the absence of a description of the actual fact of the seizure and/or conversion.
With respect to the charge of laundering oil and the oil products into proceeds, and of the proceeds - into expenditures of YUKOS and the lawful dividends of shareholders.
I do not admit myself guilty, because the fact of the secret seizure of oil from the possession of the owner is not established and is not described. Furthermore, I consider that my professional experience does not allow assuming the presence in me of intent to conceal the source of origin of YUKOS oil, which is directly indicated both in «Transneft»'s routing telegrams and in customs declarations, as well as the source of origin of the proceeds of the oil company, reflected in the publicly accessible and disseminated consolidated balance-sheet, - «proceeds from the realisation of oil and oil products».
M.B. Khodorkovsky
