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Testo originale e tradotto della sentenza selezionata

CASE OF KHODORKOVSKIY AND LEBEDEV v. RUSSIA

Tipologia: Sentenza
Importanza: 2
Articoli: 41, 03, 34, 05, 06, 07, 08, 18, P1-1
Numero: 11082/06/2013
Stato: Russia
Data: 2013-07-25 00:00:00
Organo: Sezione Prima
Testo Originale

Testo Tradotto

Conclusions:
No violation of Article 3 – Prohibition of torture (Article 3 – Degrading treatment Inhuman treatment) (Substantive aspect)
Violation of Article 3 – Prohibition of torture (Article 3 – Degrading treatment) (Substantive aspect)
Violation of Article 5 – Right to liberty and security (Article 5-3 – Length of pre-trial detention Reasonableness of pre-trial detention)
Violation of Article 5 – Right to liberty and security (Article 5-4 – Procedural guarantees of review Review of lawfulness of detention
Speediness of review) No violation of Article 5 – Right to liberty and security (Article 5-4 – Procedural guarantees of review
Review of lawfulness of detention Speediness of review)
No violation of Article 6 – Right to a fair trial (Article 6 – Criminal proceedings Article 6-1 – Impartial tribunal)
Violation of Article 6+6-3-c – Right to a fair trial (Article 6 – Criminal proceedings Article 6-1 – Fair hearing) (Article 6 – Right to a fair trial
Article 6-3-c – Defence through legal assistance)
Violation of Article 6+6-3-d – Right to a fair trial (Article 6 – Criminal proceedings Article 6-1 – Fair hearing
Equality of arms) (Article 6 – Right to a fair trial
Article 6-3-d – Examination of witnesses)
No violation of Article 7 – No punishment without law (Article 7-1 – Nullum crimen sine lege
Criminal offence)
Violation of Article 8 – Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8-1 – Respect for family life
Respect for private life)
Violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 – Protection of property (Article 1 para. 1 of Protocol No. 1 – Peaceful enjoyment of possessions
Possessions)
No violation of Article 18 – Limitation on use of restrictions on rights (Article 18 – Restrictions for unauthorised purposes)
Violation of Article 34 – Individual applications (Article 34 – Hinder the exercise of the right of petition)
Non-pecuniary damage – award
Pecuniary damage – claim dismissed

FIRST SECTION

CASE OF KHODORKOVSKIY AND LEBEDEV v. RUSSIA

(Applications nos. 11082/06 and 13772/05)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG

25 July 2013

This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of Khodorkovskiy and Lebedev v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Chamber), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre, President,
Khanlar Hajiyev,
Mirjana Lazarova,
Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos,
Erik Møse,
Ksenija Turković,
Dmitry Dedov, judges,
and Søren Nielsen, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 2 July 2013,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in two applications (nos. 11082/06 and 13772/05) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by two Russian nationals, Mr Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovskiy (“the first applicant”) and Mr Platon Leonidovich Lebedev (“the second applicant”) on 16 March 2006 and on 28 March 2005 respectively.
2. Each applicant was represented by a group of lawyers. The legal team for the first applicant included Mrs K. Moskalenko and Mr A. Drel, lawyers practising in Moscow, Mr N. Blake QC, Lord D. Pannick QC, and Mr J. Glasson, lawyers practising in London, and Dr W. Peukert, a lawyer practising in Germany. The second applicant’s legal team included Ms Y. Liptser and Mr Y. Baru, lawyers practising in Moscow, as well as Dr W. Peukert, the late Prof A. Cassese, and Prof Ch. Tomuschat. The Russian Government (“the Government”) in the two cases were represented by Mr P. Laptev and Mrs V. Milinchuk, the former Representatives of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, and subsequently by Mr G. Matyushkin, the Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
3. The applicants complained, in particular, about their criminal conviction for tax evasion and fraud, as well as about other events related to the criminal proceedings against them. They alleged, in addition, that their prosecution was motivated by political reasons, in breach of Article 18 of the Convention.
4. By decisions of 27 May 2010 (in the second applicant’s case) and 8 November 2011 (in the first applicant’s case), the Court declared the applications partly admissible.
5. The applicants and the Government each filed further written observations on the merits (Rule 59 § 1 of the Rules of Court). The Chamber having decided, after consulting the parties, that no hearing on the merits was required (Rule 59 § 3 in fine), the parties replied in writing to each other’s observations.
6. On 2 July 2013 the Chamber decided to join the two cases, pursuant to Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court.
THE FACTS
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
7. Mr Khodorkovskiy (the first applicant) was born in 1963. He is currently serving a prison sentence in a penal colony in the Karelia Region. Mr Lebedev (the second applicant) was born in 1956 and is now serving a prison sentence in the Yamalo-Nenetskiy Region.
A. Introductory summary
8. The first applicant is the former head and one of the major shareholders of Yukos Plc, which at the relevant time was one of the largest oil companies in Russia. Before working in Yukos Plc, he was a senior manager and co-owner of the Menatep bank and the Rosprom holding (an industrial holding affiliated with Menatep) and controlled a number of other financial and industrial companies. In particular, he was the Head of the Executive Board of Yukos-Moskva Ltd and later its President. Further below the group of companies affiliated with Yukos will be referred to as “Yukos”.
9. The second applicant was the first applicant’s business partner and a close friend. In 1990s the second applicant was the chief executive of the Menatep bank and a top-manager of the Rosprom holding. From 1998 the second applicant worked as a one of the directors of Yukos-Moskva Ltd. He was also one of the major shareholders of Yukos.
10. Yukos was created as a result of the mass privatisation of the State oil and mining industry which took place in the mid-1990s. Following privatisation, new management techniques were introduced and the companies acquired by Yukos were reorganised. In particular, sales of the producing companies were re-directed to new trading companies. As a result, Yukos became one of the most successful businesses in Russia, and the first applicant was mentioned in the press as one of the richest persons in Russia.
11. Amongst other acquisitions by Yukos in the course of the privatisation were 20 per cent of the shares of a large mining company, Apatit Plc (hereinafter referred to as “Apatit”), a major supplier of the apatite concentrate in the country. The acquisition of Apatit shares gave rise to litigation in which the State Property Fund opposed Yukos. The former claimed that Yukos had failed to meet its obligations under the privatisation agreement. That litigation ended in 2002 with a friendly settlement: the State Property Fund accepted a termination fee while acknowledging the rights of Yukos to 20 per cent of Apatit shares.
12. Most of the Yukos produce was sold abroad. However, Yukos did not trade directly with foreign firms but sold its output to several Russian companies (“trading companies”) registered in the zones with special tax regime, in particular in the town of Lesnoy, situated in the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals (also referred to as the “ZATO”, an abbreviation translated as “closed administrative territorial formation”). Special taxation in Lesnoy was established by the Federal Law “On Closed Administrative-Territorial Entities” of 14 July 1992 (the “ZATO Act”). The ZATO Act was supposed to attract investors to economicly depressed areas and foster economic growth there.
13. Such mode of operation persisted for several years; Yukos trading companies were operating on the basis of “preferential taxation agreements” with the administration of the Lesnoy town. Those agreements were renewed every year since 1998. Thus, for example, on 28 January 2000 the town administration concluded a preferential tax agreement with Business Oil Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “Business Oil”), the main trading company of Yukos in Lesnoy, providing it, amongst other tax cuts, a 75 per cent reduction of the “local” part of the corporate income tax (i.e. of the part destined for the local budget). Under that agreement Business Oil was supposed to transfer a certain amount of money to the town budget (5 per cent of the amount of tax cuts obtained). A major part of the profits of Business Oil and other trading companies were later transferred on a gratuitous basis in the form of investments in the “fund for financial support for production development”, which was founded within Yukos on the basis of a resolution of the Board of Directors.
14. In addition to obtaining tax cuts, the trading companies registered in the low-tax zones paid some of their taxes not with money but with promissory notes issued by Yukos. Those notes were accepted by the local authorities as a method of payment of taxes and were later honoured by Yukos. The trading companies also enjoyed VAT exemption in respect of the oil they were selling abroad. VAT was reimbursed in monetary form from the State budget to the bank accounts of those companies. Tax audits carried out in 1999 confirmed the eligibility of Business Oil for tax cuts.
15. The applicants’ personal income consisted of the salaries they received from Yukos and the dividends from the Yukos shares they owned. In addition, both applicants earned substantial amounts of money as self-employed contractors (or “individual entrepreneurs”, in the Russian terminology), by providing consulting services to foreign firms. As “individual entrepreneurs” the applicants were entitled to preferential taxation under the Law “On Simplified Form of Taxation, Accounting and Reporting for Small Businesses” (No. FZ-222, 29 December 1995, the “Small Business Act”).
16. In 2003 the office of the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation (hereafter “the GPO”) started a criminal investigation into the business activities of Mr Khodorkovskiy and his partners. The charges against the applicants originally concerned fraudulent acquisition of Apatit and another firm during the mass privatisation of 1990s. Later the GPO charged the applicants with large-scale tax evasion. In particular, the GPO suspected that the trading companies registered in the low-tax zones were in fact sham legal entities (podstavnye, i.e. “frontman companies”; hereinafter referred to as “sham companies”) affiliated with the applicants, as they were neither present nor operated in the place of their registration, had no assets and no employees of their own but were fully controlled from the Yukos head-quarters in Moscow. Therefore, tax cuts had been obtained by them unlawfully. The tax authorities also characterised payment of taxes with promissory notes as tax evasion. Furthermore, the tax authorities suspected that the firms to which the applicants, in their private capacity, had been rendering consulting service were affiliated with them and that no services had been provided to those firms in reality.
17. In 2003 both applicants were arrested and detained on remand. That investigation led to a trial which ended with the conviction and imprisonment of the applicants. Facts related to this trial (the “first case”) are at the heart of the present case. The applicants’ prison terms have now expired; however, they both remain in prison on account of new accusations brought against them within related but separate court proceedings (the “second case”).
18. In parallel with criminal proceedings against the applicants the Russian Tax Service in 2004 lodged a claim for tax arrears owed by Yukos, which led to proceedings before the Moscow Commercial Court. Those proceedings concerned the operation of the “tax-minimisation scheme” using trading companies, described above. In the following months more claims concerning the tax situation of Yukos and its affiliates were lodged. The commercial courts granted most of the Tax Service’s claims. As a result Yukos had to declare itself insolvent and bankruptcy proceedings were started, which ended up by a forced sale of its assets and, finally, by the liquidation of the company on 12 November 2007. The company ceased to exist, leaving over RUB 227.1 billion (around 9.2 billion US dollars (USD)) in unsatisfied liabilities. For further details on the tax claims and Yukos bankruptcy see the statement of facts in the case of OAO Neftyanaya kompaniya YUKOS v. Russia (no. 14902/04, judgment of 20 September 2011), hereinafter referred to as the Yukos case.
19. In 2004 and in the following years similar tax claims (related to the operation of trading companies in various low-tax zones within Russia) were lodged against at least three other major oil companies, namely Lukoil, Sibneft, or TNK-BP. However, in respect of those companies the Government ultimately accepted a settlement; tax claims were dropped in exchange of considerable amounts paid by those companies to the State budget, which allowed those companies to survive.
B. Events preceding criminal prosecution of the two applicants
20. The applicants alleged that the criminal proceedings against them, described below, had been politically and economically motivated. In support of that assertion they referred to a large number of events which preceded the criminal proceedings against them and their partners. Those facts, in so far as relevant, are summarised below.
1. Business projects of Yukos
21. In 2002-2003 Yukos began to pursue a number of ambitious business projects which would make it one of the strongest players on the market and independent of the State. In particular, Yukos challenged the official Russian petroleum policy of tacit alignment with the OPEC policy of reducing oil production. Yukos sought instead to maximise its oil production and market share. Further, from 2003 Yukos was in the process of merging with Sibneft, another large Russian oil company. The merger was supposed to take place in two steps: firstly, completion of the deal on paper, and then unification of the new company’s management structures. The first aspect of the deal was finalised in October 2003; the second was supposed to be implemented by January 2004. Yukos was also engaged in merger talks with the US-based Exxon Mobil and Chevron Texaco companies. According to the applicants, Chevron Texaco was considering the purchase of 25 per cent of Yukos shares, while Exxon Mobil planned to buy at least 40 per cent of the future Yukos Sibneft company.
22. Yukos was also planning to build a liquid gas pipeline to the Arctic Ocean in order to export natural gas to the western part of Europe without passing through the State-controlled pipelines. Similar plans existed in respect of China; here the applicants advocated building an oil pipeline along an alternative route to that favoured by the Presidential Administration.
23. Finally, Yukos and the State-owned company Rosneft were involved in a public struggle for control over certain oil fields. Yukos was successfully competing with Gazprom, another State-owned company, on the natural gas market.
2. Political activities of the first applicant
24. In 2000 Mr Putin was elected President of the Russian Federation. One of the points of his political programme was to “liquidate the oligarchs as a class”. Furthermore, President Putin advocated, according to the applicants, the renationalisation of the oil and mining industries, which had been privatised by his predecessor in the mid-90s.
25. In 2001 the first applicant founded a non-profit NGO, the “Open Russia Foundation”. Its annual budget in 2003 amounted to approximately USD 200 million. This NGO cooperated with other Russian human rights NGOs, such as Memorial, the Moscow Helsinki Group, etc., and was involved in a number of humanitarian and educational projects across the country.
26. From at least 2002 the first applicant openly funded opposition political parties, namely Yabloko and the SPS (Union of Right Forces). He also made certain public declarations criticising anti-democratic trends in Russian internal politics. A number of his close friends and business partners became politicians. Thus, Mr Dubov and Mr Yermolin were members of the Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament); Mr Shakhnovskiy, Mr Nevzlin, Mr Guryev and Mr Bychkov were all at various times members of the upper chamber, the Federation Council.
27. The first applicant asserted that his political and business activities had been perceived by the leadership of the country as a breach of loyalty and a threat to national economic security. As a counter-measure the authorities undertook a massive attack on the applicant, his company, colleagues and friends.
3. First inquiries into business activities of Yukos in 2002-2003
(a) The GPO inquiry of 2002
28. On 6 March 2001 Business Oil, the main trading company of Yukos in the Lesnoy town at the time, terminated its operations and was removed from the register of taxpayers of the Lesnoy town. Sales of Yukos oil were henceforth conducted through other trading companies registered in other low-tax zones.
29. In July 2001 the Tax Service of the Sverdlovsk Region inspected the activities of the Lesnoy Tax Inspectorate. On 8 July 2001 it issued a report which established that tax cuts granted to Business Oil were lawful.
30. In 2002 the administration of the Lesnoy town commissioned an economic study from the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences which concerned operations of the trading companies registered in the town. The report (called “legal and economic expert review”) came to a conclusion that the impugned trading companies were all lawfully entitled to claim tax exemptions under the federal law relating to taxation in closed administrative territories. The experts also concluded that the refund of tax overpayments by Yukos promissory notes did not inflict economic loss on the budget and that the trading companies were entitled to pay tax in advance. Finally, the experts concluded that the Lesnoy town administration was entitled to accept tax payments by way of promissory notes in 1999.
31. On 29 March 2002 a case was opened to investigate the acceptance by the Lesnoy town administration of tax payment by way of promissory notes from Yukos. That case was closed on 29 August 2002. The reasons why the case was closed were summarised by the GPO in July 2003 in the following terms:
“According to the conclusions of a legal and economic expert review of the case, there were no losses caused to the federal budget and municipal budget of Lesnoy town as a result of granting tax privileges, receiving taxes in the form of Yukos promissory notes and fulfilling the investment programme. Detected violations of the legislation by conducting these financial operations may be regarded as the subject matter of administrative and economic legislation. The receipt of taxes by way of promissory notes issued by Yukos was registered in the municipal budget for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the federal budget received payment only in the monetary form”.
It is unclear whether the “legal and economic expert review” referred to by the GPO was the same as the report by the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences prepared at the request of the town administration (see paragraph 30 above), or whether a different study was made at the request by the GPO.
(b) Presidential Directive No. Pr-2178
32. In November 2002 governors of several Russian regions wrote a letter to the then General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, Mr Ustinov. In that letter they complained that Apatit was abusing its dominant position on the apatite concentrate market and boosting prices of phosphate fertilisers, which, in turn, increased food prices. They also alleged that Apatit was using various schemes to evade or minimise taxes. They urged General Prosecutor Ustinov to return Apatit to State control and to apply anti-trust measures in order to make Apatit reduce prices.
33. In December 2002 the governor of the Pskov Region wrote to the then President of the Russian Federation, Mr Putin. He drew the President’s attention to the friendly settlement in respect of the Apatit shares (see paragraph 11 above) and claimed that its terms were contrary to the interests of the State, since the amount received by the State in pursuance to that settlement was significantly lower than the market price of the shares.
34. On 16 December 2002 President Putin issued Directive No. Pr 2178 requiring reports to be obtained in relation to whether there had been “violations of the existing legislation committed during the sale of shares of the Apatit and whether the State had suffered any loss as a consequence of the friendly settlement that had been approved by the Moscow Commercial Court in 2002”. The directive was addressed to Prime Minister Kasyanov and General Prosecutor Ustinov.
35. On 19 February 2003 the first applicant, together with other influential businessmen, met President Putin in the Kremlin. At that meeting the first applicant made critical remarks concerning the recent acquisition of a private oil company by the State-owned company Rosneft. The first applicant implied that that transaction had involved high-level corruption. According to the first applicant, President Putin reacted by reminding the applicant that Yukos had experienced problems with the payment of taxes, which had not yet been fully resolved.
36. On 27 April 2003 the first applicant met President Putin to discuss the merger between Sibneft and Yukos. According to Mr Dubov, the applicant’s business partner, Mr Putin approved the merger but warned the first applicant against political activity, namely funding the Communist Party.
37. On 28 April 2003 General Prosecutor Ustinov reported to the President that there was no basis for a criminal case in relation to the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of a 20 per cent block of shares of Apatit. The inquiry had not established that Apatit had been abusing its position on the market or that the amount of the friendly settlement reached with the State privatisation agency had been unfair. The terms of the friendly settlement had been approved by the Prime Minister, Mr Kasyanov. Apatit’s tax payments had been constantly monitored by the Tax Service; although Apatit and its affiliates had been subjected to various penalties and financial sanctions in the past, and a new audit was underway, the GPO did not see any reason to start criminal proceedings in this respect. At the same time the Government insisted on the expediency of entering into an agreement with Yukos in order to settle the matter.
38. On 29 April 2003 Prime Minister Kasyanov wrote to President Putin informing him that the law enforcement agencies had stated that they would not commence a criminal prosecution as there was no corpus delicti in relation to the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of a 20 per cent block of shares of Apatit.
(c) The cases of Mr Pichugin and other senior managers of Yukos
39. In one of his interviews in April 2003 the first applicant stated publicly that he intended to leave business and go into politics, and confirmed his funding of the SPS and Yabloko parties. He also said that some major Yukos shareholders supported the Communist Party.
40. On 19 June 2003 a Yukos senior security official, Mr Pichugin, was arrested and charged with murder in an unrelated case. This arrest led to Mr Pichugin’s trial and conviction for murder (for a more detailed description of the facts of the case, see Pichugin v. Russia, no. 38623/03, 23 October 2012).
41. In the following months several senior executives and shareholders of Yukos, namely Mr Nevzlin, Mr Dubov, Mr Brudno and several others left Russia out of fear of prosecution. Some lower-level Yukos managers or personnel of its contractors also left. Thus, according to the written testimony of Mr Glb., obtained in 2007, in 2003 the first applicant had met him and persuaded him to leave Russia. Later he had been told not to return to Russia. He understood that the security service of Yukos moved a part of its personnel to London. A staff member of one of the trading companies, Ms Kar., testified in 2008 that in 2003 a manager of Yukos persuaded her to leave Russia for Cyprus and paid for her stay there. The applicants, however, remained in the country and continued their professional activities.
C. Arrest of the two applicants. Detention on remand of the second applicant during the trial
42. On 20 June 2003 the GPO initiated a criminal investigation into the privatisation of Apatit, which eventually led to charges being brought against the applicants.
43. On 27 June 2003 the second applicant (Mr Lebedev) was summoned for questioning within the Apatit case. The questioning was scheduled for 10 a.m. on 2 July 2003.
44. On 2 July 2003 the second applicant was admitted to Vishnevskiy Hospital in connection with his chronic diseases. At 9.50 a.m. Mr Drel, the second applicant’s lawyer, called the investigator and informed him that his client had been urgently hospitalised in an ambulance car. According to a certificate from the hospital the applicant was admitted there at 12.56 p.m. On the same day the GPO investigator accompanied by armed FSS (Federal Security Service) officers arrived at the hospital. At 3.20 p.m., the doctors, at the request of the investigator, examined the applicant. The doctors observed an improvement of his condition and described his condition as “satisfactory”. The second applicant was arrested as a suspect in the criminal case concerning the privatisation of Apatit and brought to the Lefortovo remand prison. According to the FSS officers present during the second applicant’s arrest, he threatened the investigator with criminal liability for his unlawful prosecution. He also threatened to bring a press campaign against the GPO officials involved in his case. In the following months the second applicant’s detention was repeatedly extended. For further details on the second applicant’s detention until November 2004 see Lebedev v. Russia, no. 4493/04, partial decision on admissibility of 25 November 2004, decision on admissibility of 18 May 2006, and judgment of 25 October 2007, hereinafter referred to as the Lebedev (no. 1) judgment.
45. On 23 October 2003, whilst the first applicant was away from Moscow on a business trip to eastern Russia, chief investigator Karimov summoned him to appear in Moscow as a witness on the next day at noon. The first applicant’s staff informed the GPO that the first applicant was away from Moscow until 28 October 2003. On 24 October 2003, the first applicant having missed the appointment, the investigator Karimov ordered his enforced attendance for questioning.
46. In the early morning of 25 October 2003 a group of armed law-enforcement officers approached the first applicant’s aeroplane on an airstrip in Novosibirsk, apprehended him, and flew him to Moscow. The first applicant was charged, arrested as a suspect and later detained on remand. For more details concerning the detention on remand of the first applicant see Khodorkovskiy v. Russia, no. 5829/04, §§ 22 et seq., 31 May 2011, hereinafter referred to as the Khodorkovskiy (no. 1) judgment.
1. Extensions of the second applicant’s detention on remand by the court pending trial
47. On 6 April 2004 the Meshchanskiy District Court decided that the second applicant should remain in detention pending trial. No reasons were given for that decision. On 15 April 2004 the District Court dismissed the application for release lodged by the defence. The court held as follows:
“[The court] takes into account that [the applicant] is accused of a number of offences, including serious ones, punishable with more than two years’ imprisonment. The combination of the seriousness of the charge and the information about the applicant’s character gives reason to suspect that, if released, the applicant may abscond from trial, interfere with the proceedings and influence witnesses. [In particular], the persons suspected of having committed the offences in concert with [the applicant] have gone into hiding. [The applicant] maintains international connections. [He] is accused of offences committed in his capacity as a manager of commercial companies. The persons with whose assistance, according to the investigating authorities, [the applicant] committed the offences, still work in the companies and depend on [him] financially and otherwise. [The applicant] may therefore influence them …”
The District Court concluded that the second applicant should be kept in custody pending trial.
48. On 19 August 2004 the second applicant’s lawyers lodged an application for release on behalf of the second applicant, referring, in particular, to his poor health. The District Court refused to release him, on the basis that the second applicant could receive adequate medical aid in the remand prison. The court also held that the second applicant’s continuous detention was justified in view of the gravity of crimes imputed to him, and “information about [the second applicant’s] character”. The District Court also noted that the persons with whose assistance the second applicant had allegedly committed the offences still worked in the companies and depended on him.
49. At the hearing of 10 September 2004 the prosecutor requested the court to extend the second applicant’s detention on remand until 26 December 2004, since the previous detention order would expire on 26 September 2004. After that the defence declared that they needed to study the request and asked for a one-hour adjournment. The court gave the adjournment sought. An hour later the second applicant asked for one hour more to prepare a reasoned reply to the detention request. Again, the court granted that motion. At the end of the period the defence lodged a written reply to the prosecutor’s motion. The defence objected but the court granted the request and extended the second applicant’s detention on remand as requested. The reasons given by the District Court in its decision of 10 September repeated the reasons stated in the decision of 15 April 2004.
50. The defence appealed. According to the Government, the brief of appeal against the extension order of 10 September 2004 was submitted on 20 September 2004. On 13 October 2004 the Moscow City Court upheld the decision of the lower court. The City Court noted that “the circumstances in which the imputed acts had been committed” suggested that, if released, the second applicant might pervert the course of justice by putting pressure on witnesses or otherwise influencing them, or might abscond, and that the City Court “had not discovered any reason to repeal the [lower] court’s decision as requested by the brief of appeal”.
51. At the hearing of 14 December 2004 the prosecutor again requested an extension of the second applicant’s detention until 26 March 2005. That request was made orally. The defence was given two hours to prepare written submissions. The defence produced written arguments, following which the court granted the request and extended the detention until 26 March 2005, giving the same arguments as in the detention orders of 15 April and 10 September 2004.
52. The appeal against the detention order of 14 December 2004 was lodged on 24 December 2004 and examined on 19 January 2005 when the Moscow City Court upheld it.
53. At the hearing of 2 March 2005 the State prosecutor requested a new extension of the second applicant’s detention pending trial. The prosecutor referred to the second applicant’s oral statement of 1 March 2005, when he had said that he “would haunt the prosecutor until his last day”. In reply to the request the defence did not ask for additional time to prepare their arguments. The second applicant explained, in particular, that there had been nothing new in the prosecution’s requests for detention since 2003, and that he was prepared to give his arguments immediately. The court heard the defence and granted the request extending the second applicant’s detention until 26 June 2005. That detention order repeated the reasons given in the previous detention orders.
54. The detention order of 2 March 2005 was appealed against on 11 March 2005; the first hearing was scheduled for 23 March, but the defence sought an adjournment in order to obtain a Ruling by the Constitutional Court of 22 March 2005 (no. 4-P). The appeal was therefore examined and dismissed on 31 March 2005.
2. Conditions of detention of the second applicant
55. The second applicant claimed that in the remand prison IZ–77/1 where he had been detained from 21 October 2003 until his transferral to the correctional colony on 27 September 2005, he had been deprived of all physical exercise. Thus, he constantly missed his daily walks because of the need to read the materials in the case file or participate in the hearings. On weekends and holidays, when there were no court hearings he could not go outside because he was ill. Further, the food in the prison was incompatible with his illnesses, and he only received appropriate food from his relatives or lawyers to a limited extent. It was impossible to have a hot meal at midday when there was a hearing or when he was reading the case file. During the Christmas holidays the second applicant was transferred to an overcrowded “common” cell. Despite his requests, he was not given a calculator or a magnifying glass. As a result, he was able neither to prepare for the hearings nor to have a rest.
56. The second applicant complained to the prison doctors about his health problems. On 2 March 2004 he was examined by a panel of doctors composed of the Chief Physician of the Moscow Health Department, Deputy Medical Director of the Moscow Prisons Department, Healthcare Director of the remand prison, and an infectiologist. The panel described his state of health as follows:
“[The applicant] is suffer[ing] from neuroculatory dystonia of the hypertensive type, chronic non-complicated sub-acute hepatitis, i.e. without transformation into cirrhosis and portal hypertension.”
57. On 18 August 2005 the second applicant was placed in a solitary confinement cell (or “isolation cell”) as a punishment, allegedly for refusing to go outside for a daily walk. The documents produced by the Government also indicated that the applicant had refused to go to the shower rooms, whereas, according to the applicant, the remand prison did not have a bath-house for inmates. According to the applicant, the cell was very small and had no natural light or ventilation. He did not receive hot meals. It was prohibited to lie or even sit on the bed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The bed was very close to the toilet pan. The water for flushing, drinking and washing was available from the water-tap above the toilet pan. The second applicant spent seven days in that cell.
58. The Government described the conditions in the isolation cell as follows. The cell in which the second applicant was placed measured 5.52 square metres, which was more than the minimal surface area established by law. The second applicant was detained in the cell alone. The cell had a folding bed, a washbasin with cold water, a toilet, a shelf for toiletries, a chair and a table. The cell was ventilated naturally, and was lit by a day-time lamp and a night-time lamp (dezhurnoye osvescheniye). In addition, the cell had a window measuring 60 x 90 cm. The cell was equipped with a cistern for boiled water which was supplied by the warders when necessary. Referring to the certificates issued by the head of the remand prison, Mr Tagiyev, dated 7 August 2008, the Government alleged that illumination, temperature and humidity in the isolation cell had corresponded to the sanitary standards. The distance between the toilet and the bed was one metre, which was explained by the small dimensions of the cell; such a distance, however, respected basic requirements of hygiene. The bed was unfolded during the night, namely between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. During the daytime the second applicant could sit on the chair. The Government also attached a report of inspection of sanitary conditions of certain other premises of the remand prison (not apparently related to the cells where the second applicant was detained), dated January 2006, as well as two reports of the inspection of the ordinary cells where the second applicant was detained dated February 2004 and January 2005, which concluded that sanitary condition of the cells was satisfactory. The Government also produced a contract with a firm in charge of disinfestation of the remand prison, dated 15 August 2005, and several “certificates of completed work”, dated 2006 and later.
59. Further, in the Government’s words, while in detention in the isolation cell the second applicant was provided with hot meals three times a day in accordance with the established standards. The Government produced extracts from prison’s kitchen record, describing composition of the meals served to the prisoners. The second applicant had a right to a one-hour daily walk during the daylight hours.
60. On the hearing days the detainees were provided with dry meals; in the court building they were given hot water to prepare tea, coffee, or instant food. As follows from the documents submitted by the Government, in 2004-2005 the second applicant took part in over 160 days of hearings. However, he always refused to take the dry meal; he preferred the food he received from his relatives. The Government produced a handwritten waiver by the second applicant whereby he refused to receive dry meals. The doctors did not recommend him any special diet, so he could have eaten the same food as other prisoners.
D. Criminal prosecution of the applicants
1. Investigative actions by the GPO in 2003
61. On 4 July 2003, soon after the arrest of the second applicant, the first applicant was summoned to the GPO and interviewed as a witness in the criminal case concerning Apatit. He appeared before the investigator and gave testimony. During the interview he was assisted by Mr Drel, one of his and the second applicant’s lawyers.
62. On an unspecified date in July 2003, the First Deputy General Prosecutor, Mr Biryukov, ordered that the case concerning tax payments of the trading companies registered in the Lesnoy town, which had been closed on 29 August 2002 (see paragraph 31 above), be re-opened and transferred to the GPO.
63. On 8 July 2003 the prosecution searched the premises of the regional office of the State Property Fund, situated in Murmansk, which could have held information on the privatisation of Apatit.
64. On 9 July 2003 the investigators searched the premises of Apatit.
65. On 10 July 2003 the prosecution searched the premises of the bank Menatep Sankt-Petersburg, which was affiliated with Yukos. The search was authorised by the Deputy General Prosecutor, Mr Biryukov, in a decision of 8 July 2003.
66. On 29 July 2003 the GPO searched the premises of Russkiye Investory Plc.
67. On 7, 8 and 14 August 2003 new searches were carried out in the premises of Menatep Sankt-Petersburg.
68. On 16 August 2003 the GPO obtained a report by two experts, Mr Yeloyan and Mr Kupriyanov. That report calculated damages allegedly suffered by Apatit as a result of the manipulation with the trading prices of apatite concentrate. It compared the net profit of Apatit during the periods when apatite concentrate was sold independently and when it was sold through intermediaries proposed by the Yukos management.
69. On 3 October 2003, based on the warrant issued by the Deputy Prosecutor General on the same day, the investigative team, headed by investigators Mr Pletnev and Mr Uvarov, carried out the first search in Yukos’s premises and in the homes of its senior managers located in the village of Zhukovka, Moscow Region, building no. 88. In particular, the investigators searched the homes of the second applicant, the homes of Yukos vice president Mr Brudno, and the home of the applicant’s friend, Mr Moiseyev. The investigators also searched the office of Mr Dubov, a Duma Deputy. According to the applicants, the investigators entered the building and started the searches without having produced a search warrant. The searches were attended by several attesting witnesses, in particular Ms Ardatova and Ms Morozova, cleaning ladies.
70. The applicant indicated that the search had been carried out simultaneously on several floors of the building, so the attesting witnesses had been physically unable to see what materials had been seized. Furthermore, the documents found during the search were seized and packed in bulk, without detailed lists enumerating particulars of those documents. The documents seized during the search were later added to the materials of the case-file. Some of the documents and objects seized during that search were added to the case file by an order of 11 February 2004.
71. On 9 October 2003 the investigators, based on a search warrant issued on the previous day by the Deputy Prosecutor General, searched the offices of ALM Feldmans, a law firm providing legal services to Yukos, and the offices of the applicants’ lawyer, Mr Drel, all located in the Zhukovka village. According to Mr Rakhmankulov, who testified about the circumstances of the searches later at the trial, he had asked investigator Mr Karimov whether the latter had been aware that the rooms in question had been rented by the law office of Mr Drel. Mr Karimov had replied in the affirmative. Mr Moiseyev testified that he had informed the investigators that the offices they had been searching belonged to a lawyer. At the entrance to the floor of the building there had been a sign identifying Mr Drel as a lawyer. The files seized during the search were labelled as containing lawyers’ notes related to the defence of the applicants. The search report mentioned that the seizure had been carried out “in the Moscow Region, village of Zhukovka 88a, 4th floor, rented by ALM Law Bureau …”, and that one of the offices had a tag indicating “work papers of lawyer Mr Drel”. Some time after the start of the search Mr Drel arrived in Zhukovka. He informed the investigators that he was a lawyer with the Moscow Bar and protested against the breaking into his office. However, the investigators did not let him enter the building. At the end of the search he was allowed to make his comments on the search record. A separate sheet with comments on the procedure in which the search was carried out stated: “Lawyer Drel, who appeared at the premises around 7 p.m., despite his protests, was taken by police officers [out] of the territory on which building No. 88a was located” and notes “breaking and entering into Moscow City Bar Association lawyer Drel’s [office]”.
72. As a result of those two searches, a large number of documents were seized, as well as hard drives of several computers. The hard drives were examined by the investigators at the GPO premises in the presence of attesting witnesses and then transmitted to experts for the extraction of information contained therein. The experts drew up a list of files that had been found on the drives, but neither the drives themselves nor the list of files were attached by the GPO to the applicants’ criminal case materials. Electronic documents from those drives were presented to the trial court in the form of print-outs. The applicants claimed that there had been a discrepancy between the amount of information on hard drives of the computers seized during the search and the amount of information produced to the court. Furthermore, the applicants claimed that the hard drives seized had not been properly packed and sealed, so it was possible to add information to them while the drives were in the possession of the GPO.
73. Over the following days the GPO also searched the headquarters of the political party Yabloko and an orphanage which was under the patronage of the first applicant; they removed from the latter premises a computer server, said by the authorities to hold Yukos financial data.
74. On 10 October 2003 a GPO investigator, Mr Karimov, refused to grant the petition of the second applicant to attach official correspondence related to the inquiry conducted following Presidential Directive No. Pr 2178 (see paragraph 32 above) to the case materials.
75. On 17 October 2003 Mr Drel was summoned to the GPO for questioning in relation to the criminal cases against the second applicant. Mr Drel refused, referring to his status as advocate and his position as the second applicants’ representative in the criminal proceedings at issue. Later the Moscow City Chamber of Lawyers ruled that to answer questions in the circumstances would be a violation of the law “On the Advocacy and the Bar in the Russian Federation”.
76. On the same day the prosecution brought charges of personal tax evasion against Mr Shakhnovskiy, a close friend and business partner of the first applicant. According to the prosecution, he fraudulently reduced the amount of personal income tax due by using the “individual entrepreneur” scheme (see paragraph 15 above).
77. On 20 October 2003 the investigator ordered a seizure from Trust Investment Bank and received the sanction of First Deputy Prosecutor General, Mr Biryukov, for that measure.
78. On 21 October 2003 the Deputy General Prosecutor, Mr Kolesnikov, said in a press conference that charges might be brought against other senior managers of Yukos. On the same day the investigator again searched the premises of the Menatep Sankt-Petersburg bank.
79. On 22 October 2003 the investigator searched the premises of the Trust Investment Bank.
80. On 25 October 2003 the first applicant was arrested in Novosibirsk and transported to Moscow where GPO charged him with business fraud and tax evasion. Further, at the request of the GPO, the Basmanniy District Court of Moscow decided to detain the applicant pending the investigation. During the following months his detention was extended several times.
81. On the same day Mr Drel was summoned to the GPO to testify as a witness. He refused to testify, referring to his professional status and his position in the case of the first and second applicants.
82. On 27 October 2003 the GPO attempted to interrogate Mr Drel as a witness. He refused to testify.
83. On the same day Mr Shakhnovskiy was elected to serve as a Senator, i.e. member of the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament. Later he resigned following a request by the Prosecutor General in which the latter claimed that Mr Shakhnovskiy’s election had been irregular and thus null.
84. On 3 November 2003, as a consequence of his arrest, the first applicant resigned as chief executive of Yukos.
85. On 10 November 2003 the first applicant was formally charged by the GPO.
86. On 11 November 2003, an investigator of the GPO investigative team arrived at the Trust Investment Bank for the second time and carried out another seizure with reference to the search warrant of 20 October 2003.
87. On an unspecified date in November 2003 the Tax Service lodged, within criminal proceedings against the applicants, a civil claim against them on behalf of the State. The Tax Service claimed that the applicants, in their capacity as Yukos senior managers, caused the State damages in the amount of 17,395,449,282 Russian roubles (RUB) (taxes not paid by the trading companies) plus RUB 407,120,540 (taxes unlawfully reimbursed from the State budget). The overall amount of the civil claim was RUB 17,802,569,822 (over 510 billion euros (EUR)); these amounts corresponded to the amounts mentioned in the bill of indictment on company tax-evasion charges brought against the applicants. The statement of claim was lodged by one of the Deputy Ministers, Mr Shulgin. The text of the statement by Mr Shulgin did not contain any calculation of the amounts due by the applicants.
88. On 5 and 16 December 2003 a GPO investigator conducted a search in Tax Inspectorate no. 5 for the Central District of the City of Moscow and seized some documents. According to the applicants, no prior approval had been obtained from the General Prosecutor for that search.
89. Later in 2003 the Moscow City Tax Inspectorate No. 5 lodged additional civil claims against the applicants claiming tax arrears and penalties related to the personal tax evasion charges.
2. Essence of criminal charges against the applicants
90. The charges against the applicants formulated by the GPO may be summarised as follows:
(a) Misappropriation of Apatit shares
91. In 1994 the State privatisation authority decided to sell 20 per cent of the stock of Apatit Plc, a large mining company producing apatite concentrate. Under the conditions of the privatisation tender the buyer would be under an obligation to invest money in Apatit’s business activities.
92. In order to participate in the privatisation tender, the applicants, together with their subordinates and friends, created several sham companies: Volna, Malakhit, Flora, and Intermedinvest. The director of Volna was Mr Kraynov. Further, the second applicant, as head of the Menatep bank, issued indemnity bonds on behalf of Menatep, guaranteeing the capacity of the first three companies to pay. The fourth company produced a fake indemnity bond from the European Union Bank. As a result, the four companies were admitted by the State privatisation authority for participation in the tender. The applicants delegated several people working in the Menatep bank and affiliated companies to participate in the privatisation tender on behalf of the sham companies.
93. At the tender on 30 June 1 July 1994 Intermedinvest offered the best conditions (RUB 19,900,000 in the form of investment obligations), but then revoked its bid. Other companies participating in the tender did the same. As a result, Volna, which had submitted the lowest bid, obtained the privatisation contract.
94. Under that contract Volna acquired 415,803 shares in Apatit (or 20 per cent of its capital) from the State for a nominal price of RUB 415,803,000 (pre-1998 devaluation). According to the prosecution, the real price of the shares at the time was RUB 563,170,000,000 or USD 283,142,283. In addition, Volna accepted an obligation to invest RUB 79,600,000 in Apatit within one month, and RUB 394,219,000 by 1 July 1995. However, that condition was not met within the time-limits specified in the privatisation contract.
95. On 29 November 1994 the prosecutor, acting on behalf of the State privatisation authority, brought proceedings against Volna before the Commercial Court of Moscow seeking nullification of the privatisation contract and the return of the Apatit shares. The prosecutor indicated that Volna had failed to fulfil its investment obligations under the privatisation contract.
96. In 1995 Volna transferred the amount stipulated in the privatisation contract to Apatit’s bank account and submitted a bank transfer order confirming this to the Commercial Court. Consequently, on 16 August 1995 the Commercial Court adopted a judgment rejecting the claims against Volna on the ground that the money stipulated in the privatisation contract had been duly paid. However, on the same day the amount received by Apatit was transferred back to Volna’s bank accounts by the director of Apatit. Therefore, de facto the money due under the privatisation contract was not paid. The prosecution qualified this episode as business fraud.
(b) Failure to comply with the court decision concerning Apatit
97. On 12 February 1998 the judgment of 16 August 1995 was quashed. The Commercial Court of Moscow, sitting as a court of appeal, declared the privatisation contract null and void and ordered that the Apatit shares be returned to the State. However, by that time Volna had already sold the Apatit shares to a number of other legal entities created and controlled by the applicants. As a result, the decision of the Commercial Court of Moscow of 1998 remained unenforced and the enforcement proceedings were discontinued.
98. In March 2002 the second applicant proposed a friendly settlement of the dispute and the State Property Fund (the body in charge of the privatisation deal) accepted his offer. On 19 November 2002 the friendly settlement was concluded. Under that settlement Volna paid the State USD 15,130,000 and the State withdrew its claim to the Apatit shares. The above amount was calculated by the audit firm BC-Otsenka, and was accepted by the Commercial Court of Moscow as the market price for the shares. On 22 November 2002 the Commercial Court of Moscow endorsed the friendly settlement agreement and closed the case. However, according to the prosecution, the real market price of the shares at the relevant time was USD 62,000,000. It referred to the audit report of 19 August 2003, commissioned by the investigator (the report by Mr Yeloyan and Mr Kuprianov), and a report by the consulting firm Rusaudit, Dorhoff, Yevseyev and Partners, dated December 2002, commissioned by the Government of the Russian Federation. Thus, the decision of the Commercial Court had been based on false evidence. As a result, the decision of 12 February 1998 remained non-enforced through the applicants’ fault. The prosecution qualified this episode as intentional avoidance of execution of a court judgment.
(c) Embezzlement of Apatit’s profits and assets in 1997 – 2002
99. By 1995 the applicants owned, through affiliated companies, a controlling stake of Apatit’s shares (including the 20 per cent acquired through the privatisation tender). On 1 December 1995 the applicants, as major shareholders, appointed a group of managers and assigned to them all of Apatit’s sales operations. As a result, all sales went through a number of sham companies controlled by the applicants and located in low-tax zones. The apatite concentrate was bought by those companies at a lower price and then re-sold at the market price. The companies controlled by the applicants thus accumulated Apatit’s profits; the difference between the “internal” and “external” prices was accumulated in foreign bank accounts controlled by the applicants. As a result, the minority shareholders of Apatit (including the State, which retained a block of shares in that company) suffered pecuniary losses. The prosecution qualified this episode as embezzlement.
(d) Misappropriation of NIUIF shares
100. In 1995 the State privatisation authority decided to sell at tender 44 per cent of the shares in NIUIF Plc, a Moscow-based research institute. To that end the authority issued an invitation to tender. One of the conditions of the privatisation tender was that the winner would have to invest a certain amount of money to support NIUIF’s on-going activities.
101. According to the prosecution, the applicants were interested in obtaining the rights to one of the main assets of NIUIF – an office building in Moscow. In order to take part in the privatisation tender the applicants, acting through their subordinates, in the Menatep bank, created two sham companies: Polinep and Walton. Further, the second applicant issued two indemnity bonds on behalf of Menatep in the amount of USD 25,000,000, guaranteeing those companies’ capacity to pay. As a result, they were authorised by the State privatisation authority to participate in the tender.
102. At the privatisation auction Polinep proposed that it would invest USD 50,000,000 in NIUIF; this was the highest bid, so Polinep was declared to have won. However, Polinep immediately withdrew its bid. Walton made a bid of USD 25,000,000; this was the highest investment bid, so on 12 September 1995 Walton obtained the privatisation contract. On 21 September 1995 the State sold 44 per cent of the shares in NIUIF to Walton at the nominal price of RUB 130,900,000. According to the prosecution, the market price of the shares acquired by Walton was RUB 5,236,000,000.
103. On 28 December 1995 Walton transferred the investment money to NIUIF’s account in the Menatep bank. Mr Klassen, the then director of NIUIF, reported to the State privatisation authority that Walton had fulfilled its obligations under the privatisation contract. On the following day he transferred the money back to Walton’s account in Menatep. As a result the conditions of the privatisation contract were not met de facto. The prosecution qualified this episode as fraud.
(e) Failure to comply with the court decision concerning NIUIF
104. In February 1996 Walton sold the NIUIF shares to another three sham companies created by the applicants: Khiminvest, Metaksa, and Alton. Under the sale contract those companies received the shares but were free from any investment obligations vis-à-vis NIUIF. Mr Klassen confirmed to those companies in writing that NIUIF would not have any pecuniary claims against the buyers of the shares. Mr Klassen also reported to the State privatisation authority that Walton had fulfilled its investment obligations under the privatisation contract.
105. Further, in order to control the activities of NIUIF, the applicants delegated several employees from the Menatep bank to the NIUIF board of directors. As a result, the board of directors approved the sale of NIUIF’s main asset – its office buildings in Moscow – to Pender Limited, an offshore company controlled by the applicants and registered in the Isle of Man. That company acted through persons who worked in the Menatep bank or the Rosprom holding and were thus affiliated with the applicants. The applicants also delegated their staff to the NIUIF management in order to oversee that company’s day-to-day activities.
106. In 1997 the State Property Fund (the privatisation authority) learned that Walton had failed to discharge its main obligation under the privatisation contract, namely to invest in NIUIF. The State Property Fund brought proceedings against Walton, seeking the return of the shares. As a result, on 24 November 1997 the Commercial Court of Moscow quashed the privatisation contract of 1995 and ordered the seizure of the shares from Walton.
107. However, by this time the NIUIF shares had already been sold by Walton, so that decision could not be executed. In January 1998 the shares were re-sold to several other sham companies, which had also been created by and were controlled by the applicants (Danaya, Galmet, Fermet, Status, Elbrus, Triumph, Leasing, Renons, Izumrud, Topaz). As a result, the decision of the Commercial Court of Moscow could not be enforced because of the applicants’ manipulations with the NIUIF shares. The prosecution qualified this episode as intentional avoidance of execution of a court judgment.
(f) Company tax evasion: unlawful tax cuts
108. Under Article 199 of the Criminal Code (“Evading Payment of Taxes … Collectible from Organisations”) the GPO forwarded two distinct charges against the applicants: one related to unlawful tax cuts and another related to payment of taxes with promissory notes. According to the prosecution, the overall amount of unpaid taxes under these two heads in 1999-2000 amounted to (post 1998 devaluation) RUB 17,395,449,282.
109. As to the first episode, according to the prosecution, the applicants through their subordinates registered a number of sham companies in the Lesnoy town, namely Business Oil, Forest Oil, Vald Oil and Mitra. Those companies were not formally affiliated with the applicants or Yukos, but were controlled by them de facto. Those companies claimed to operate in Lesnoy, and, on that ground, they qualified for tax cuts. However, those companies did not actually have any business activities in Lesnoy but were controlled and administered from Moscow. As a result, the profits from the oil trade were concentrated in those companies. Some of the profits of the sham companies were later returned to Yukos bank accounts by means of a series of complex financial transactions involving the exchange of promissory notes. The industrial group’s overall fiscal burden was thus significantly lightened.
110. According to the bill of indictment, Business Oil avoided payment to the Lesnoy town budget of RUB 1,217,622,799 in 1999 on account of unlawfully obtained tax cuts, and RUB 1,566,046,683 in 2000 (or RUB 2,783,669,482 in aggregate). The prosecution qualified this scheme as tax evasion.
(g) Company tax evasion: payment of taxes with promissory notes
111. The second charge concerned the method of payment of the remaining taxes (after the tax cuts) by the sham companies. In addition to obtaining tax cuts, the sham companies registered in Lesnoy did not pay taxes in monetary form. Instead, they obtained promissory notes from Yukos and then transferred them to the Lesnoy town Tax Inspectorate. The value of the promissory notes was later offset from the tax debt of the sham companies. Thus, in 1999 the four sham companies (Business Oil, Forest Oil, Vald Oil and Mitra) transferred to the Lesnoy town budget promissory notes in the amount of RUB 5,315,535,283; in 2000 the sham companies transferred promissory noted worth of RUB 10,381,901,191.
112. Over the following years the promissory notes were paid off, but only in part: in 2000 promissory notes amounting to RUB 1,048,391,487 had not yet been honoured. The prosecution qualified payment of taxes by promissory notes by the sham companies as another count of tax evasion.
(h) Unlawful tax refund
113. Since the value of some promissory notes was higher than the tax debt, the sham companies obtained a tax refund from the State in monetary form. Thus, in 2000-2001 the Federal Treasury paid the sham companies the difference between the tax debt and the value of the promissory notes, or deducted that difference from the amounts of taxes to be paid by those companies.
114. In 2001, when the regional tax authority started a tax audit of the sham companies registered in Lesnoy, those companies formally discontinued their activities in Lesnoy and merged with another sham company registered in the town of Aginskiy, another low-tax zone. Later those companies were again re-registered in the Chita Region. Each new company received a part of the claims which the liquidated companies had had against the State budget on account of the hypothetical overpayment of taxes. According to the prosecution, in 1999-2001 the applicants, through the sham companies, received RUB 407,120,540 from the budget on account of “tax overpayments”. The prosecution qualified that situation as embezzlement of the budget funds and qualified it under Article 159 of Criminal Code (“Fraud”).
(i) Money transfers to Mr Gusinskiy’s companies
115. In 1999 and 2000 the first applicant allegedly misappropriated assets belonging to the Yukos group. Thus, important sums of money were transferred from the accounts of Yukos and two other companies affiliated with Yukos (Mitra Limited and Greis Limited) to the bank accounts of companies belonging to Mr Gusinskiy, a mass-media tycoon, namely Media-Most, Delf, Byron, Sard, Osmet, GM-2, NTV-Mir Kino, and Most Bank. Those transfers had no business purpose and thus caused damage to Yukos shareholders. According to the prosecution, Mr Gusinskiy received RUB 2,649,906,620 from the applicant. The prosecution qualified those transfers as fraud.
(j) Personal income tax evasion
116. Over the period 1998-2000 the applicants registered themselves as self-employed entrepreneurs. In the registration form they indicated that they were private consultants for several foreign firms, and that their income consisted of fees for consulting services. This status permitted the applicants to pay a fixed amount of imputed income tax (or the cost of a “patent” – a licence obtained for the consulting services), defined by the Small Business Act, instead of paying personal income tax and making social-security contributions (as they woul

A chi rivolgersi e i costi dell'assistenza

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