Russia’s jailed oil tycoon Khodorkovsky says no proof he stole oil, in courtroom defense

Russia’s Khodorkovsky says no proof he stole oil

MOSCOW — Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia’s jailed former oil tycoon, testified for five hours in a packed courtroom on Wednesday, saying that none of the companies he is accused of stealing oil from ever reported the alleged theft.

He faces charges of embezzling more than $25 billion worth of oil from three subsidiaries of his former company, Yukos, and laundering most of the proceeds. His lawyers have called these claims ridiculous.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is currently serving eight years in prison for tax evasion — charges widely seen as punishment for challenging then-President Vladimir Putin.

Khodorkovsky testified for a second day Wednesday against the fresh embezzlement charges, which could keep him in prison for another 22 years.

He argued that none of the companies that are described as the victims of the embezzlement has ever reported the alleged theft in their financial documents.

Annual inventories of Samaraneftegaz, Tomskneft, Yuganskneftegaz “have not disclosed oil theft between 1998 and 2009 at a scale comparable to that described in the charges,” Khodorkovsky said.

“No one has discovered such damage, nor have they documented this in financial reports of the victims,” he told the court.

Khodorkovsky also reacted to prosecutors’ claim that Yukos barred its subsidiaries from exporting oil and was buying oil from them at artificially low prices.

These subsidiaries were 100 percent owned by Yukos, Khodorkovsky said, and could not have worked on their own since they had no economic or logistical ways to market and ship the oil.

Prosecutors did not react to or comment on Khodorkovsky’s defense on Wednesday.

The proceedings were adjourned until Friday.