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worth checking out for any chelsea fans.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_881439.html
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_881439.html
Key Yukos man killed in air crash
The boss of Russia's Group Menatep, a holding company that controls the oil giant Yukos, has been killed in a helicopter crash in southern England.
Stephen Curtis, a UK national, was travelling from London to Bournemouth when the helicopter crashed outside the Dorset town on Wednesday evening.
The helicopter's pilot was also killed in the crash.
Mr Curtis took over at Menatep from Platon Lebedev, who was arrested last July on charges of state theft.
Mr Lebedev remains in jail awaiting trial.
Fled
A number of foreigners, mainly US citizens, have been appointed to key positions at Yukos since the arrest last October on fraud and tax evasion charges of then-chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Mr Khodorkovsky later resigned but this did not relieve the pressure on Yukos.
Menatep's stake in Yukos of more than 40% was frozen and several key shareholders fled from Russia.
Yukos has also faced demands from Russian authorities for billions of dollars in back taxes and is in the process of unwinding a merger with domestic oil rival Sibneft that was unexpectedly called off.
Also on Thursday, the AP news agency reported that Swiss police raided companies across the country in connection with Russian investigations into Yukos.
Many Russians believe the case against Yukos and Mr Khodorkovsky is politically motivated.
The tycoon made his fortune through controversial privatisations in the 1990s and later funded opposition groups, breaking what analysts say was a tacit agreement to stay out of politics in return for avoiding investigation of his financial affairs.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/3533543.stm
Published: 2004/03/04 15:37:14 GMT
© BBC MMIV
Tue 30 Mar 2004
4:32pm (UK)
Helicopter Crash - Foul Play Ruled Out
By Lesley Richardson, PA News
Air accident investigators looking into the helicopter crash that killed a Russian oil firm boss ruled out foul play today.
Businessman Stephen Curtis, 45, and pilot Matthew Radford, 34, were believed to be en route from Battersea Heliport, south west London, when their civilian helicopter crashed a mile from Bournemouth international airport on March 3.
Mr Curtis worked as a solicitor and was managing director of Group Menatep, a 30 billion dollar holding company which has interests in the Russian oil industry.
Reports suggested Mr Curtis had voiced concerns about business rivals in Russia, including some with links to the Kremlin, and feared for his life in the days before the crash.
But, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in Farnborough, Hampshire, which is investigating the accident, said it was not treating the incident as suspicious.
Inspector Peter Coombs, of the AAIB, is leading the inquiry and said the crash was “no more so (suspicious) than any other accident”.
He added: “We are carrying out a technical investigation into why the aircraft crashed.”
A source at Sibneft, a Russian oil company with links to Group Menatep, said it was unlikely Mr Curtis was being targeted in the days before his death.
Speaking from Russia, he also said that Mr Curtis probably had dealings with Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
The inquest into the deaths of the two men opened and adjourned at East Dorset and Poole Coroner’s Court, Stafford Road, Bournemouth, earlier today.
Coroner’s officer Michael Humphries said the bodies were recovered from the wreckage in a field near Pitt House Lane, at 10.55pm on March 3.
Both victims were identified by DNA profiling.
A post-mortem, carried out at the Department of Aviation Pathology, RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, in Henlow, Bedfordshire, revealed they died of multiple injuries.
The inquest heard Mr Curtis, who was born in Sunderland, owned the Augusta 109 helicopter which was being flown by Mr Radford.
Mr Radford, known as Max, was born in Worlington, Newmarket, Suffolk, and worked as chief pilot with charter aircraft operator Red Aviation. Mr Curtis lived in the 19th century Pennsylvania Castle in Portland, Dorset, with his wife Sarah and daughter Louise.
After formally opening the inquest, Mr Humphries added: “This will enable both bodies to be released to the families so they can make their own funeral arrangements.”
Thu 17 Jun 2004
Trial of Russia's richest man off to a bizarre start in Moscow backwater
CHRIS STEPHEN IN MOSCOW
RUSSIA’S richest man went on trial in Moscow yesterday under conditions that were more bizarre than sinister.
The billionaire tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the oil giant Yukos, is facing charges of fraud and tax evasion in a case widely seen in Russia as a politically motivated attack by the Kremlin.
But the government’s decision to hold the trial in an out-of-the-way district court in northern Moscow caused chaos when the case began, with a predictable scramble for the four press seats by more than 100 journalists camped outside.
Even before the trial was under way, a guilty verdict was pronounced - not by the judges, but by Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Robert Amsterdam. "We know the outcome," he declared on the courtroom steps. "Guilty."
For Mr Amsterdam, there is no question that this trial is anything but a political attack on Khodorkovsky by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who fears the oil baron as a political rival. "It is a show trial to help the government expropriate Yukos," he said.
The lucky few who got inside the creaking wooden doors of the Meschansky district courthouse found that Khodorkovsky, 40, had spurned the traditional defendant’s suit and opted for jeans and a brown bomber jacket.
Shaven-headed and handcuffed to a prison guard in a combat suit, he sat on a bench inside an iron cage to hear the opening of his case of seven counts of fraud, tax evasion and financial crimes.
But even the modest numbers of journalists and the public allowed into the court were too much for the ancient oak-panelled chamber: the heat began to build up and the panel of three female judges declared that the room was too stuffy, then adjourned so everyone could get a breath of fresh air.
They resumed, only to adjourn again - for at least a week, to give a defence lawyer time to recover from recent eye surgery.
This left the all-important question unanswered - do the charges have substance, or is this a political trial?
Prosecutors insist they have the evidence, and have produced an 800-page indictment plus volumes of supporting material.
Dark warnings have been made that other tycoons, among them Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, could face similar inquiries.
Outside the courthouse, 50 young people gathered to protest Khodorkovsky’s innocence, each wearing a bright red T-shirt proclaiming "Freedom for MBK" - Khodorkovsky’s initials.
But this protest was not all it seemed, with some youngsters having no clear idea of whether their champion was innocent or guilty, although they denied they had been paid to attend.
"I support him as a person," said one protester, Lubov Sidorova, 18, a university languages student, clutching a portrait of Khodorkovsky. But she then admitted she had no idea about the court case and agreed her hero might well be guilty. "Nobody is innocent," she added.
A young official from the organisers, a group named Sovest, or Conscience, tried to prompt her, and she declared that, whatever her views, she would return to protest at the resumed hearings.
"I believe in free capitalism," she announced.