MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for the former head of a Yukos subsidiary, now a member of a city legislature in West Siberia, charged with embezzlement and money laundering.
The Basmanny District Court rejected a bail request from the defense team of Sergei Shimkevich, who was detained Wednesday.
The court upheld a demand from the Prosecutor General's Office to arrest the former general director of the largest of bankrupt oil company Yukos's remaining production units, Tomskneft. He is accused of misappropriating $226 million and laundering the illegal receipts.
"The court opted for pre-trial restrictions for Sergei Shimkevich, in the form of detention in custody," the judge said.
On Tuesday, the Moscow court resumed hearings in a similar case against three former executives of Russia's former No.1 oil producer Yukos, forced into bankruptcy last year to pay its huge back-tax bills.
Antonio Valdez-Garcia, former head of Yukos subsidiary Fargoil, Vladimir Malakhovsky, ex-managing director of the Ratibor production unit, and Vladimir Pereverzin, a one-time deputy head of Yukos's foreign debt department, are charged with orchestrating a scheme to divert $13 billion-worth of crude oil and launder $8.5 billion of the receipts.
The prosecution is seeking an 11-year prison term for each of the defendants. All three have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
But the court session was adjourned until January 23 over reports that Valdez-Garcia, released on parole while the case is pending, escaped from his Moscow apartment under police guard.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said Tuesday new money laundering charges would be brought against the three defendants and other Yukos officials, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the company's founder and former CEO, who is already serving an eight-year prison term for fraud and tax evasion
The crackdown against Yukos has been viewed by international media as politically motivated, aimed at punishing Khodorkovsky for his political ambitions and criticism of the Kremlin for the drive to bring the country's vast oil riches back under state control.
