MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has completed its investigation in a new case against jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky said Friday.
"We were informed today that the investigation has been completed, and that the defense can begin studying the case," Semyon Rozenberg said.
Khodorkovsky, founder of the now bankrupt Yukos oil company, and Lebedev, both of whom are serving eight-year sentences in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion, were charged with money laundering February 5.
The Prosecutor General's Office is now accusing Khodorkovsky and Lebedev of stealing $32-billion-worth of oil from Samaraneftegaz, Yuganskneftegaz and Tomskneft in 1998-2003, which the two businessmen allegedly documented as "oil-well liquid."
Prosecutors said Khodorkovsky and Lebedev later resold the oil to end customers for triple the price via bogus firms registered both inside and outside Russia. The scheme helped launder a total of 450 billion rubles ($17 billion) and $7.5 billion, prosecutors said.
Yelena Liptser, a lawyer for Lebedev, said she had also been notified by the Prosecutor General's Office that the investigation had been completed.
"We can begin case study starting tomorrow," she said, adding that the defense can study the case until March 3, including Saturdays.
The Prosecutor General's Office has officially confirmed that it completed its investigation into the new case.
Last week, Russian prosecutors said the case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is a purely criminal matter and has no political subtext.
"This case does not involve politics. It is purely a criminal matter," a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General's Office said last Friday, adding that "serious damage" had been inflicted on the country and its economy by the jailed businessmen's actions.
The Prosecutor General's Office also alleges that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are guilty of embezzling receipts from Yukos subsidiaries Fargoil and Ratibor, and of laundering the money through the Open Russia Foundation, a charitable organization established by Khodorkovsky in 2001 as a private endowment to assist academic institutions and non-governmental organizations in Russia.
Khodorkovsky, who acquired oil assets through controversial privatization deals in the early-1990s, has insisted his prosecution was orchestrated by the authorities to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin and as part of a campaign to bring mineral assets under Kremlin control.
