Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil giant, said on Monday new charges of oil and oil revenue embezzlement against him were as implausible as an encounter with aliens.
Once Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. He is now accused of stealing $9.6 billion from the $15.8 billion profit generated by Yukos between 1999 and 2003 and 350 million tons of oil.
Khodorkovsky said the investigation has made a series of mistakes when calculating profits from the sale of oil and petroleum products.
Khodorkovsky explained that the investigators had in some cases calculated Yukos' profits excluding tax payments and in other cases failed to take into account transportation and production costs.
"Little green men always come to my mind in this situation," Khodorkovsky said.
The ex-Yukos chief said the court's experts had made mistakes worth 70 billion rubles ($2.4 billion), adding that the miscalculations had been made on orders from the investigation.
Khodorkovsky said Yukos had always complied with all law-established procedures, reported on all cash flows to the board of directors and made this information public.
MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti)
