A lawyer for former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky dismissed on Monday reports that his client’s bank accounts in Ireland were frozen.
“I don’t comment on gossip,” Vadim Klyuvgant said.
However, he did not deny that Khodorkovsky has foreign bank accounts. He added that such information is confidential and not subject to disclosure, refusing to answer any more questions on the subject.
The Sunday Times reported Irish authorities had frozen 65 million euros and another 36 million is under investigation with an estimated total of 200 million on Khodorkovsky’s bank accounts in Ireland.
On New Year’s Eve, Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were sentenced to another six years in jail after being found guilty on new charges of stealing millions of tons of oil from their now defunct company Yukos. The two have already served eight years on fraud charges.
The charges are widely viewed as political revenge by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for Khodorkovsky’s support of the country’s tiny opposition movement. The two men are expected to remain in jail until 2017, well after the 2012 presidential election.
MOSCOW, April 4 (RIA Novosti)