MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Investigators are close to proving that the privatization of the now defunct Yukos energy company was illegal, the Russian Investigative Committee said Friday.
"Investigators have worked on this matter and are close to proving that this really was the case. We already have certain evidence in the form of documents," committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Vesti FM.
He reminded that the state company was sold to private investors via the Russian government’s Loans-for-Shares auction in 1996.
One of the beneficiaries of this privatization program was Bank Menatep, which was then controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. By 1997, the bank managed to accumulate 90 percent of the Yukos company’s shares, acquiring a controlling stake there.
In 2006, Yukos was declared bankrupt by Moscow's Court of Arbitration. State-run Rosneft subsequently purchased about 80 percent of the company's assets.
