Another two witnesses for the prosecution-Alexander Zverev and Nina Gorbunova, both formerly employed with the Menatep finance group-were questioned today, our correspondent reported from courtroom.
Alexander Zverev was Director General of the Khodorkovsky-controlled consulting company Pravus, 1993-94.
"Juridically speaking, the Pravus was not linked to the Menatep Bank. Connected to it by a contract, the Pravus might be regarded as an independent consulting company," the witness pointed out in his testimony.
As the indictment has it, the Pravus was deliberately established to set up men-of-straw and commit other crimes. The witness, however, has never heard about whatever companies allegedly established on Pravus behalf-he first learned about them during preliminary investigation.
"I went over to the Menatep Bank as legal department manager as the Pravus began to wither off," said Alexander Zverev. He is not sure whether the bank was engaged in capital investment, he added.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky eventually offered Zverev the post of Menatep group executive manager. "The offer was something of a thunderbolt," the witness went on.
As public prosecutor Dmitri Shokhin was questioning him, Zverev said he did not know for sure who was really Menatep boss. "We all knew Khodorkovsky was one of the principals on the network," he remarked.
Nina Gorbunova worked for the Menatep bank in 1992 into 96, and was nominally Director General of several companies. In that respect, she was no different from many employees of Khodorkovsky-controlled companies, said the witness. On advice from the Menatep investment board, she was buying up corporate stock, an Apatite block among others, for borrowed money eventually to sell it off.
Gorbunova never receivedany remuneration for her vast extra work, and at last chose to leave the company. "We were all working for future boons," she said.
Today's hearings were unpleasantly nipped as lighting went off-there were more electric stoves in the court building than the wires could stand with a cold spell in Moscow, and the heating season still far away.
Justice Irina Kolesnikova announced a break to the pitch-dark courtroom. The hearings resumed as soon as repairs finished.
