Probe into Russian oil company Yukos continues

[Nottingham]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2147385

Probe into Russian oil company Yukos continues
Associated Press

MOSCOW -- Government investigators searched the offices of Yukos' security service today, the second raid targeting Russia's largest oil company in less than a week.

The government probe into Yukos, which began in July and appears to have heated up again in recent days.

Platon Lebedev, one of Yukos' top shareholders and a close associate of chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been jailed since July 2 on suspicion of defrauding the state in a 1994 privatization deal and tax evasion. A senior Yukos security officer, Alexei Pichugin, is also being held amid allegations that he was involved in a 1998 double murder.

Prosecutors have repeatedly searched Yukos property. On Friday, armed investigators raided a Yukos-sponsored school and the offices and homes of several of Khodorkovsky's colleagues. The raid came on the same day that Yukos announced the completion of its merger with smaller rival Sibneft to create one of the world's largest oil producers.

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Looks like Bush is helping Putin out here! :bounce: