Antonio Valdez-Garcia, former head of the Yukos subsidiary Fargoil, Vladimir Malakhovsky, ex-managing director of the Ratibor unit, and Vladimir Pereverzin, a one-time deputy head of Yukos' foreign debt department, are charged with designing a scheme to divert $13 billion worth of crude oil and launder $8.5 billion of the receipts.
All three have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution is seeking an 11-year prison term for each of the defendants.
A panel of judges hearing the case at the Basmanny Court was to have continued its deliberations Tuesday, but decided at a closed-door session to adjourn until January 23 over reports that Valdez-Garcia, released on parole while the case is pending, escaped from his Moscow apartment, which had been placed under police guard.
"It is not yet clear what will happen after the break," a source close to the investigation told RIA Novosti. "Maybe the proceedings against Valdez-Garcia will be conducted as a separate trial."
Russia's prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, told a news conference earlier Tuesday that new money laundering charges will be brought against these and other Yukos executives, as well as against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the company's founder and former CEO.
Khodorkovsky, who is now serving an eight-year prison term on fraud and tax evasion convictions, was questioned last month on his suspected involvement in money laundering.
The crackdown against what was once Russia's largest privately owned oil company is seen by many as politically motivated, aimed at punishing Khodorkovsky for his political ambitions and bringing the country's vast oil riches back under state control.
