TOMSK, June 19 (RAPSI) – The former chief of YUKOS oil company subsidiary Tomskneft, who was serving a 13-year prison sentence for large-scale embezzlement, has been released on early parole, a penitentiary service representative in Russia’s Tomsk Region said.
The Tomsk Oktyabrsky District Court considered and granted Sergei Shimkevich's parole request on June 6, the court said. The ruling came into effect on June 18.
In April 2011, a Moscow District Court sentenced Shimkevich to 13 years in a prison colony for colluding with the managers of Intellect Group to sign fictitious contracts. As much as 462 million rubles ($14.5 million), stolen and laundered through several firms controlled by Intellect, were transferred to the company's accounts in 2005-2006.
Shimkevich was first detained in the Tomsk Region on January 16, 2007 and formally arrested two days later. A member of the Tomsk regional legislature at the time, he was stripped of his immunity after the court ruled his actions appeared to be of a criminal nature.
In 2010, Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court sentenced Shimkevich to 12 years in prison. According to investigators, Shimkevich and his accomplices set up a criminal group which carried out a series of frauds with several companies’ securities, embezzling 5.93 billion rubles ($186 million) which Tomskneft planned to use to cover its tax arrears.
YUKOS’ founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev have been in prison since 2005 on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion, having initially been sentenced to nine years in prison, then given another eight at a second trial, which was later reduced by two years. They are now due to be released in 2014.
