MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax) - Moscow's Meshchansky District Court has granted a motion from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for seizing 1.4 billion rubles from former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky (designated as a foreign agent in Russia), former Menatep Group head Platon Lebedev, and the Siberian Leasing Company in favor of the state, an Interfax correspondent reported.
"A motion from the deputy prosecutor general is granted," the court said on Tuesday.
The Prosecutor General's Office filed for seizing around 1 billion rubles and some $2 million from the respondents' accounts in the Trust bank, which the Federal Bailiff Service was unable to collect through the enforcement procedure due to legislation.
Representatives of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev took no part in the hearing.
A representative of the Prosecutor General's Office supported the motion in court. Representatives of the Trust bank and the Federal Bailiff Service raised no objections.
As reported with reference to the motion, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were found guilty on multiple counts, including major tax evasion, in May 2005. In addition, the court granted a motion from the Federal Tax Service for collecting 17.4 billion rubles from the convicts in compensation for the damage done to the state.
The prosecution service said that the defendants did not compensate the damage voluntarily, and the Federal Bailiff Service initiated an enforcement procedure, which remains incomplete.
Seeking to fulfill the court order protecting Russia's interests, the prosecution service asked the court to seize the funds of nine companies which, according to the sentence pronounced on Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, did not conduct any actual operations but channeled funds in their favor. All companies apart from Siberian Leasing Company have been liquidated.
The total amount of funds demanded by the prosecution service is 1,413,123,685 rubles.