Yukos chiefs offer shares to free boss

The owners of the holding company that controls Russia’s largest oil company Yukos, have offered their stock to the government in exchange for the release of former Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Leonid Nevzlin said that he and other core Group Menatep shareholders had offered to turn over their stake in the company to the government if it agreed to let Khodorkovsky out of jail.

“Life and liberty are more valuable than shares,” Nevzlin, believed to own 3.5% of Yukos through Menatep, said.

Nevzlin said the offer applied to shares in Yukos and other companies held both directly and indirectly by the Group Menatep partners.

Nevzlin said the offer was conditional on Khodorkovsky and another shareholder, Platon Lebedev, being released first. After their release, Nevzlin and the other shareholders will surrender their shares, he said.

He declined to say what specific government officials had been approached about the offer. He did, however, add that the shareholders were willing to forfeit all of Group Menatep in addition to just the Yukos shares to ensure Khodorkovsky’s and Lebedev’s freedom.

Khodorkovsky, who resigned as Yukos chief shortly after his October 25 arrest on fraud and tax evasion charges, has remained in custody pending trial. Courts have repeatedly dismissed petitions by lawyers of Khodorkovsky to free him on bail.