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Mikhail Khodorkovsky / Photo: Reuters
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Full name: Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky
Born: June 26, 1963 in Moscow
In 1986, graduated from Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology in Moscow
In 1988, finished Plekhanov Institute of National Economy
In 1986, became deputy secretary of a district Komsomol (the Communist Youth League) committee in Moscow
In 1990, founded Menatep bank group
In 1993 appointed deputy fuel and energy minister of Russia
On October 25, 2003 arrested on charges of tax fraud and evasion
Married, with four children
The wealthiest man in Russia and the 16th wealthiest man in the world according to Forbes Magazine, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was considered to be one of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs until his arrest at gunpoint on October 25, 2003. Former CEO and main shareholder of  Yukos Oil Company, Khodorkovsky was born in Moscow, where he graduated from the Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology. While at the institute, he was deputy head of the local Komsomol (the Communist Youth League) cell, making contacts that in 1986 helped him to open his first business — a private cafe, as well as an importing enterprise. By 1988 Khodorkovsky had built an import-export business with a turnover of $10 million that he used to acquire a banking licence to create Bank Menatep in 1989.
One of Russia’s first privately owned banks, Menatep expanded rapidly, attracting such powerful government clients as the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Service, the Moscow Municipal Government, and the Russian Arms Export Agency. In 1993 Mikhail Khodorkovsky briefly served as deputy fuel and energy minister of Russia.
When Boris Yeltsin’s government decided to privatize state industries in 1995, Bank Menatep provided the capital for Khodorkovsky’s bid for Yukos Oil Company and was appointed to conduct a public auction, which it won.
In 1998 the Russian ruble collapsed, taking Bank Menatep with it. Its banking licence revoked, Menatep shares were taken into possession by three of its foreign clients — the Standard Bank of South Africa, the Japanese Daiwa Bank and Germany’s West LB Bank — who provided Menatep with a loan of $266 million and refused Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s offer to be paid back in oil instead. Bank Menatep’s St. Petersburg subsidiary remained solvent and was rebuilt soon after the crisis.
Aiming at building a global business and in need of foreign investment, Khodorkovsky introduced unprecedented transparency in Yukos, hiring many executives from large Western oil companies and appointing internationally-respected figures to the board of directors. Yukos accounts were published following international GAAP standards, its taxes paid in accordance with the law, its dividends issued accurately, and the identity of its shareholders revealed. In April 2003, Khodorkovsky announced that Yukos would merge with Sibneft Oil Company, creating the second-largest oil and gas company in the world after ExxonMobil.
In 2001 Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a group of other Yukos shareholders established the Open Russia Foundation, which sponsored and implemented a wide range of social and educational programs largely aimed at promoting democratic reforms in Russia. In his public statements, Khodorkovsky proved to be an open critic of President Putin’s policy of ’managed democracy’ and the growing influence of the siloviki — military and security officers and agencies whose authority in all spheres of Russian life has grown considerably since Vladimir Putin assumed office in 2000. During the 2003 elections to the State Duma Khodorkovsky funded the liberal SPS (Union of Right Forces) and Yabloko parties.
In early July 2003, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office sanctioned the arrest of Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky’s partner and second largest shareholder in Yukos on suspicion of illegally acquiring a stake in a state-owned fertiliser firm in 1994. Lebedev’s arrest was followed by the Tax Ministry’s investigations into tax returns filed by Yukos, and a delay to the antitrust commission’s approval for its merger with Sibneft.
On October 25, 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested by masked FSB operatives, who stormed his private jet as it was waiting to be refuelled near the city of Novosibirsk en route to a remote Yukos production centre in East Siberia. Upon his return to Moscow, Khodorkovsky was charged with tax fraud and evasion, and placed in detention pending trial. Several bail requests were denied. His arrest has attracted attention from various public figures and human right groups, both Russian and Western, who criticized it as being politically motivated.
Following his arrest, Mikhail Khodorkovsky resigned as the CEO of Yukos and was replaced by Russian-born U.S. citizen Simon Kukes. Shortly thereafter, the Russian government took the unprecedented step of freezing Yukos shares. Sibneft announced that its merger with Yukos had been cancelled as well. The trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev has been postponed several times; the latest date being set for July 12, 2004.
Updated: 20.04.2006 18:33 MSK
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