Senator Roberts is on the intel committee, so one would not expect him to inform the media of what he knew or did not know.
At this point the way it looks to me is that this Mohammed Zawahri info is not new news to the higher ups. I think it just may have been brought back up because he is being retried. If you do a google search on him you don't come up with very much.
Head of Yukos' holding company killed in air crash
Stephen Curtis, managing director of Menatep Group that controls key shareholdings in Russia's embattled oil giant Yukos, was killed in a helicopter crash in Britain, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
Stephen Curtis, managing director of Menatep Group that controls key shareholdings in Russia's embattled oil giant Yukos, was killed in a helicopter crash in Britain, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
Menatep spokesman Yuri Kotler said that Curtis, who succeeded Platon Lebedev as head of the Russian industrial group last November after the later was detained in July on charges of theft of state property and some other financial crimes, was killed in the accident outside London.
Only Curtis and the pilot was aboard the helicopter, said Kotler, adding no more details are available now.
Menatep Group Limited has over 30 billion US dollars assets in Russia and abroad. One of its main assets is the shareholdings in Yukos, which is undergoing a massive legal investigation process said to be a Kremlin-backed political move but was firmly denied by President Vladimir Putin.
Many of Yukos' leaders and main shareholders, including former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky that sponsors Putin's political rivals, are either held in custody pending trials on their alleged financial offenses or living in exile in foreign countries.
Managing 44 percent of Yukos shares, Menatep itself is controlled by Khodorkovsky and his allies, including Lebedev.
Russia dismisses property chief for connection with Yukos case
Russia sacked Thursday Federal Property Fund chief Vladimir Malin, who is charged with abuse of power in connection with an allegedly fraudulent sale of state-owned shares that triggered an investigation into the oil giant Yukos.
Russia sacked Thursday Federal Property Fund chief Vladimir Malin, who is charged with abuse of power in connection with an allegedly fraudulent sale of state-owned shares that triggered an investigation into the oil giant Yukos.
Malin was dismissed by acting Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko"under an article of the Labor Code," and his deputy Kirill Tomashchyuk has been appointed acting head of the fund that is the nominal owner of all of Russia's state assets, Itar-Tass newsagency reported.
The Prosecutor General's Office has charged Malin with powerabuse in connection with a sale of 20 percent of the stocks in the State-owned fertilizer giant Apatit in the 1994 privatization deal.The privatization of Apatit has been the focus of the caseagainst oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his longtime businesspartner Platon Lebedev, who are in detention pending trial on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Prosecutors said the shares were sold at a price far less than their potential worth and the company that purchased them failedto invest 283 million US dollars in Apatit as promised.The investment was guaranteed by Bank Menatep, which was then controlled by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, but the investments nevermaterialized, prosecutors said.
Many leaders and key shareholders of Yukos, which is undergoing a massive judicial investigation, are either detained for alleged financial offenses or living in exile in foreign countries, and Malin is the first senior Russian officials that was toppled inconnection with the case.
Critics claimed that the legal probe into Yukos was a Kremlin-backed move to revenge Khodorkovsky that sponsored the political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
The incumbent leader, who is set to win his re-election in the March 14 presidential poll, has firmly denied the allegation and described it as part of the anti-corruption campaign.