MOSCOW, April 10 - RAPSI. Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin has submitted to the court a criminal case against Alexei Spirichev, head of several YUKOS subsidiaries, accused of tax evasion amounting to over $304.3mln, Marina Gridneva, official representative of the prosecutor general's office, said.

"Investigators believe that from 1998 to 2001 Spirichev, jointly with accomplices and under the guidance of YUKOS heads Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, formalized documents containing false data on the activity of fly-by-night companies which were dependant on YUKOS," Gridneva said.

According to her, as a result, the said organizations gained illegal tax benefits, granted by the local authorities.

Charges against Spirichev could not be brought because he absconded from the investigation and the trial, as a result of which, in 2004, he was placed on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia, Gridneva said.

She said that the hearing regarding Spirichev can be held in his absentia. Spirichev is accused of tax evasion and fraud and faces up to 10 years in prison.

In 2005, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion. In late 2010, a Moscow district court sentenced them to 14 years in prison for oil theft and money laundering. They were expected to be released in 2017, taking into account the time they had already served for their convictions from their first trial in 2005. However, on May 24, the Moscow City Court reduced their sentences by one year. They could now be released in 2016.