MOSCOW, December 17 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Tuesday deemed a second sentence issued in absentia to former YUKOS shareholder Leonid Nevzlin lawful, RAPSI reports from the court. Nevzlin was sentenced for 6 years on charges of misappropriation in addition to a standing life sentence for conspiracy to murder.

Nevzlin is believed to have misappropriated 38% of the shares in Tomskneft-VNK, the Achinsky Refinery and other firms as a member of an organized crime group in 1998.
The shares were contributed to the charter capital of YUKOS' Eastern Oil Company (VNK) and valued at over 3 billion rubles ($94.2 million). Major YUKOS shareholders and executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and Yukos EP Executive Manager Ramil Burganov were earlier convicted in the case.

Three lawsuits have been initiated under the Nevzlin case.

One lawsuit over a 3.6 billion ruble ($113.05 million) claim was filed by the Federal Agency for State Property Management. The other lawsuits were submitted by two VNK shareholders who demand that VNK pay them dividends worth 20,000 rubles ($628) and 40,000 rubles ($1,256), respectively.

Nevzlin was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the murder or attempted murder of East Petroleum Handelsgas Executive Manager Yevgeny Rybin, Moscow Government PR Department head Olga Kostina and Rosprom Business Manager Viktor Kolesov.

Additionally, the Prosecutor General's Office charged Nevzlin in 2004 with tax evasion and misappropriation in the 1999-2000 fiscal year. Investigators claimed that the damages from tax evasion exceeded 26 million rubles ($820,600) and the damages from misappropriation exceeded 30 million rubles ($946,900).

Nevzlin was on the boards of directors of VNK and Menatep Bank until June 2002. In 2003, he emigrated to Israel and received citizenship when the YUKOS case opened.