Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Platon Lebedev, the former head of holding company Group MENATEP Limited, said in a testimony on August 30 that YUKOS did not intentionally decrease oil prices. The businessman refuted the prosecutors' accusation of stealing 350 million tons of oil between 1998 and 2003, including by using lower prices.

Lebedev said: "In any case, the prices that were used internally by any vertically integrated company were transfer or inter-group prices (different from market prices) regardless these being similar or not to the stock indexes." He added: "The difference in prices in various companies and customers occurred due to a difference in risk levels."