Witness Testimony Summary: German Gref
Testimony Dates:
Bio:
Mr. German Gref, currently President of Sberbank, was the Minister of Economics and Trade from May 2000 through September 2007. From August 1998 until May 2000 he was First Deputy Minister of State Property.
Testimony Summary:
Mr. Gref exhibited a cautious streak, often citing in his answers to lack of memory, passage of time or other uncertainties. Still, key parts of his testimony confirmed defendants and their attorneys argued for over a year. On VNK subsidiaries shares exchange, Mr. Gref remembered that there was a pending third-party claim (Birkenholz), which complicated the matter of reverse exchange, but that the shares were later returned onto VNK's balance sheet.
On crude oil, although he did not remember whether he served on the Board of Transneft, Mr. Gref testified that YUKOS shipped majority of its crude oil through the Transneft pipeline system. He admitted that no one reported to him a shortage or disappearance of crude oil equal to YUKOS' annual production.
Mr. Gref testified that the substantial difference between the prices at which crude oil was sold in production regions, like Khanty-Mansiysk, and at which Urals was sold in Rotterdam was due to, amongst other things, export tariffs, Transneft's fees. Mr. Gref confirmed that he was fully aware that there was price difference between Western Siberia and Rotterdam, testifying that it couldn't have been otherwise. "If [Rosneft] purchased at prices higher than those in Rotterdam, it would have gone bankrupt!" Mr. Gref exclaimed. "And what about same prices?" Mr. Khodorkovsky sought additional clarification from the witness. "To purchase at the same prices as in Rotterdam - impossible," Mr. Gref ended up explaining away one of the key assertions made in the indictment.
Answering Mr. Lebedev's questions, Mr. Gref confirmed that the Russian government never published crude oil price list to be used by crude oil companies within the Russian Federation when they purchased crude oil from their subsidiaries. Mr. Gref did not know of any Russian oil company which purchased crude oil at Rotterdam prices in oil production regions.