Platon Lebedev
Platon Lebedev is former CEO of Group Menatep, a company created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky that had controlling shares in the Russian oil company YUKOS, Russia's richest oil company. He, along with Khodorkovsky (see above), was convicted for embezzlement and money-laundering in December 2010. Lebedev played an integral role making YUKOS a world-class company defined by international standards of transparency and corporate governance. Many view his arrest as the beginning of the systematic campaign against YUKOS. He, along with Khodorkovsky, was sentenced to fourteen years in prison, which includes a previous sentence for tax evasion and fraud they received in 2005. On August 7, 2012, Lebedev's sentence was reduced by 3 years and 4 months by a district court judge in the Arkhangelsk region city of Velsk, where he is imprisoned. Like Khodorkovsky, observers have raised concerns about the harassment of lawyers and witnesses and procedural violations including the exclusion of evidence that might have exonerated the defendants, and the denial of the right to examine and cross examine witnesses. His treatment, and that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky suggest that his conviction was for political reasons relating to who he is.
Platon Lebedev was RELEASED on January 23, 2014.