Tom Catan

As a Russian court prepares to issue a verdict in the tax evasion trial of Russian mogul Mikhail Khodorkovsky, documents show that his Menatep holding company and Yukos Oil shorted Russia of billions of dollars in taxes by using shell companies for transfer pricing.They also allegedly cheated minority shareholders. A U.S. lawsuit is charging that Yukos auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers knew of the false invoicing scheme and failed in its duty to report it. Documents obtained by OffshoreAlert, but not cited in the suit, indicate that PwC knew of Yukos' offshore marketing structure, called "Jurby Lake," which used Menatep shell companies in Switzerland, Liberia and Dublin to sell Yukos oil.