Yukos makes shares-for-freedom bid
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Top man in the company Khodorkovsky remains in jail.
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The top shareholders of Russia's Yukos Oil Company have offered their shares to win the freedom of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Group Menatep Ltd. is believed to own a controlling interest -- about 61 percent -- in Yukos through Yukos Universal Ltd., according to Interfax. The assets belonging to the group, totaling nearly 50 million shares, have been frozen by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
Leonid Nevzlin, a Menatep shareholder, said the offer was made a week ago but Russian officials had not responded, Interfax said.
Khodorkovsky remains behind bars as prosecutors continue their investigation into charges of fraud and tax evasion. He was arrested in October and his pre-trial detention has been extended to March 25.
Earlier in the month, Vasily Shakhnovsky -- former president of Yukos-Moscow -- was found guilty by a Moscow court of major tax evasion.
But in its ruling to suspend the one-year sentence, the court, quoted by Interfax, said "circumstances had changed" and that Shakhnovsky had ceased to be "a threat to society," noting he is no longer working in the organizations in which he committed his crimes.
Tax officials previously dropped a civil suit against Shakhnovsky after he paid $1.8 million in taxes, but the criminal case continued.
It is the first court decision in the Yukos affair, which has implicated several Yukos stockholders and officials.
