Spain’s Interior Ministry said Moscow authorities were working with Spanish investigators after it discovered funds had been embezzled from Yukos in the scam.
Reuters reported a Spanish police source saying “these are individuals who from inside the company appear to have been diverted sums of money … which then left the country without the knowledge of the company or the tax authorities.”
A Yukos spokesman strongly denied suggestions it was siphoning money out of the country in a bid to avoid paying taxes.
Spanish police are reported to have frozen A$51 million in cash accounts, seized 250 properties in the Marabella area and impounded 42 luxury cars and a number of yachts and light aircraft.
