http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=760590<snip>
"Judges on Monday found Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of four charges in his fraud trial at the end of a 22-month case in which his YUKOS oil firm has been torn apart.
Khodorkovsky, who is on trial with business associate Platon Lebedev, was convicted of theft with conspiracy, damage to property rights via fraud, malicious failure to obey a court order and personal tax evasion.
Judges still had to announce their verdicts on three remaining charges. Sentence was due to be passed later.
The 11-month trial has scared investors and soured President Vladimir Putin's image abroad."
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"The billionaire and Lebedev face seven counts of fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion and theft that have their roots in alleged deals going back to the murky days of post-Soviet privatization in the mid-1990s.
The affair, widely seen as part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy Khodorkovsky for his political ambitions, has drawn criticism from the United States.
Khodorkovsky was arrested 17 months ago and has been held in prison. His YUKOS oil firm has since been crushed under the weight of a $27.5 billion back-tax bill."