Irish court orders Russian oligarch’s assets unfrozen
DUBLIN — A Dublin judge on Wednesday ordered Irish authorities to unfreeze 100 million euros ($107 million) in cash belonging to an exiled Russian oligarch, ruling that police had provided no evidence that the funds were illegally gained as Russia contends.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man as the founder of the Yukos oil company, welcomed the Irish District Court judgment in a statement from his adopted London home. Russia expressed surprise that the judge failed to keep Khodorkovsky’s Irish-banked assets frozen, given his Russian convictions for fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.