RA Quoted by AFP and AP

Robert Amsterdam was quoted today by Agence France Press and Associated Press in regards to the withdrawal of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ reports for Yukos. AFP:

Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, told AFP that PwC had been “uniquely informed and intimate with the audits they were working with.” The accountancy group, which was an advisor to the oil firm, was “involved in every fibre of the business,” Amsterdam said. He linked the decision by PwC to withdraw its audits to pressure put on the company and claimed the company’s license in Russia had been threatened. “We’re writing history anew. There’s nothing standard about a situation where an auditor has files seized at gunpoint and then conveniently decides a few months later after its license is threatened to change an audit report,” Amsterdam said.

AP:

One of Khodorkovsky’s defense lawyers, Robert Amsterdam, accused the Russian government of pressuring PricewaterhouseCoopers to withdraw the reports, so that they will be inadmissible during the new Khodorkovsky trial. “This demonstrates the complete absence of evidence in the position of the Russian government,” Amsterdam said.