Alumni House.qxp:Layout 1
8/17/10
2:50 PM
Page 15
Alumni House
Trustee Testifies in Russian ‘Show Trial’ W
By Van Jensen
es Haun, Mgt 72, had a good excuse for missing the May meeting of the Alumni Association board of trustees. He was in Moscow, testifying as an expert witness for the defense in the trial of former Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Haun, an oil and gas consultant living in Houston, had testified in more than 50 cases. But those were all civil cases in the United States, he said, and none had quite as much international scrutiny. “It was a once-ina-lifetime deal,” Haun said. Khodorkovsky was CEO of Yukos, one of the world’s largest non-state oil companies, a role that made him one of the wealthiest men on Earth. He was arrested in 2004 and convicted of tax evasion, a charge that many have said was trumped up because Khodorkovsky had grown too wealthy and too interested in democratic reforms. “The Russian system is different because there’s no jury, just a judge,” Haun said. “And the judiciary isn’t independent. They can be told what to do by the politicians. [Khodorkovsky] was convicted of tax evasion based on a law that was written six years” after the crime allegedly took place. As Khodorkovsky served his prison sentence, he became a martyr for the opponents to Russian leadership. His sentence was to end in 2011, but in 2007 new charges of embezzlement were brought against him. A new trial on those charges has been ongoing for more than a year. One of
A courtroom artist in Moscow sketched trial witness Wes Haun and a Russian translator.
Khodorkovsky’s attorneys is from the United States and had worked with Haun previously, so Haun was invited to serve as a witness. Haun flew over in late May and described it as a threatening experience. His bag was held for two days after he arrived. Cleaning crews would be in his hotel room for hours at a time as he was locked outside. He and the attorneys were followed whenever they went out. The courtroom wasn’t any more welcoming. Guards with machine guns stood by the doors and glared at Haun, he said. The defendants were in cages. “I spent time in Vietnam, and our cell for prisoners wasn’t nearly as guarded,” Haun said. “And we were in a war zone, not in the middle of Moscow.” Khodorkovsky is accused of stealing billions of barrels of oil and selling it on the
side for his personal profit. The defense had Haun write an expert report, which he said explained how the charge wasn’t credible. “But the judge didn’t let that in because it wasn’t written in Russia by a Russian, which isn’t in the law,” Haun said. He was allowed to testify, but only after being grilled by the prosecution’s lawyers — and by the judge. The prosecution also tried to disqualify Haun’s interpreter, even though he’d worked for former Russian president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin, among other heads of state. “It was amazing to sit there and see the prosecution just tell lies,” Haun said. “They’d jump up and down and hoot and holler. And the judge was part of it too. He’d yell at people to shut up.” Although Haun is convinced of Khodorkovsky’s innocence, he’s far from convinced that his testimony will have any impact on the outcome of the case. “This is a show trial,” he said. “My report had no impact whatsoever other than to point out you can’t get a fair trial in Russia. As soon as the government decides you’ve made too much money or haven’t done what they wanted, they’ll take your company from you.” The main lesson Haun took away from the experience is how lucky he is to live in the United States, where defendants are innocent until proven guilty and the judiciary is kept separate from the executive branch. He was quick to say he’ll never return to Russia. In his time in Moscow, Haun talked a lot with his interpreter, a 48-year-old Russian who was born and raised in Moscow. “He said this was the first time he wanted to leave and never go back,” Haun said. “And he hated the Communists. He thought when they were thrown out the world would be a better place. And it is not.”
September/October 2010
Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine
15