Spam Aims to Capitalize on Russian Oil Tycoon’s Plight

Russia has more in common with Nigeria these days than just oil.

Following up on the politically charged imprisonment of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a wave of scam e-mails in the style of Nigeria’s notorious spammers have been popping up in in-boxes from Moscow to Kentucky.

But instead of impassioned pleas by dead African dictators’ aides to move millions of dollars overseas, the appeals claim to come from the inner circle of the man who was once Russia’s richest.

“Dear friend, I got your reliable contact from my husband’s business diary,” begins one letter from “Leila Khodorkovsky,” claiming to be the billionaire’s wife -- whose actual name is Inna.

The letter requests assistance investing $45 million of the tycoon’s money and promises compensation.

Another is signed by “Larissa Sosnitskaya,” who describes herself as a personal treasurer to Khodorkovsky, seeking a beneficiary for a similar sum that she intends to use “to relocate to the American continent and never to be connected to any of Mikhail Khodorkovsky conglomerates.”

Although the details -- and often grammar -- are muddled, the Khodorkovsky-themed spam highlights the notoriety of his case and his eight-year sentence on tax and fraud charges, which critics called Kremlin revenge for his sponsoring of opposition parties.

Worth some $15 billion before his arrest at gunpoint on a Siberian airfield in 2003 -- and currently an inmate of a bleak prison colony on Russia’s border with China -- Khodorkovsky was an obvious choice for the authors of the Nigerian-style spam, experts say.

“This is a well-developed business -- they choose what is up to date,” said Yevgeny Altovsky, who coordinates an anti-spamming program in Moscow backed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

“The main thing is it has to involve some kind of rich person,” he said. “If a major court case against Bill Gates were to start tomorrow, I’m sure he would appear in these messages.”

Yukos Oil Co. spokeswoman Claire Davidson declined to comment on why spammers might have selected Khodorkovsky and the company he founded as subject matter.

“They aren’t being issued from within the company,” she said, referring to one letter in circulation allegedly signed by Bruce Misamore, Yukos’ former chief financial officer.

Although versions of the letter have been sent in Russian, Altovsky said Russian Internet users were wise to such scams and were unlikely to be fooled.