HOUSTON CHRONICLE Bruce Misamore sent his friend and former colleague Mikhail Khodorkovsky a Christmas letter a few weeks ago. The good tidings were short-lived. This week, Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest oil tycoon, was convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering. The government claims he stole $30 billion worth of oil from his former company, Yukos, then pocketed and hid the proceeds. 'The charges were completely bogus,' said Misamore, a former Pennzoil executive hired by Khodorkovsky in 2000 to bring Western accounting standards to Yukos before the Russian government seized the company. The embezzlement charges relate to oil that Yukos exported between 1998 and 2003, when Khodorkovsky was running the company. 'It was alleged that he stole everything we exported for several years,' said Misamore, who lives in Houston and is retired. 'None of that oil was ever stolen. It was all completely accounted for.' Khodorkovsky is 10 months away from completing an eight-year sentence on earlier charges of tax evasion, also related to Yukos. He and his supporters have long claimed he's the victim of political persecution. He emerged from post-Soviet Russia as a powerful figure, controlling what was then the country's biggest private oil company. He made an enemy of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by backing Putin's political adversaries. The latest convictions drew immediate international outcry and underscored concerns that companies wanting to do business in Russia are entering a legal limbo, where the judiciary is beholden to the Kremlin. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called it 'an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends,' and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the verdict 'raises serious questions about selective prosecution and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations,' ABC News reported. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Western oil companies flocked to Russia, hoping to develop its vast oil and natural gas reserves. Most have since pulled out or significantly reduced their operations there, a trend that's certain to continue in light of the Khodorkovsky verdict. Companies that invest in Russia must realize they have no legal recourse if the government or a government-controlled company decides to come after them, Misamore said. 'If you run into trouble over there, nobody's going to help you,' he said. One small asset When government agents stormed Yukos' offices in Russia, Misamore was in London. He returned to Houston and, listing his company laptop as the only asset, attempted to put Yukos into Chapter 11 bankruptcy to stop the seizure by the Russian government. The tactic didn't work, and the laptop was later stolen in a mysterious home burglary. As I wrote in the summer of 2009, Misamore has joined with other former Yukos executives in waging a global battle to recover former Yukos assets on behalf of the company's shareholders. They were able to sell a refinery and a pipeline in Europe. This summer, the group won a victory in the Netherlands after the Dutch Supreme Court upheld $400 million worth of arbitration awards against the Russian oil company Rosneft, which inherited some of the assets the government seized from Yukos. Madoff comparison Meanwhile, Khodorkovsky prepares to spend as many as seven more years in jail. After the verdict, Putin compared Khodorkovsky to confessed swindler Bernard Madoff, saying 'a thief should be in jail.' Misamore said he hopes Putin feels the same way about the seizure of Yukos. 'The biggest thief is Mr. Putin himself,' he said. 'He stole the biggest oil company in Russia.' Loren Steffy is the Chronicle's business columnist. His commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Contact him at loren.steffy@chron.com. His blog is at http:/blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy. XXX - End of Story3D 