December 15, 2004
The Guardian
The embattled Russian oil group Yukos has filed for bankruptcy in the US and appealed for a temporary injunction preventing the forced sale of its main production unit, it was announced today.
Yukos said it wanted the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas to force the Russian state to arbitrate the company's claims for billions of dollars in damages. The claims arise from what Yukos has described as "an unprecedented campaign of illegal, discriminatory and disproportionate" tax demands.
A statement from the company said the planned auction of Yuganskneftegaz, its main production subsidiary, would "cause the company to suffer immediate and irreparable harm".
On Sunday, Russian tax officials are due to auction off Yuganskneftegas to bring in some of the £14bn it says Yukos owes. Yukos said it had filed for protection from its creditors, and requested an emergency hearing at the bankruptcy court, in Houston.
The firm said US bankruptcy law had international jurisdiction in its case because it has major business dealings in Texas and its chief financial operator, Bruce Misamore, is based there.
"Yukos is asking the court for a temporary restraining order halting the planned Sunday auction of Yuganskneftegaz by Russian authorities," the company's statement said.
Steven Theede, the Yukos CEO, said the move was "the only resort" left for the firm, which the Russian government has targeted in a relentless legal campaign that has sent its value plunging.
The campaign against Yukos and its owners - including the jailed former CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been seen as a Kremlin-inspired effort to punish Mr Khodorkovsky for his perceived political ambitions, including his funding of opposition parties.
Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has presented the case as part of official crackdown on dubious accounting practices and corruption.
Mr Khodorkovsky offered to repay taxes gradually and cede his shares to the state in an attempt to avoid the collapse of Russia's largest oil exporting firm and protect the right of minority investors, who own 25% of the company. However, the government seized Yuganskneftegaz.
Some analysts suggest the tax claims have been engineered to transfer the unit - which produces around 60% of Yukos' oil - to a connected company close to the Kremlin, most likely to be the state gas giant, Gazprom.
"The management of Yukos has worked tirelessly and in good faith over the past year to establish a dialogue with the Russian authorities in an attempt to work out a compromise that would have prevented today's reorganisation filing," Mr Theede said.
"We have submitted more than 70 settlement offers and publicly stated that reorganisation was a distinct possibility if a reasonable resolution was not reached. It is regrettable that we did not receive one substantive response."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1374244,00.html