Russian bailiffs say shares in Yukos daughter company to be sold off

The Associated Press

Russian bailiffs intend to turn seized shares in one of the Yukos oil giant’s daughter companies over to authorities for sale to meet part of the company’s huge back taxes bill, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported July 20.

The report, citing the Prime-Tass financial news service, said the shares in Yugansknefetgaz would be turned over to “a specialized organization.” That could mean the Federal Property Fund, the agency that is the nominal owner of Russia’s state assets.

The report reduced waning hopes for a compromise in the case, in which Yukos has been ordered to pay 99.4 billion rubles (US$3.3 billion) in back taxes for the year 2000. The company has said it does not have enough ready cash to pay the bill, and is prevented by court order from selling assets to raise cash.

It also appeared to support wide analyst speculation that authorities do not intend to drive Russia’s largest oil producer into disintegration but aim to put its shares into more Kremlin-friendly hands.

The tax case against Yukos is one part of a complex web of legal actions against the company and its former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky that is widely seen as a Kremlin-directed drive to punish Khodorkovsky for funding opposition parties and to stifle his presumed political ambitions.

News reports July 20 also cited bailiffs as saying 5.25 billion rubles (US$175 million) had been recovered from Yukos. It was not immediately clear if that amount was the presumed value of the daughter company’s shares.

Yukos shares fell some 9 percent in trading in Moscow after the report.

Khodorkovsky, meanwhile, faces charges of tax evasion, fraud and forgery. His trial resumed July 20, with prosecutors beginning the reading of the lengthy charges.