Billions of concealed taxes for 2002 and 2003. Bruce Misamore in wait for new tax shocks. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on July 6, 2004.
On this day 19 years ago, on July 6, 2004, the Prosecutor General of Russia Vladimir Ustinov said new tax claims could be issued against the company Yukos for 2002 and 2003.
On the eve, the Arbitration Court of Moscow considered legitimate the claims of the tax agency against the oil company Yukos with regard to tax arrears for 2000 and compelled it to pay $3.4 billion on the results of 2002.
At the conclusion of the investigation, tax claims were made against Yukos to the total amount of 98 billion rubles, including penalties and fines (more than $3 billion, according to the exchange rate of that time).
“But there are also 2002, 2003”, pointed out the Prosecutor General of Russia. “This is like a snowball. This case has the beginning, but it’s difficult to see the end. The scale of misappropriation, embezzlement, tax arrears are so huge that they could not be put in one case”.
IT’S NOT EASY TO CONSTANTLY PUT MONEY FROM ONE POCKET TO ANOTHER
On the same day, the finance director of Yukos Bruce K. Misamore said “the most transparent” company would have to pay for its dirty tax schemes.
“We think (these) tax claims are not the last ones, and one can expect claims for following years”.
He complained about destiny saying that “the volume of available funds of Yukos at present moment amount to 1.3 – 1.4 billion U.S. dollars. The monetary assets of the company, according to Yukos finance director, are both on offshore accounts and in Russia, but it’s not easy to put money from one pocket to another, in particular, when part of accounts are frozen”, reported the news outlet “Lenta.ru” citing the American.
Using the usual clichés, Bruce Misamore argued the Russian authorities were guilty of everything, and not the swindler Khodorkovsky*, who, under control and with consent of the foreign management had unfolded a shady business in half of the country.
BANANA OIL OF BRUCE MISAMORE
Bruce Misamore in contacts with reporters expressed bewilderment at the fact that negotiation between Yukos and the Russian government had been cancelled.
“Yukos didn’t violate the tax laws, and a political pressure is being put of the company”, narrated Bruce Misamore self-neglecting, pouring banana oil into the years of the credulous press.
“The violation by Yukos of the tax legislation for 2000 at the moment of Bruce Misamore declarations had been already recognized by the ruling of the Arbitration Court that had become final and biding. The narrative of a “political background” of collecting taxes was refuted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) which pointed out that the Russian Federation had had the right to exact tax payments which the swindlers of the oil company had been illegally keeping back”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, Yukos was reminded of taxes and tax arrears for 2001”.On the basis of an on-site inspection, Yukos tax arrears were found to the amount of 98 billion rubles. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on July 5, 2004).
*On May 20, 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice included M.B. Khodorkovsky in the list of physical persons executing functions of a foreign agent.
