Foreign creditors shook Yukos in Moscow. The Dutch "daughter" of Yukos tucked her tail between her legs. What happened on September 28, 2005 and 2016
On this day, on September 28, 2005, a court session of the Arbitration took place in Moscow at which the executing of the ruling of the High Court of London was discussed on recovering from the Khodorkovsky's company $475.28 million of debt owed to the group of foreign banks that had provided considerable loans and that Yukos stopped to service.
As the Russian newspaper “Kommersant” pointed out on the following day, it was “a technical decision” – according to the existing international procedures, it was necessary to confirm the ruling of the London Court regarding claims of foreign creditors by corresponding decision of Russian Arbitration, and it was made. Thus, the syndicate of foreign banks confirmed its status as a legal creditor of Yukos with a possibility to demand bankruptcy of the oil empire of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
(See also “On this day, Western banks gave Yukos one billion US dollars but later took it away”.
“On September 23, 2004”, reminded the newspaper “Kommersant” its readers, “the creditor banks informed Yukos about a possible default on the credit to the amount of $1 billion. The main reason for this notification was the claim of the Ministry of Taxes and Levies from April 14, 2004, on paying taxes, fines, and penalties to the tune of 99.376 billion rubles, as well as the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court from April 15, 2004, imposing a ban on estrangement and encumbrance of the company's assets".
As the result, the key factor of Yukos’ problems was the criminal activity of the management of the company pertaining to wide-scale tax evasion both of the company itself and of the organized group of “the main shareholders”.
(See also the article “Tax mechanics of Khodorkovsky as a physical person”.
The company FPH got its tail down
And on September 28, 2016, it became known that the firm “Financial Performance Holding” (FPH, Holland), the legal successor of the offshore company “Glendale” affiliated with Yukos, abandoned the claim against the Russian Federation which had been discussed in the Permanent Chamber of the Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
It was pointed out that the case concerning the claim of FPH to receive payment to the amount of 3.5 billion US dollars (plus interests) was stopped with a limitation that “FPH in the future will not be able to address to Arbitration Court with similar demands”. Apart from that, according to the rules of such court proceedings, a company, which stopped a process, must recompense Russia for the litigation costs in full measure.
“As it became known to the multi-media holding RBK Group, the Dutch company Financial Performance Holding (FPH) affiliated with the previous oil giant Yukos, abandoned its claim against the Russian Federation in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague”.
With the last point, as it was reported, there was a hitch – the Russian side had to remind the opponents of the originated debt through court.
“The company ignored the order of the London Arbitrage, and it left without an answer the repeated reminders of the Russian side on the necessity to enforce the court decision”, said Russian representatives explaining the gist of the filed claim. The whole sum of the financial expenses amounted to 1.3 British pounds including penalty interests for the nonfulfillment of the court ruling (about $1.7).
Apart from that, in order to recover these sums by enforcement, Russia asked the London Court to expose information about the assets of FPH in the whole world. FPH, for its own reasons, refused to do it, and, in 2017, without waiting for the litigation, paid to Russia all the arisen legal expenses to the amount of $1.7 million", notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, a prize was awarded to the swindler Khodorkovsky”. The Polish foundation named after the ex-president Walesa has rewarded the tax trickster for “the resolve in creating the basis of economic freedom”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on September 27, 2013.
