Tax “optimization” worth $6.1 billion. Yukos affiliates registered on lost passports. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on October 6, 2004.
On this day 19 years ago, on October 6, 2004, Alexander Belyakov, representative of the Russian Department of Court Bailiffs, informed that to the advantage of the state treasury was recovered from Yukos 75 billion rubles out of 99.4 billion of the tax arrears for 2000.
The tax claims against the “transparent” company Yukos included:
- non received tax payments in the amounts of 47.989 billion rubles, penalties – 32.19 billion rubles; fines – 19.195 billion rubles;
In the same October days of the year 2004, the Moscow capital arbitration sorted out “tax skeletons” of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s company for the year 2001. During the proceedings, representatives of the tax agency asserted that “tax evasion schemes were uncovered”. According to the Russian Ministry for Taxes and Levies, Yukos created a network consisting of 19 companies on the territories of the regions with preferential tax treatment”.
According to a representative of the Ministry for Taxes and Levies, out of 19 companies tax payments avoided eight, of which six were registered in Mordovia, one in the town Baykonur and another one in the Evenk Autonomous Region.
About these machinations of Yukos the Russian tax agency drew up a corresponding act. It became public on the pages of the newspaper “Vedomosti" (Taxmen prepared better for the second Yukos case, 30.07.2004, No134/1174)), but, in view of the unknown circumstances, perhaps as the result of the moves of the technical facilities, nowadays on this place we can see only the sign “error 404”.
Nevertheless (taking into account that the worldwide net remembers nearly all), based on the act with regard to the results of the repeated tax investigation of the Oil company Yukos for the years 2001, this media outlet concluded that "it would be difficult for this company to fight back against claims: the taxmen found out that "preferential firms had been registered on lost passports, and their founders did not know anything about oil trade”.
"The taxmen argue, reported the newspaper "Vedomosti", "that in 2001 Yukos lowered the bases for value-added tax, income tax, assets and automobile roads users to the tune of 50.8 billion rubles. According to the Ministry for Taxes and Levies, it was made through eight companies, six of which were registered in Mordovia ("Ratmir”, “Alta-Treyd”, “Yukos-M”, “Yukos-Mordovia”, “Fargoil” and “Mars XXII), one in Evenki Autonomous Region (“Ratibor”), and one in Baykonur (“Mega-Alyans”), reported the newspaper.
The false character of these dubious “entities” was proved by the fact that they had been registered on dummy passports, and, judging from the number of employees and real possibilities, it was impossible at all for them to do business, in particular, of the scale mentioned in the documents of the firm under investigation. And, naturally, it was proved by the results of the interviews with “members of management”, if such were capable to explain anything.
In a nutshell, classical shell companies – a table, a chair, a person who simply underwrites everything which is given to him, and has no idea about the business itself. It was pointed out, that these firms “in one day” sold to Yukos and oil refineries oil, bought from oil-producing Yukos “affiliates”, namely, from each other. Thereat, oil did not leave meter stations of the extracting companies”, argued those who carried out the investigation.
(See also “Yukos as fraudulent tax-dodger” and “Tax mechanics of Khodorkovsky as a physical person”.
Moreover, this oil “the tax rationalizer” Mikhail Khodorkovsky presented not as commercial crude, but as "borehole liquid". This is almost the same as selling expensive electronics to millions of rubles, and make the accounting through front companies stating in documents all this as cheapest water boilers.
TAX “OPTIMIZATION” TO THE TUNE OF $6.1 BILLION
Earlier, in September 2004, the Ministry for Taxes and Levies of Russia additionally assessed Yukos 119.9 billion rubles of tax arrears for the year 2001. From this sum, 50.7 billion of the main arrears and 28.7 billion of penalty fees the tax agencies debit the accounts of Yukos in an acceptance-free procedure (without owner's consent). The sum of penalties amounting to 40.6 billion rubles, according to the tax laws, is extracted through arbitration court.
As of the beginning of November 2004, the aggregate amount of the confirmed tax arrears of the company for the years 2000 and 2001 amounted to $6.1 billion. But the Western friends of Khodorkovsky insisted that such volumes of tax stealing conformed the criteria of “transparency” in business operations”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
See also the previous article “On this day, 'dirty schemes" of Yukos were looked for in Moscow and Holland”. "From 2000 to 2003 the managers of the Oils company Yukos stole and siphoned abroad about 7 billion US dollars. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on October 5, 2005.
