On Friday, the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia Vladimir Markin said that Mikhail Khodorkovsky with partners illegally bought shares of Yukos at the Deposit auction in 1995, and presented arguments of a consequence. “Khodorkovsky, almost nothing after receiving the shares from the state, and actually stealing them, today, now with the help of international courts trying to pull off their next Scam hoping to receive from the state up to us $50 billion [compensation that in July 2014 international arbitration in the Hague awarded the GML group, which owned more than 70% of Yukos],” said Markin.
Leonid Nevzlin, to whom Khodorkovsky has transferred the rights of the principal beneficiary GML after his arrest in 2005, commented on these accusations. “First fabricated cases [of tax evasion], to steal the company from shareholders and give it to […] (during the bankruptcy of Yukos, most of its assets have received “Rosneft”. — ). Caught stealing and need to pay [on the decision of the Hague arbitration]. Here and now fabricate things in order not to pay for the stolen”, — Nevzlin has transferred through the representative.
“As in the previous case with taxes, applying selective “justice” now, with privatization, says Nevzlin. — Sibneft, TNK and other companies can be accused of the same contrived tax violations and the same far-fetched illegal privatization”.
On Saturday, Khodorkovsky on his page in Facebook also pointed to the fact that, as “all other” participants shares auctions, he bought YUKOS “the law then”. However, he acknowledged that the privatization of Yukos, and his subsequent expropriation was “unfair”. About the injustice of shares auctions and other participants. For example, during the trial in London in 2011, Roman Abramovich has admitted that the auction for Sibneft was fictitious and it was initially agreed that to win it needs the structure controlled by him and Boris Berezovsky.
According to Newline, last TFR are instituted by the Council of the American law firm White&Case, which Russia hired to protect their interests in the case of $50 billion, the Businessman believes that this law firm may be a conflict of interest: “it’s Funny that they represented YUKOS for several years in the late 1990s — early 2000s. carefully checked and YUKOS came to the conclusion that it’s perfectly legal”. “Apparently, Russia has offered so much money that I had to change the view and turn a blind eye on professional ethics,” said Nevzlin. Partner White&Case David Goldberg, a leading process in the interests of Russia in London, promised to respond to the claims later Nevzlin. The press service of the RCDS are unable to respond quickly to a request for comment.
Old friends
In July 2015, Russia was attracted to White & Case to challenge the decision of the Hague arbitration Tribunal in the US, and in the autumn it became known that White & Case also addresses similar cases in Germany and the UK (the coordinator of all legal action for the protection of Russian state assets from claims of former shareholders of Yukos is Autonomous nonprofit organization “international centre for the legal protection”).
In November 2015 Shearman & Sterling is representing former shareholders of Yukos, said in the court of the district of Columbia (USA), where GML is pushing for the recognition of arbitration of the Hague, studying his opponents on trial — White & Case — for potential conflict of interest. White & Case worked for YUKOS in the late 1990s, and, according to lawyers involved GML, may have information that can be used in the current process, in violation of professional ethics. “Due to the fact that much time has passed, and most of the relevant documents were seized by agents of the Russian Federation, the plaintiffs can spend a few weeks before making a final decision about whether to seek to disqualify White & Case”, — was stated in the trial transcript of 19 November. What decision the former Yukos shareholders, is not yet known.
At the Deposit auction in December 1995, it sold a 45% stake in Yukos. Declared the winner of JSC “Laguna”, the guarantors of which were Bank Menatep, Tokobank, and Capital Bank of savings. These three banks were the guarantors and the sole opponent of the “Lagoon” — JSC “Reagent”. With a starting price of $150 million “Reagent” offered $150,1 million, and “Lagoon” — $159 million a year after the state failed to repay the loan, the Laguna sold his stake of Yukos of the company “Mont Blanc”, which was also affiliated to “Menatep”.
Competition winner at the auction I tried to make the consortium of Alfa-Bank, Bank “the Russian credit” and Inkombank, but it have not admitted to trading on formal reasons — some of the necessary components for auction they are made in the form of t-bills that did not suit the organizers. The participants of the consortium on the eve of the auction held a press conference where he stated that they are against “unequal conditions created for the participants”. In particular, they pointed to the fact that “Menatep” not only in fact had intended to participate in the auction, but was one of its organizers, and was going to use the funds of the Ministry of Finance (the government has placed on Deposit in this Bank $120 million). However, their attempts to challenge auction results in court have been unsuccessful.
