Moscow’s Arbitration Court will examine claims against Russian oil giant Yukos that were submitted by several companies and the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia. The companies submitted claims worth approximately USD 7.54 billion for putting them on Yukos’s creditors’ list.
One of the claims comes from a British Virgin Islands-registered company Glendale Group and is worth about USD 2.47billion. Other claims that will be reviewed during the bankruptcy proceedings are from Yukos Capital S.A.R.L. worth approximately USD 4.83 billion, from the Federal Bailiff Service worth about USD 814.1 million and from Trust Investment Bank worth approximately USD 115 million. All these claims were submitted before the creditors’ list was closed (October 12, 2006).
The largest sums are owed by Yukos to the Federal Tax Service and RosNeft. As of November 2006, Yukos’s total recognized debt to its 55 creditors exceeds USD 22.62 billion.
Once Russia’s largest and most successful oil conglomerate, Yukos oil company has been recently declared bankrupt. However, oil prices were getting very high and the company had potential to increase its revenue, the creditors voted that Yukos would not continue as a going concern and pay its debts. So, the creditors asked the court to declare Yukos bankrupt. In August 2006, Moscow judge declared the oil company bankrupt, paving the way for its liquidation.
Yukos’ liquidation is the final stage of the play that began about 3 years ago with the arrest of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky, Yukos’s billionaire founder, was arrested by law enforcement officers. Last year, he was convicted of tax evasion and other crimes, and now he is serving a term in a Siberian labor camp.