Yukos

[FaGal]

Yukos, l’intreccio affaripolitica

"Abbiamo rispettato le leggi, risanando una società inefficiente e sull’orlo della crisi"



«Questo è un processo politico nei nostri confronti. Le accuse sono assurde, noi abbiamo rispettato le leggi, quando abbiamo rilevato Yukos, la società perdeva una montagna di soldi, era inefficiente, e noi l'abbiamo rimessa a posto». Queste le risposte date da Mikhail Khodorkowsky e Platon Lebedev, ai giudici del tribunale di Mosca che li stanno processando per truffa ai danni dello Stato e associazione a delinquere in merito all'acquisto nel 1995 della Yukos, di cui sono gli azionisti di riferimento (44 per cento il primo, 7 il secondo attraverso la banca Menatep). Pena prevista: 10 anni di carcere. E’ il corollario giudiziario che fa seguito alle sanzioni amministrative imposte alla Yukos mesi fa per evasione fiscale: una multa di 3,4 miliardi di dollari relativa all'anno 2000. Restano aperti i procedimenti per gli anni successivi, che pesano per importi più o meno uguali, per un totale di circa 15 miliardi di dollari. Per chiudere il caso amministrativo Khodorkowsky ha proposto la rimozione del presidente della società, il pagamento di 8 miliardi di dollari, parte in contanti e parte in azioni della stessa Yukos, il che equivarrebbe a una parziale rinazionalizzazione facendo rientrare lo Stato nel suo capitale. Occorre sottolineare che Yukos è il secondo gruppo petrolifero russo (alle spalle di Lukoil), l'annno scorso si è fusa con Sibneft di Roman Abramovich, estrae il quinto della produzione nazionale, le sue azioni sono possedute da investitori russi ed esteri, e il suo default avrebbe conseguenze di rilievo. Per le banche europee l’azienda è già in stato di crisi non avendo restituito un prestito un miliardo di dollari poiché i suoi conti sono stati congelati dalle autorità giudiziarie.
Il presidente russo Vladimir Putin si è pronunciato un mese fa contro il fallimento della Yukos, perché avrebbe ripercussioni notevoli in Occidente e potrebbe arrestare il flusso di capitali e tecnologie necessari al decollo dell'economia nazionale.
Ma il caso Yukos è la cartina di tornasole, lo spartiacque tra il ritorno ad un passato di economia pianificata e inefficiente e la marcia verso i criteri di mercato, oppure uno scontro di potere? Stando agli osservatori internazionali è valida la seconda ipotesi, Kodorkowsky e Lebedev sono andati oltre le righe, hanno osato sfidare apertamente Putin nell'ultima campagna elettorale finanziando i partiti dell'opposizione. In più, hanno esercitato pressioni presso i deputati della Duma perché venisse sottratto al potere centrale il controllo di tutto il settore dell'energia, dagli oleodotti e gasdotti alle stesse aziende industriali aprendo le porte al capitale straniero. Lo stesso Khodorkowsky si sarebbe detto disposto a cedere la sua quota in Yukos al gruppo Rothschild. Per di più la società ha utilizzato alla grande i meccanismi per esportare all'estero, nei soliti paradisi fiscali, i profitti derivanti dalle attività industriali.
Questo, Putin non se lo può permettere. E' stato il rialzo del petrolio dai 10 dollari al barile del 1998 ai 40 attuali a salvare la Russia dal dichiarare il default sul suo debito estero. Ma non si può nemmeno permettere di fare marcia indietro, rivisitare l'epoca delle privatizzazioni selvagge e colpire nel mucchio. Salvo che per l'energia. Il petrolio e il gas sono riserve strategiche, è reato contro lo Stato comunicare a compagnie estere la dislocazione e l'entità dei giacimenti nazionali. Ecco perché sotto tiro si trovano altri due oligarchi, Mikhail Fridman del gruppo Alfa e Viktor Vekselberg, per aver ceduto per 7,7 miliardi di dollari il 50 per cento della società Tnk alla BP, che ora dispone di dati su riserve per un miliardo di tonnellate di riserve provate. Un altro colpo al sistema energetico russo. E poi al Cremlino non sono piaciute le frequentazioni di Khodorkowsky con i petrolieri americani, comprensive di accordi commerciali. «Soltanto 4 o 5 oligarchi hanno commesso gravi violazioni ha detto lo scorso anno Putin quando ha annunciato l'avvio di un'inchiesta sull'argomento e questi vanno puniti». Khodorkowsky e Lebedev sono appunto due tra questi, almeno a giudicare dai fatti. Il secondo è stato accusato di aver truffato lo Stato russo nel 1994 all'epoca della privatizzazione della Apatit (fertilizzanti), arrestato e processato. E poi lui e Khodorkowsky, all'epoca appena 31enne, hanno utilizzato un anno dopo la banca Menatep (e forse anche i soldi dei clienti) per comprarsi per 350 milioni di dollari il 77 per cento di Youkos, la quarta compagnia del mondo per riserve petrolifere, quasi alla pari con BP. Insomma, se non si tratta dell'affare del secolo, poco ci manca. Novello Icaro, Khodorkowsky si è proiettato presto nell'empireo dell'oligarchia russa, ma è volato troppo in alto e si è bruciato le ali.
(g.mo.) http://www.repubblica.it/supplementi...008sbarre.html

[FaGal]

Associated Press
Report: Yukos Is Hit With New Tax Claims
11.01.2004, 12:52 PM

Russian tax authorities slapped oil giant Yukos and its main production unit with two new tax claims for nearly $10 billion, raising the company's total bill to more than $17.6 billion, the Interfax news agency reported Monday. The move likely brings the sale of the unit a step closer.

The Tax Ministry hit Yukos with a fresh bill for 2002 of $6.7 billion, while its biggest subsidiary - Yuganskneftegaz - received new claims amounting to more than $3 billion for 2001 and 2002.

"This is easily higher than we had expected in our worst-case scenario," said Ron Smith, an oil and gas analyst at Renaissance Capital.

Yukos' dollar shares on Moscow's RTS exchange plummeted 4.3 percent on the news.

With 1 million barrels per day, the West Siberian-based Yuganskneftegaz is the largest - and most profitable - production subsidiary of Yukos.

The announcement came on the same day that the investment bank J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. gave Yuganskneftegaz a valuation far above a government-cited starting price for a pending sale. The government wants to sell Yuganskneftegaz to recover the billions of dollars in taxes it says Yukos owes.

Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin confirmed receipt of the tax claims against Yuganskneftegaz, but said he was unaware that Yukos had been served an additional bill for 2002.

The Tax Ministry was not immediately available for comment.

The tax case against Yukos and the parallel trial of its jailed former CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on fraud and tax evasion charges are widely seen as the Kremlin's revenge for Khodorkovsky's growing political clout.

On Monday, a Moscow court agreed with prosecutors' request to extend Khodorkovsky's detention by three months until Feb. 14. Prosecutors argued that the Yukos founder might try to flee the country or influence witnesses.

Tax authorities had originally presented Yukos with a claim for $7.6 billion for 2000-2001 back taxes. A source in the company, who asked not to be further identified, said the company had so far paid down almost half that amount.

With its bank accounts frozen and a stop-order preventing it from selling noncore assets, Yukos is fighting to find the cash to pay its bills.

But with the new tax claims of $2.3 billion for 2001 and $1 billion for 2002 against Yuganskneftegaz, and a new bill of $6.7 billion for 2002 for the parent company, Yukos must still pay some $14 billion.

J.P. Morgan Chase valued Yuganskneftegaz at between $16 billion and $22 billion, the source at Yukos said Monday.

A representative for J.P. Morgan Chase said the company had no comment.

Yukos hired J.P. Morgan Chase to value Yuganskneftegaz after the Russian Justice Ministry seized on an estimate of $10.4 billion issued by investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein - which the bank itself called "overly conservative."

That bank also gave a fair estimate at between $14.7 billion to $17.3 billion, which was not cited by Justice Ministry officials.

Later reports that said the unit could be sold for a fraction of those estimates fueled fears of a fire sale of Yukos' assets, sending the company's share price tumbling and helping send world oil prices soaring.

[FaGal]

Report: Yukos Shareholder Files Complaint

MOSCOW (AP) - Group Menatep Ltd., the main shareholder of OAO Yukos, has filed a complaint against the Russian government seeking compensation for what it says is a politically motivated assault against the oil company that has reduced its value by some 82 percent, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

Yukos' foreign shareholders - including Yukos Universal, the Cyprus-registered company through which Menatep controls some 60 percent of the oil producer - filed the complaint under the terms of the Energy Charter, an international treaty that establishes a legal framework to protect investments in the energy sector, the newspaper reported.


If the shareholders cannot reach an amicable agreement within three months, they may initiate legal action, the paper said.

No one at Menatep was available for comment Thursday.

The legal assault against Yukos and its jailed former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky - a core shareholder in Menatep - has seen the company's market value nosedive. On Wednesday, Yukos' current chief executive Steven Theede said a shareholders meeting would be held Dec. 20 to discuss the possibility of a bankruptcy filing in the wake of new tax bills that bring the company's total outstanding debt to $14 billion.

Many observers see the affair as Kremlin-led revenge for Khodorkovsky's political activities in the run-up to parliamentary elections last winter. President Vladimir Putin has countered that the company and Khodorkovsky's woes are just punishment for shady bookkeeping and dubious tax-optimization schemes.

Though a signatory to the Energy Charter since 1994, Russia has yet to ratify the document, Tim Gould, senior adviser at the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels, told The Associated Press.

"The manner and extent to which a state's acceptance of provisional application of a treaty creates legal obligations is not completely clear under international law," Gould said.
2004-11-04 12:44:04 GMT

[FaGal]

Yukos to Appeal Planned Sale of Core Unit
11.29.2004, 11:25 AM

Russia's biggest oil producer will fight the planned sale of a core production unit against its crushing back tax debt, and has submitted an appeal to the Moscow Arbitration court that will be heard this week, news reports said Monday.

Meanwhile, Italian energy giant Eni, which was rumored to be mulling a bid for the unit, Yuganskneftegaz, said it would not take part.

The embattled Yukos oil giant faces $24.5 billion in back tax claims for 2000-2003 in what observers call a Kremlin-led drive to marginalize its jailed founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and reassume dominance in the politically crucial oil sector.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly countered that the case is a just charge against shady bookkeeping.

Yuganskneftegaz, a west Siberian unit that produces 1 million barrels of oil a day - or some 60 percent of Yukos' oil - is due to be sold at an auction Dec. 19 with an $8.6 billion starting price.

Russian news agencies quoted a source in the Moscow Arbitration Court as saying Yukos had filed an appeal against bailiffs' Nov. 18 decision to auction off Yuganskneftegaz and that the challenge would be heard on Friday.

Yukos has promised any buyer a grueling court fight. The company dismisses the starting price as a "bargain" and insists that bailiffs have no right to sell core assets to settle the tax bill.

There has been fevered speculation over a possible buyer. On Monday the business daily Vedomosti reported that Deutsche Bank had recommended state-controlled natural gas monopoly Gazprom should bid for Yuganskneftegaz. The bank would not comment, while a source at Gazprom told Dow Jones Newswires that it was considering the advice.

Italy's Eni, which has been rumored to be contemplating a bid ether on its own or in tandem with Gazprom, dismissed the suggestions.

"We haven't bid and we won't bid" for Yuganskneftegaz, Eni chief executive Vittorio Mincato told reporters in Milan.

Asked about a possible alliance with Gazprom, Mincato said any consideration would be premature at present and noted that Eni will wait and see the auction's outcome before making any acquisition move in Russia.

The relentless government campaign against Yukos has sent shares plummeting. They closed at $1.08 a share on Moscow's RTS exchange Monday, compared to $16 before Khodorkovsky's arrest in October last year.

Khodorkovsky ran afoul of the Kremlin after using part of the vast fortune that made him Russia's richest man to support opposition parties in the run-up to parliamentary elections last year. He has spent more than a year in prison.

Khodorkovsky is being tried along with business partner Platon Lebedev on charges including fraud and tax evasion. He congratulated fellow inmate Lebedev on his 48th birthday Monday with a brief greeting in the Kommersant business daily.

"Dear Platon! I bow before your unbendable will and strength of spirit ... over the past two years you have become a brother to me ... Happy birthday. Hang in there!" the announcement said.

Lebedev's arrest on July 3 last year marked the start of the campaign against Yukos and its owners.

The charges against the two center on the 1994 privatization of a fertilizer component maker. If convicted each could face 10 years in prison.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2004/...ap1679059.html

[FaGal]

Spesso si sente parlare di yukos, dei suoi conti nei paradisi fiscali che avrebbero originato evasione. Tuttavia nessuno dice che nella Russia stessa esistono paradisi fiscali.

http://www.iticnet.org/publications/...axNotesInt.pdf

[FaGal]

il ricorso presentato a Houston

http://images.chron.com/content/news.../affidavit.pdf

per gli amanti della lettura