Court puts hold on YUKOS property

The Moscow Arbitration Court has banned the oil company YUKOS from selling or giving in trust management any of its property, except for its basic production. As reported to a Rosbalt correspondent by the company's press secretary, Aleksandr Shadrin, the Russian deputy minister for taxation and collection, Igor Golikov, on April 14 imposed a total of fines, taxes and levies on the company of 99,375,538,234.4 rubles (more than USD 3 billion) as the result of a second tax audit of YUKOS for the year 2000. In conjunction with the decision was the demand that the back taxes be paid, which the company had voluntarily agreed to do by April 16, 2004.

At the same time, the Russian Tax Ministry addressed the Moscow Arbitration Court with a petition for the recovery from YUKOS of the demanded sum established by the decision, and filed a motion to facilitate the suit. The motion was confirmed on April 15, and the same day a hold was placed on all YUKOS property.

As Shadrin noted, the Arbitration Court did not make any decision regarding the suit itself.