A Moscow arbitration court granted a request by Russian tax authorities barring Yukos, the country's largest crude oil producer, from selling any assets, including stock, the court said on Friday.
The ban can be appealed and a preliminary hearing into the tax suit was scheduled for May 7, the court said.
Yukos said that it would appeal the Tax Ministry's "accusatory and prejudiced" ruling on the company's past tax payments. "The freezing of the company's property doesn't correspond with the Tax Ministry's claims against it," Yukos said in a statement to Dow Jones Newswires.
The Tax Ministry sued Yukos for 99.37 billion rubles, or US$3.5 billion, but Yukos rejected the claim when it was put forward in December. Yukos has said that any tax minimization schemes it employed were legal at the time, and widely used by other Russian oil companies.
Yukos officials also said that the oil trading companies that are said to owe the taxes are not related to Yukos itself.
The ban by the Moscow Arbitration Court appeared to seek some guarantee that Yukos would have the money to pay tax arrears and fines if the company eventually lost the case against it.
Yukos is allowed to sell only "its main products," meaning crude oil, the court said. The court also barred the company from introducing any changes to the shareholders' register.
Yukos dismissed the court decision, saying that it would not affect day-to-day operations, and vowed to contest it.
"This decision is not final," a Yukos spokesman, Alexander Shadrin, told Echo Moskvy radio. "The judicial process will be lengthy. This will not affect our current operations or the fulfillment of our obligations towards our partners, work force and the government in terms of tax payments."
Analysts have said they consider the tax charges against Yukos part of a broader Kremlin campaign against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of Yukos and Russia's wealthiest man, as well as other core Yukos shareholders.
The campaign against Yukos began after Khodorkovsky financed opposition parties ahead of parliamentary elections last year, in defiance of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, who had asked the country's top "oligarchs," or billionaire tycoons, to stay out of politics in exchange for not revisiting the previous decade's controversial privatizations. Khodorkovsky was arrested last October and has since been in prison awaiting trial.
Yukos will file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights next week over harassment by the Tax Ministry, Shadrin said.
Yukos will also resume legal action against the deputy tax minister, Igor Golikov, whose action, Shadrin added, is "aimed at inflicting damages on the oil company and runs counter to the law on government service."
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
CAUTION: Right now, artificial intelligence runs on faith, not productivity and eventually, the risk of a bubble will emerge,’ TIER economist Gordon Sun said Taiwanese manufacturers turned more optimistic last month, ending a five-month streak of declining sentiment as concerns over US tariffs, currency volatility and China’s overcapacity began to ease, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said yesterday. The manufacturing business confidence index rose 1.17 points from June to 86.8, its first rebound since February. TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) attributed the uptick to fading trade uncertainties, a steadier New Taiwan dollar and reduced competitive pressure from Chinese producers. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is unlikely to face significant damage from Washington’s ongoing probe into semiconductors, given the US’ reliance on Taiwanese chips to power artificial
RSS