Yukos warns of bankruptcy as jailed founder goes on trial

Russian oil giant Yukos warned that it may be bankrupted this year by tax claims for billions of dollars on the eve of the trial of its jailed founder, Russia's richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

In an announcement that sent its share price plunging Thursday by almost 12 percent, Yukos said it had only 800 million dollars (666 million euros) in spare cash and was unable to meet the Russian tax ministry's demands because its assets had been frozen by court order.

"There is a court freeze on the sale of any company assets, including shares. As long as this ban remains, we cannot sell off assets to raise cash," Yukos said in a statement.

"Correspondingly, if the tax ministry pursues its actions, we can predict with a high degree of certainty that we will be forced into bankruptcy by the end of 2004," it added.




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