Ryzhkov: Yukos Case Is State Banditry

Independent lawmaker Vladimir Ryzhkov called the looming sale of the Yukos oil company's core production unit legal chaos and criticized the role of the Western investment bank that valued the subsidiary.
After the Justice Ministry unveiled a disappointing $10.4 billion evaluation Tuesday for Yuganskneftegaz, which pumps 60 percent of Yukos' oil, the besieged company's battered stock was sent tumbling. On Wednesday morning the downward spiral had continued and the country's largest oil producer was trading down nearly 7 percent.
Speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio, Ryzhkov said he and other lawmakers had requested that the State Duma debate the situation around Yukos. However, he said he expected that request to be struck down by the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party, which dominates the Duma.
"The government hasn't given the company a chance to pay, but it accuses it of not paying. ... The state is behaving like a bandit," Ryzhkov said. "This is a blatant violation of the law -- it is time for parliament to discuss the question."
Despite having nearly $400 million available, Yukos has been unable to pay since the accounts of its head office and subsidiaries have been frozen, Ryzhkov said.
On Tuesday, Justice Ministry officials had said that a part of Yuganskneftegaz would be sold to cover $3.73 billion that they said Yukos still owes in tax arrears for 2000 to 2001. Yukos is expected to be presented with further bills for 2002 and 2003, which would bring its total outstanding debt close to the $10.4 billion cited by the ministry from the evaluation it commissioned from investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
The executive director of Yuganskneftegaz, Sergei Kudryashov, condemned the planned sell-off Wednesday.
"The sale of Yuganskneftegaz, whose main activity is production, is absurd," Kudryashov said in an interview with AFP. Kudryashov told the news agency that the true value of Yuganskneftegaz was closer to $30 billion.
Ryzhkov suggested that Dresdner had tailored its assessment of the company to the state's needs, despite reports that a value of $15.7 billion to $18.3 billion had figured in the report.
"The evaluator received money from the budget and set a price to match what was wanted," he said.
The yearlong legal assault on Yukos and its jailed billionaire founder and ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is seen as punishment for Khodorkovsky's growing political clout in the run-up to last year's parliamentary elections. The Kremlin, however, has cast the case as a just clampdown on shady business practices and dubious tax optimization schemes.
Meanwhile, in a parallel case against the company's owners, the Moscow City Court ruled to keep Khodorkovsky's business partner and core Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev in custody until Dec. 26. Lebedev and Khodorkovsky are both facing fraud and tax evasion charges and Lebedev has frequently appealed to be released on grounds of poor health. If convicted, the two men could face up to 10 years in prison.

(From : The Moscow Times)