Authorities Arrest Yukos Unit Manager

Authorities ratcheted up the pressure on the embattled OAO Yukos oil giant Thursday, arresting a manager at a key subsidiary and issuing an international arrest warrant for the company's chief lawyer.

On a day that saw the threat of new tax claims against Russia's biggest oil producer, law enforcement agents detained Aleksei Kurtsin, a manager at the subsidiary Yukos-Moskva on charges of embezzling about $766,000 disguised as charitable contributions for the disabled in a remote Russian region.

Later, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that it had issued an international arrest warrant for Yukos lawyer Nikolai Gololobov on charges of misappropriating billions of rubles worth of shares in 1998, Interfax reported. Gololobov himself confirmed the warrant from Britain where he is on a business trip, the news agency said.

"I think that the case has been resumed against me personally for the simple reason that I am Yukos' lawyer and have been working hard to protect the company's interests both in courts and law enforcement agencies," he was quoted as saying.

A Yukos spokesman, who asked not to be named, confirmed both reports Thursday evening.

"This is unexpected and reflects an escalation in the political pressure on the company," he said.

Gololobov had been expecting the announcement and has been working from London in recent months, the spokesman said.

The legal assault against Yukos and its jailed ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is widely considered to be punishment for Khodorkovsky's political activities and an attempt for the state to reclaim lost influence in the strategically important energy sector by selling Yukos assets into Kremlin-friendly hands.

Yukos faces total tax claims of $18.4 billion for 2000-2002 and bailiffs have said they will sell off Yuganskneftegaz to foot the bill.

Russian newspapers reported that President Vladimir Putin's top economic aide said Yukos' main subsidiary, Yuganskneftegaz, could be used to cover some $14 billion in back taxes which Yukos has yet to pay.

The criminal cases against top Yukos officials comes just one day after a raid on Yukos-Moskva - the management branch for Russia's largest oil producer - and the reported search at Yukos's main subsidiary, Yuganskneftegaz, which already faces multiyear, multibillion-dollar tax bills of its own.

On Thursday, Yukos' massive back-tax burden only looked set to grow.

Citing an unidentified source in Russia's tax authorities, the Interfax news agency reported that a new back tax bill for 2003 would slightly exceed the amount of its $6.76 billion claim for 2002.

According to Interfax, the source said Yukos' other major production subsidiaries, Samaraneftegaz and Tomskneft, as well as the Achinsk refinery, could soon face back tax bills of their own for 2001.

Tax authorities have already presented Yuganskneftegaz with a bill for $2.35 billion for that year.

Yukos was not the only Russian major oil producer reportedly facing new tax bills on Thursday.

A source in the Tax Ministry told Interfax that Russia's No. 5 producer Sibneft had been slapped with a tax claim for 21 billion rubles ($732 million) with respect to 2000-2001, though confirmation could not be obtained from the company or the Tax Ministry.

Sibneft is controlled by oil tycoon Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer club. Abramovich is thought to have close ties to the Kremlin and notification of a $1 billion tax claim sent to Sibneft in March this year, has yet to be enforced.

"There's a big difference between Sibneft's treatment and the conduct we've seen with Yukos," said Edward Parker, director in Sovereigns Group of international ratings agency Fitch Ratings, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Yukos' bank accounts and assets have been frozen.

"In the case of other oil companies, these are tax bills they owe and are given scope to pay," Parker said.

Fitch also on Thursday upgraded Russia's sovereign rating to investment grade. While Fitch said the Yukos affair was negative, it also noted that fears of widescale property distribution in the wake of the campaign against the oil company had not materialized.

HERE