YUKOS: Close To Bankruptcy

Russian court substantiated Russian oil giant YUKOS?s tax bill of 2.9 billion euro.
The company has three months to pay the bill, otherwise it may face bankruptcy proceedings.

The Moscow Arbitration Court?s decision may lead to confiscation of Yukos assets from banks as soon as the ruling is published, according to YUKOS lawyer Sergei Pepelyayev said.

?There are illegal decisions and there are blatantly illegal decisions and this is the latter, so we?ll recommend that our client appeal,? he said.

YUKOS claims it has no such sum of money and also has boosted efforts in recent days to seek an out-of-court settlement with the tax agency.

But so far, the company says it has received no reply from the government to tentative proposals to stagger its payment over a longer period.

YUKOS has two months to appeal the ruling to the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, and court could decide to suspend any requirements to pay pending a new court decision.