Yukos Won?t Get $1Billion

The Yukos oil corporation announced Monday it may be forced to default on a $1 billion bank loan, RosBusinessConsulting reported.
Yukos said in a statement that a consortium of international banks including Citibank, Commerzebank, Credit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank and HSBC Bank of Britain had notified it that they anticipated a possible default, RosBusiness Consulting said.
The main reason for the action was "demands by the Russian Tax Ministry" that the giant oil company pay 99 billion rubles in outstanding taxes to the state while the Moscow Arbitration Court had prohibited Yukos from disposing of its assets, it said.
Yukos is the largest oil corporation in Russia and one of the largest in the world. But its former chief executive and still its chief shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovksy has been held in jail in Moscow since last October on charges of fraud and tax evasion. He had previously sought to bankroll political challenges to President Vladimir Putin.