The federal court of the American metropolitan District of Columbia has refused to honor Russia’s request to suspend the lawsuit in which former YUKOS shareholders sought to recover $50 billion from the Russian Federation. TASS referring to the court’s electronic database.
The petition for suspension was filed at the end of last year. Russia stated that the trial should be suspended pending the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in the Yukos parallel case.
A US court opposed adjournment of the case because further suspension of the case in the US would create “serious difficulties” for former shareholders.
The court pointed out that in the future, Russian assets may become inaccessible due to anti-Russian sanctions.
Russia provided the court with $7 billion in case the judiciary decides to reclaim these funds from it.
On December 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected Former shareholders of Yukos filed a $50 billion lawsuit against Russia The petition of the defendant, represented by Russia, was accepted and the petition of the former shareholders of the oil company to reconsider the lower court’s decision was rejected. The case had previously been stopped. In the court decision, it was said, “The petition was accepted, the case was closed”.
Events around Yukos began to develop in 2003. Prior to that, the company was Russia’s largest oil company, founded after the collapse of the USSR. Yukos co-owner and chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested in 2003 on fraud charges, after which the court found him guilty. Against this background, Yukos has filed for bankruptcy. The company’s assets were later sold by the bankruptcy administration to pay off its debt.
The majority shareholders of Yukos, which is managed by the financial conglomerate GML, sought compensation from Russia for the losses they suffered, and in 2007 they sued the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, insisting that the Russian government confiscated Yukos’ assets. In 2014, the court ruled that Moscow had violated the energy contract and had to pay a total of $50 billion, a record in arbitration history. In the decision, it was stated that the Russian Federation violated its international obligations by taking actions against the bankruptcy of Yukos.
Moscow, in its statements and detailed description of the complaint, emphasizes that numerous violations were committed by its former owners under the management of Yukos. Including illegal withdrawal of assets abroad, money laundering and other illegal acts. Despite this, in April 2021 the chief counsel of the Supreme Court recommended that Russia’s appeal be rejected.