Dutch court upholds $50-bn payment award in Yukos case

Dutch court upholds $50-bn payment award in Yukos case

A Dutch court quashed an appeal by Russia in a record $50-billion case Tuesday, paving the way for a payment to former shareholders of dismantled oil giant Yukos.

The decision is the latest in a legal tug-of-war over Yukos which broke up in the early 2000s after the arrest of its former tycoon owner, Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The Amsterdam Appeals Court turned down a claim by Moscow that shareholders had "committed fraud" during the arbitration process, saying Russia's appeal was too late to influence arbitral decisions.

In 2014 the international Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague ruled in favour of shareholders, ordering Moscow to pay what is believed to be the world's biggest arbitration award.

Russia took the decision to the Dutch courts, with Supreme Court judges eventually in 2021 shunting the case back to a lower ranking appeals court on procedural grounds, for another round of hearings.

Read also

Italy takes over troubled steel mill

Back then, Supreme Court judges said the appeals court had wrongly dismissed Moscow's argument that shareholders "committed fraud" during the arbitration process.

But the Amsterdam Appeals Court stuck to its original decision at the latest hearing.

"The Amsterdam Court of Appeal decided today that the arbitration awards in the Yukos case remain valid," it said in a statement.

"The Russian Federation did not make its claims of fraud timely enough for it to annul the awards," the appeals judges said, adding "it therefore rules that the fraud claim was made too late."

Yukos was one of a number of companies formed as the Soviet Union crumbled in the 1990s when businessmen like Khodorkovsky scooped up former Soviet assets at knock-down prices.

Khodorkovsky then became a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who warned the growing class of so-called oligarchs against meddling in politics. Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003.

Read also

UK bank NatWest shakes off CEO turmoil as profits jump

After his downfall, Yukos collapsed in the face of huge government tax demands and was sold off in opaque auctions to state companies led by Rosneft between 2004 and 2006.

State-owned Rosneft has since grown into one of the world's biggest listed oil companies.

Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in jail and now lives in exile, is not a party to the case.

But the former majority shareholders in Yukos sought compensation from Russia.

Tuesday's decision however is not the end of the saga as there are still a flurry of ongoing cases including in London courts.

jhe/ric/tw

© Agence France-Presse

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.