Court in The Hague obliges Russia to pay $ 50 billion to Khodorkovsky's company - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
Переклад цього матеріалу українською мовою з російської було автоматично здійснено сервісом Google Translate, без подальшого редагування тексту.
Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

Court in The Hague obliges Russia to pay $ 50 billion to Khodorkovsky’s company

The Hague Court of Appeal ordered Russia to pay $ 50 billion in a lawsuit filed by former Yukos shareholders. This is the largest compensation in the history of international arbitration. The arbitral tribunal had already obliged to pay this amount, but then the Hague District Court quashed the decision. Writes about this with the BBC.

Фото: Depositphotos

The Court of Appeal did not agree with the decision of the Hague District Court, which in April 2016 overturned the decision of the court of first instance, since Russia did not ratify the Energy Charter. The court has now concluded that the charter does not violate Russian laws.

“This means that the arbitration award is once again in force,” the statement reads. statement on the court website.

The statement briefly retells the story of Yukos, which was privatized in the 1990s and became one of the largest oil and gas companies in Russia under the leadership of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In 2003-2006, the authorities filed tax claims against the company, after which Khodorkovsky was arrested, and Yukos was declared bankrupt and put up for auction.

The decision was made on the claim of three companies - Yukos Universal Limited, Hulley Enterprises Limited and Veteran Petroleum Limited. The first two companies are subsidiaries of GML Ltd., the former Group Menatep Ltd, the beneficiary of which is Khodorkovsky’s former business partner Leonid Nevzlin. All three companies were shareholders of Yukos and lost money in bankruptcy.

The Russian Ministry of Justice did not agree with the decision of the Hague Court of Appeal, which, as stated in agency statement, ignored a number of arguments presented by Russia. But Khodorkovsky was satisfied with the decision of the Hague arbitration.

“The Kremlin lost The Hague to Yukos shareholders. Moreover, not only the procedure was confirmed, but also the essence: “the takeover of YUKOS is not a matter of taxes, but of the fight against political opponents,” he wrote on Twitter.

The decision of the arbitration may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

On the subject: Using virtual reality, a Russian journalist became the president of the United States and decided the fate of a nuclear war with Russia

“There are no doubts - we will appeal to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. We have three months to appeal - naturally, we will meet these deadlines,” said the head of the International Center for Legal Defense Andrei Kondakov, who represents Russia’s interests in this case.

Answering the question whether ex-shareholders can apply to the courts of a number of countries to apply interim measures against Russian assets, Kondakov said: “They can, unfortunately, they can.”

Litigation of Russia with Yukos Shareholders

The last stage of the battle for compensation began in 2014, when, after a 10-year trial, international arbitration in The Hague made a decision according to which the actions of the Russian authorities in the bankruptcy of the company were tantamount to expropriating investments, including international ones.

On July 28, 2014, arbitration in The Hague awarded plaintiffs a record compensation of $ 50 billion. In January of the following year, the Russian Ministry of Finance announced that it had filed three motions with the Hague District Court requesting to cancel the arbitration decision.

Russia insisted that this decision went beyond the jurisdiction of the court. Former Yukos shareholders alluded to the Energy Charter Treaty, which Russia has not ratified.

This agreement provides for the protection of the rights of foreign investors. Russia promised to abide by it if it does not contradict Russian legislation. However, the trial court concluded that the contract does not violate Russian laws anyway.

In June 2015, a number of Russian assets in Belgium, France and Austria were seized at the request of former Yukos shareholders by a decision of the Hague arbitration of July 18, 2014. The accounts of Russian state banks, assets of foreign offices and other state property were arrested. In some cases, the arrests were lifted due to diplomatic immunity; in others, attempts to arrest were unsuccessful due to the failure to prove the connection of the property with the Russian government.

In April 2016, the Hague District Court invalidated the decision of international arbitration. The district court then decided that there was no reason to consider the complaint of the former Yukos shareholders represented in court by their three firms registered in Cyprus and the Isle of Man.

The court agreed with the arguments of the Russian side and ruled that the arbitration did not have the power to examine the complaint of the former shareholders.

On the subject: Income up to 100 thousand a year: a Russian has built a successful cleaning business in the United States and helps other immigrants to open their business

In July of that year, companies challenged this decision in an appeal court.

What have you decided now

Now The Hague Court of Appeal has ruled that it has jurisdiction to comply with the Energy Charter Treaty, since Russia signed it, although it has not ratified it, which means it has committed to temporarily apply this treaty, unless it violates Russian law.

“In the opinion of the court, there are no contradictions with Russian legislation,” the decision says.

The Russian Ministry of Justice does not agree with this, although its statement contains the same wording as in the decision of the Court of Appeal of The Hague: the arbitration did not take into account the “illegal use” of the Energy Charter Treaty, which was “applied only on a temporary basis” to the extent in which it did not contradict the current Russian legislation.

“In addition, the Hague Court of Appeal ignored the fact that the ex-YUKOS shareholders were not bona fide investors. They gained control over the assets of this company through a series of illegal actions,” the statement says. “Former shareholders committed massive tax evasion, illegal transfer of assets abroad, money laundering and other illegal actions.”

The Kremlin has not yet commented on the decision of the Dutch court of appeal.

“We will carefully study the court verdict. And we plan to enforce it,” said the ex-shareholders’ lawyer Jonathan Hill.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Secret data: the Russians wanted to organize a pan-African state in the southern United States

What do the children of Russian oligarchs do

Using virtual reality, a Russian journalist became the president of the United States and decided the fate of a nuclear war with Russia

Income up to 100 thousand a year: a Russian has built a successful cleaning business in the United States and helps other immigrants to open their business

Miscellanea compensation At home Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Subscribe to ForumDaily on Google News

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis. 



 
1071 requests in 1,240 seconds.