Russia asks US court to stop YUKOS asset sale

MOSCOW – The supervisory manager of crippled Russian oil company YUKOS said on Friday he had filed suit in a U.S. bankruptcy court seeking to stop the firm’s London-based management selling a Lithuanian refinery.

Eduard Rebgun, appointed by a Moscow court hearing a YUKOS bankruptcy case, said he had petitioned a Manhattan court under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code to halt the sale of Mazeikiu Nafta, the biggest business in the Baltic states.

“In accordance with my application, the Federal Court of New York has imposed a temporary ban in relation to actions by the management of NK YUKOS and its subsidiaries and affiliates to dispose of assets,” Rebgun told Reuters.

“My task is to not allow sales or purchases of assets that could cause direct or indirect harm to the company.”

Analysts say YUKOS’s demise is a certainty after Russian tax officials froze its Russian assets and demanded $33 billion (19 billion pounds) in back taxes, but the fate of Mazeikiu is not yet certain.

Reuters