Translated material
WSJ reported that Yukos is ready to give sibneft guide posts. Yukos and Menatep refuted this
Today it became known that new criminal cases are being prepared against Yukos.
The disgraced oil company was today accused of non -payment of taxes in the amount of $ 5 billion . And her new leader Semen Cukess is suspected of violating Russian legislation .
These accusations against the company were sounded when Yukos and Menatep rejected the possibility of separate transactions to transfer leading posts to Yukos-Sibneft to the people of Roman Abramovich, who took advantage of criminal cases against Yukos and pressure on the company from the Kremlin, tries to capture Yukos-Sibneft.
The possible transfer of sibneft managers reported the possible transfer of posts by The Wall Street Journal.
As stated in the official statement of the Menatep group , which is one of the main shareholders of the Yukos, "information about the alleged discussion of the possibility of changing the procedure for the formation of the leading bodies of the United Company does not proceed from the main shareholders of the Yukos. The Menatep group opposes the conclusion of any separate deals without taking into account the opinion of minority shareholders."
According to preliminary estimates of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the Russian Federation, the NK Yukos and the structures controlled by it, 150 billion rubles (about $ 5 billion) were underway to the budget.
The relevant information on tax violations committed by Yukos and affiliated with it from 1998 to 2003 was provided by the leadership of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, Interfax regulates.
As stated in a letter to the deputy head of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of Igor Golikov addressed to the prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov, we are talking about materials regarding tax payment in 1998-1999 through problem banks: OJSC NK Yukos, Tomskneft-VNK OJSC, Angarsk Neftekhimic Company OJSC-about 2 billion rubles for each taxpayer.
In addition, materials on the use of schemes for obtaining tax benefits for "investment agreements" with state bodies of Mordovia in 2000-2003 were provided in 2000-2003.
The letter also reports that the tax authorities are currently completing additional control measures in relation to Yuganskneftegaz OJSC, according to the results of which the additional charges will amount to about 6 billion rubles of unpaid taxes.
"These accruals are associated with the sale of oil to other subsidiaries of OJSC NK Yukos at prices, more than 20% lower than market, which allows the tax authorities to apply the real oil price in accordance with Article 40 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation," said the deputy head of the Ministry of Taxes and Directorate.
"Based on the amounts of taxes unpaid through problem banks, the use of transfer prices in the sale of oil and taking into account the fact that as a result of the application of schemes for obtaining tax benefits for" investment agreements "with the state bodies of the Republic of Mordovia, the NK OJSC did not pay taxes for more than 65 billion rubles, the total amount of unpaid taxes and taking into account the penalty and the state According to our preliminary estimates, fines are about 150 billion rubles, ”the letter says.
The market has already reacted to this accusation by a drop in prices for Russian shares .
The press secretary of the Yukos said that the tax authorities never made the company's claims for tax failure for 150 billion rubles
The tax authorities have never filed the NK Yukos claims for tax failure in the amount of 150 billion rubles, said the Prime-TASS press secretary of the Yukos Alexander Shadrin.
"We believe that the figure of 150 billion rubles that appeared in the media is completely incorrect and it is not known where it came from," he said.
According to him, indeed, there are disputes for paying taxes in the amount of 6 billion rubles conducted through the problem banks of the Yukos, Tomskneft and the Angarsk petrochemical company, but in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 45 of the Tax Code, the taxpays obligations are executed from the date of transfer of taxes to the bank. All of these companies have fulfilled tax obligations, and although the banks could not transfer the money received into the budget, they were all transferred to the budget during the liquidation of these banks.
As for the use of regional tax benefits by subsidiaries by subsidiaries, these benefits, according to Shadrin, were applied in strict accordance with regional legislation, and these companies were never claimed by tax authorities.
The press secretary of the Yukos also noted that the tax authorities for several years really made a claim for the use of transfer prices, but all the judicial disputes on this issue were lost.
Today, deputy Vladimir Yudin, who initiated the beginning of investigations of the Prosecutor General’s Office against Yukos and Menatep , initiated a new request to the Prosecutor General.
For this time, he asks to check the activities of the new head of Yukos - US citizen Semyon Cukess .
The deputy indicates that in the New York district court there is a trial against the heads of TNK-owners, including Semyon Cukes. He is accused of a racket (extortion) and the threat of physical reprisal.
A few years ago, in New York, the Little Canadian company Norex Petroleum filed a lawsuit by accusing Cukesses and other representatives of TNC and Alfa Group of bribes and laundering money in connection with the acquisition of Yurganeft, Montenegrinft and Norex oil companies. As stated in the request to the General Prosecutor's Office, Kukes "to expand his oil business, he grossly violated Russian legislation on subsoil, bankruptcy, and joint -stock companies, without neglecting direct pressure on enterprise managers, judicial and law enforcement agencies."
Recall that in 1996-1998, Semyon Kukes held the post of first vice president of Yukos. Then in 1998 he became the president of the Tyumen Oil Company, where he worked until 2003.
On March 20, 2003, Kukes was appointed special adviser to the president and board of the TNK-BP holding.
On June 18, 2003, Semyon Kukes resigned the powers of the President of the TNC in connection with the election of him to the board of directors of the Yukos.
To save the merger of Sibneft, the shareholders of the Yukos NK are ready to abandon the highest leadership posts in a united company, today writes The Wall Street Journal with reference to an unnamed informed source.
After the meeting on Monday evening in London, the main shareholders of the Yukos decided to agree "under certain conditions" to the appointment of a representative of Sibneft with the main executive person of the company, this source said.
"The terms of the transaction are changing. All this applies to the issue of control (over the company)," he said.
It is still unclear how Sibneft shareholders will react, and whether the concessions already proposed by the shareholders of Yukos will be enough to preserve the transaction, the newspaper said.
Yukos spokeswoman Alexander Shadrin said that the company has not yet received any statements that the company's shareholders are ready to abandon the highest leading posts in the United Company Yukos-Sibneft.
The breakdown of the transaction can "further undermine the trust from foreign investors to the young Russian market economy and in particular to the company Yukos," the newspaper notes. In addition, as a result, Yukos will be without political cover, "which is important for doing business in Russia."
At the same time, the main shareholders of the Yukos have not yet given signals about the readiness to provide Sibneft shareholders with a more significant stake in a united company, Interfax notes.
Moreover, on the eve of the shareholders of the Yukos, they said that they consider the proposals of Sibneft shareholders unacceptable to change the agreements on the merger of companies and agree to the transfer of Sibneft managers operational management.
“The company's shareholders consider the ultimatum in an unacceptable Sibneft last week,” a source close to the main shareholders of the Yukos NK told the oil information agency. "The shareholders initially agreed that the leaders of Sibneft are working in the Council of Directors, and Yukos leaders carry out operational management. And we will not change this agreement," the source said.
Another American newspaper The Washington Post writes that Sibneft lawyers are now studying the issue of how a deal can be broken - with a reverse exchange of money already received for shares. At the same time, they expect to find the opportunity to avoid paying a fine of $ 1 billion for disruption of the transaction, which is registered in the merger agreement.
Yukos shareholder Leonid Nevzlin told The Washington Post that the process of breaking the transaction could take several months.
On the eve of the New Gazeta reported that Roman Abramovich discussed options for capturing Yukos with the president himself. According to the publication, after the scandalous meeting of the shareholders of the Yukos, during which the merger was suspended, the Sibneft managers of the Yukos were proposed to deliver at the head of the Sibneft Chairman Evgeny Shvidler and the ex-head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Alexander Voloshin.
The newspaper, without naming the sources, wrote that Alexander Voloshin at this meeting proposed appointing himself as the chairman of the board of directors, and Evgenia Shvidler - the chairman of the board.
This meeting was also reported by the British The Sunday Times. "Information about the meeting of Putin and Abramovich will strengthen the speculation that the Kremlin is closely related to the fate of these two companies," the British newspaper notes.
Alexander Voloshin, the former head of the President of Putin, who retired in October, according to some reports, is a longtime friend of Roman Abramovich and owns part of the Sibneft shares.
The newspaper "Gazeta" , meanwhile, recalls that while still the head of the presidential administration, Alexander Voloshin promised that if Mikhail Khodorkovsky was put in jail, he would resign. “He kept his word. But today it is not clear how Voloshin can guarantee the security of the ex -head of the Yukos. There is only one logical explanation - the Kremlin asked Voloshin to come to Yukos, promising to free all the prisoners of the oil managers of the oil company,” the newspaper believes.
According to gazeta.ru in its editorial article, within four years of the law enforcement agencies of Russia regularly led to the redistribution of property in favor of Roman Abramovich. And Alexander Voloshin, who became a representative of Abramovich’s interests, while trying to capture Yukos, heading the presidential administration for many years, helped Abramovich was the first to learn about changing the rules of the game. This gave the head of Sibneft the ability to restructure his business so as to extract maximum benefits from changes in the rules.
Menatep: Messages about the alleged election of Alexander Voloshin by the chairman of the board of directors are not true
Messages about the intention of the main shareholders of the Yukos NK to refuse to manage the united company Yukos-Sibneft, as well as the alleged election of Alexander Voloshin, the chairman of the board of directors, are not true. This was announced by the Echo of Moskvy radio stations the head of the press service of Menatep, a participant in negotiations between Yukos and Sibneft on the merger of companies Yuri Kotler.
"The position of the shareholders of the Yukos remains unchanged, including in those issues that relate to the structure of management of the new company," Kotler emphasized.
“Yukos shareholders have a great desire for the transaction to be completed, but we want to adhere to the initially agreed parameters,” he added. Yukos shareholders do not intend to retreat from the initial agreements on the merger of companies on the management of the United Company, and "the deal will continue in this vein," Kotler noted.
The merger of Yukos and Sibneft may break down if "one of the parties says that we did not agree on this, but we agreed on this," Kotler added. "But the position of the main shareholders of the Yukos is that we do not want to break the deal," he said.
Answering the question of whether the company Yukos should refuse a merger transaction, Kotler remarked: "This deal was prepared for a long time, it seems to us quite successful, so we are not going to refuse it."
According to him, negotiations are now quite constructively, although "we perceive a number of recent events as elements of pressure."