|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Russia Expands Theft of Yukos to Western Assets Dave Eberhart, NewsMax
The Kremlin continued its attack on the once-private Yukos oil company – an assault that has critics warning of dire world energy repercussions here in the West. This week Russian prosecutors filed criminal charges against four associates of Yukos' former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who languishes in a Siberian prison. The Russian move came after its control of Yukos worldwide assets was thwarted by a Dutch court. Toronto international business lawyer Robert Amsterdam, who represents Khodorkovsky tells NewsMax that if average Americans aren't yet acutely aware of Russian oil's beleaguered Yukos company - and the plight of its former chief, they will soon be getting an education at the nation's gas pumps. "The American public needs to wake up to this," Amsterdam warns. "It's going to cost them at the pump and must be understood as the thin edge of a very big wedge" currently being driven home by Russian President Vladamir Putin - into the heart of the world's energy supplies. Amsterdam claims that Putin's illegal seizure of Yukos, and the imprisonment of Khodorkovsky was just one of several steps the Kremlin has taken to exercise an "energy" weapon – the control of oil and gas resources – against its neighbors and the West.
Story Continues Below
At one time, Yukos was Russia's most successful oil company - the world's fourth largest, instrumental in pumping oil to the thirsty U.S. market. The company is also the architect of a Siberian pipeline. Today it has become, according to Amsterdam, a symbol of "perestroika in reverse," stamping out political competition. It has launched a dangerous assault on transparency and free markets. The Yukos saga began in 2003 when the Kremlin accused the oil company's then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mikhail Khodorkovsky of ramping up a constitutional coup by flooding the Duma with his loyalists, financially propping-up opposition political parties, and mulling presidential aspirations for 2008. Russia's latest move brings the Russian state's power grab outside its borders with Russia's General Prosecutor's Office launching a criminal investigation against yet other Yukos former executives - all from the West. Many have been charged by the prosecutor's office with embezzlement and money laundering of assets worth over $10 billion. They include Steven Theede, a former CEO; former Yukos executives David Godfrey and Bruce Misamore; and Tim Osborne, managing director of Yukos' largest shareholder, GML Ltd.
Godfrey is a former advisor at Yukos and a former executive at Yukos Finance, a Dutch-based subsidiary of Yukos, while Misamore is a former chief financial officer of Yukos and also a former executive of Yukos Finance. None of the new prosecution targets want to share the fate of Khodorkovsky, who after a long and controversial trial – a sham, says Amsterdam - was sentenced to eight years confinement for fraud and tax evasion. Most recently, Khodorkovsky lost an appeal that could have brought him back from a remote penal colony in Siberia - 3,000 miles east of Moscow in the Chita region, close to the border with China. Khodorkovsky was charged, among other things, with tax evasion, for an amount of over $7 billion, while the new targets, allege prosecutors, also engaged in criminal financial maneuverings. Yukos was liquidated by a Russian court on Aug. 1 in the face of protests by the former management, who deny the authorities' claims that it was insolvent. But the Russian theft of Yukos was limited to the company's assets within Russia. The company's assets abroad remain controlled by independent directors. According to a release by Russian prosecutors, Theedes had registered a special fund in the Netherlands for the purpose of "seizing" Yukos assets abroad. The statement added that the four are accused of "utilizing their positions to enter into agreements with the aim of appropriating foreign assets of Yukos. Using such a scheme, the wrongdoers appropriated the assets of . . . more than 20 daughter companies of the corporation. The named persons illegally came into possession of assets worth more than $10 billion." However, the executives have countered that they only wanted to save the company and its investors from what they regard as a continuing politically-driven theft of Yukos by the Russian state. Leading the critics of the latest prosecutions of the four American and British senior executives, Amsterdam says that the move sends a clear warning to the international business and legal community. "These baseless and specious charges have been brought against innocent professionals whose only crime was to protect the interest of Yukos shareholders," says Amsterdam. "The fact that the Russian Federation is trying to export its corrupt show trials to foreign nationals powerfully demonstrates their predatory tactics and determination to subvert international law." The charges announced last Thursday come immediately after a decision in favor of Yukos by a Dutch court, which ruled that the company is not required to obtain government approval to sell assets. "It's clear that the Russian Federation believes it can now act with impunity following their success in having Rosneft's stolen goods listed on the London Stock Exchange," says Amsterdam. In 2004 Rosneft, an integrated Russian oil company, bought the Baikal Finance Group, which earlier had won a government sale of Yugansk, the main production subsidiary of Yukos. Yugansk was being sold in lieu of back taxes said to be owed by Yukos. "As we have seen from a series of recent show trials, Russia uses the legal system not to effect justice but as a tool to leverage political or economic opponents," says Amsterdam. The investigation, Amsterdam agues, shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to achieve its goals and whitewash their ill-gotten gains. "All those concerned about Russia's credibility in the world should demand that this investigation be closed and that administrative proceedings be brought against those use the criminal power of the state toward private ends," he maintains. "By bringing this political witch hunt against these distinguished executives with spotless records, Russia is incurring potential long-term damage to investment and rule of law. "Let everyone who advocates transparency and proper corporate governance make clear their views to the Russian Federation with respect to this abuse of power," he argues. Andrew Neff, an energy analyst at the consultants Global Insight, is another outspoken critic of the Russian tactic. He is quoted by Britain's Independent: "The fight over Yukos's foreign assets boils down to an attempt by Russian prosecutors to ensure that revenues from their sale is denied to GML." The Yukos affair, which has long been on the agenda of both President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in meetings with Putin, says Amsterdam, is said to have far reaching consequences. At the time of Khodorkovsky's arrest, Dr. Ariel Cohen, a research fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies at The Heritage Foundation, sounded a clarion call: "With the attack on Yukos, the ex-KGB faction in the Kremlin has reverted to state-led repression against private capital and independent power centers. "A crackdown on the independent media has been going on for three years. The U.S. should send a strong signal to President Putin that such policies may cost Moscow America's good will and cause damage in tens of billions of dollars." Cohen further argued that the attack on Yukos has done billions of dollars in damages to the Russian stock market, triggering capital flight. By jailing Khodorkovsky, Cohen maintained that Putin sent a "clear signal that the Russian state can be hijacked and its legal system subverted by unscrupulous bureaucrats, businessmen, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers. The positive investment climate that Russia had enjoyed since 1998 evaporated overnight." Amsterdam agrees with the Cohen evaluation, but goes further with what he sees as an energy conspiracy that does not bode well for the world's consumers. Enter Gazprom, the largest Russian company and the biggest extractor of natural gas on the planet. Gazprom supplies almost all the gas needs of Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Says Amsterdam: Gazprom is in the process of cutting up Europe, "slicing and dicing" - energywise - in order to maximize the benefit to Russia and eliminate any opportunity for Europe to obtain any sort of competitive energy. Amsterdam postulates that Russia is doing everything it can to hold up energy prices – in a far-reaching scheme to eventually hold not only Eurpoe, but the United States and the world hostage. He explains that, in his opinion, the Europeans have just given in to Russia and that the nationalization of Yukos – which he says is more aptly described as "state theft" – is just the tip of the iceberg. Amsterdam invites a wary look at the recent Putin-Chavez summit in Moscow. The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, was clear on the country's intent after Venezuela sought Russian participation in the construction of an 8,000-kilometer, $20 billion pipeline connecting Venezuela with the Atlantic coast via Brazil and Rio de la Plata. Venezuela also signed an agreement with Russia for construction of a pipe-making plant. There emerges, notes Amsterdam, a disturbing picture of Russian-Venezuelan cooperation in the energy sector. Indeed, top Russian energy companies, including Gazprom, LUKoil, Zarubezhneftgaz, and Tekhnopromexport have been active on the Venezuelan market. Most recently, Gazprom won a tender for the Rafel Urdaneta natural-gas project and was granted licenses for prospecting and developing gas fields in the Gulf of Venezuela. In the meantime, Yukos still pumps nearly half a million barrels of oil a day and employs 70,000 workers - and Amsterdam's client still languishes in what the lawyer describes as a "concentration camp." Amsterdam says Khodorkovsky is a "hostage to energy" – soon to be joined by whole countries "if you allow Russia to continue to engage in this unlawful activity."
Editor's note:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2009 NewsMax.Com |