- (AFP) - The Russian oil giant Yukos has received a default
notice from Western creditors in a move that threatens to drive the beleaguered
company into bankruptcy, it said.
-
- Yukos, which is locked in a battle with the legal authorities
over unpaid taxes, received a default notice from the French bank Societe
Generale Friday, the day after a Moscow court confirmed a freeze on the
company's bank accounts.
-
- The default declared by a syndicate led by Societe Generale,
which was expected to be followed by others, concerned a debt of a billion
dollars (830 million euros).
-
- "We received a notice for default of one billion
dollars," Yukos spokesman Hugo Erikssen told AFP.
-
- Another syndicate of Western lenders has also warned
that it could call in a loan of 1.6 billion dollars.
-
- Tax authorities froze the firm's bank accounts last week
and threatened to start seizing assets by Tuesday to enforce payment of
a 3.4-billion-dollar tax bill.
-
- The firm suffered a second blow when the tax ministry
claimed an extra 3.4 billion dollars in tax arrears for 2001, a claim that
will now have to be validated by the courts.
-
- Yukos -- Russia's largest oil producer with an output
of 1.7 million barrels per day -- warned Friday that it may have to shut
down as a result of the legal onslaught.
-
- "This could drive the company into the ground,"
Yukos chairman Viktor Gerashchenko told a news conference, adding that
Yukos could no longer access its oil revenues or pay customs for the right
to pump oil exports. The company has about one billion dollars in blocked
cash reserves.
-
- The authorities ratcheted up the pressure at the weekend
when about 100 law enforcement agents Saturday raided Yukos' headquarters
in central Moscow, leaving with several boxes apparently containing documents.
-
- The company's troubles are seen to be closely linked
to those of its jailed founder and biggest shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
Russia's richest man, who is believed to have angered President Vladimir
Putin by openly challenging him.
-
- Khodorkovsky is currently in jail with the next hearing
in his trial for fraud, tax evasion and embezzlement scheduled for July
12.
-
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