Report: London court restarts work on $50 bln Yukos case

BRUSSELS, Oct 26 (PRIME) -- A London High Court judge has lifted a temporary ban on work on a U.S. $50 billion compensation the former owners of defunct oil company Yukos want Russia to redeem, and a new hearing may be held in October 2023, media reported on Wednesday.

“A London judge has allowed a long-running legal saga between ex-Yukos Oil Co. shareholders and the Russian government to restart in the U.K. to decide whether the country has state immunity,” Bloomberg newswire reported.

Reuters said that London's High Court lifted a temporary block on former investors in defunct oil group Yukos enforcing the $50 billion arbitration award against Russia in order for the court to decide on a Russian challenge to its jurisdiction. The former owners will state that Russia has no immunity as the Dutch courts earlier decided against the country, the newswire said.

In 2003, the Russian government accused the management of the then top oil company Yukos of economic crimes. Several company managers were sentenced to prison for fraud and tax evasion. Its core owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was charged with several sequential sentences and spent 10 years in jail before being pardoned by President Vladimir Putin. The company declared bankruptcy, and its assets were sold to state-owned oil major Rosneft.

In 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that the Russian government must pay a U.S. $50 billion compensation to GML, which unites former Yukos owners. Russia refused, and the shareholders sent claims to several countries, asking them to help with fulfillment of the court order. Russian asset seizures began in France and Belgium, and the Russian government contested them.

The District Court of The Hague cancelled the lower court compensation decision in 2016 on the grounds that the case is beyond jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, but The Hague Court of Appeal overturned the decision in February 2020. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands turned down the case in November 2021 and returned the suit to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal for reconsideration.

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