"Lying Cheating and Stealing is OK in Russia"
A law suit filed by former shareholders of former Russian oil giant Yukos is making its way through the European Union's court system.
Shareholders argue that the Russian Federation violated a major international energy pact - the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) by buying bankrupt forcefully bankrupting and acquiring Yukos and failing to compensate shareholders.
The former Yukos head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed for several reasons, including
fruad, embezzlement, money laundering, and supporting opposition to the former KGB agents in control of Russia.
Part of Russian claims also included allegations of Yukos performing tax fraud by using what appear to be legal tax shelters and Russia issuing massive new tax claims against Yukos. European courts outside of Russia have unanimously sided with Yukos or its shareholders and have classified Russian allegations being , "political and discriminatory character . . . underlined by the infringement of human rights and of the right to defense."
Russia has kept the ball rolling vs opposition by finding former Yukos associates guilty of murders , which has been widely criticized as being another show trial. There has been a laundry list
of former Yukos figures targeted for prosecution by Russian prosecutors.
The Yukos situation was brought back to my attention by a short speech from former Yukos CFO, Bruce K. Misamore, who furnished the quote "Lying Cheating and Stealing is OK is Russia." In that Russia has had a long running history of average Russians lying for fear of taking a trip to Siberia or end up missing. Misamore also noted the Russian state taking over most of the media outlets in Russia and the massive placement of former KGB agents into government positions. The former KGB generals in charge of the top levels of government also control the media and have a loyal lieges working throughout the government including the judicial system.
According to Misamore, Deutsche Bank has been complicit in Russia strong arming Yukos, which is backed up by the fact that Deutsche assumed the debt of Yukos in exchange for Russia paying back Deutsche. Also fearless auditors at PricewaterhouseCoopers were persuaded by Russian officials
to revoke their audits of Yukos
and further legitimize Russian's claims on Yukos' tax fraud and take over.
Further reading
Yukos shareholders sue Russia for $100 billion
Compensation ordered for Yukos top official
US-Russia Economic Relationship: Implications of the Yukos Affair
Former Russian Billionaire Files for Parole
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Comments :
See, this is why I love Russia.
If you're going to steal, you might as well be shameless about it, right?
Can't wait to go back - I'll likely be spending next summer there.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
I don't know who to cheer for
Clearly Yukos got run over by Russia, but it also seems like they were formed as part of the privatization giveaway and dodged taxes (legally or otherwise), so in a sense Russia's just taking back its own with a little... friendly persuasion.
It's not smart if Russia is looking to encourage Western investment, since who wants a stake in a company that the state can take over anytime. (That argument sounded better coming from a US citizen prior to the last few months.) It's certainly "lying, stealing, and cheating" but that seems to be SOP in modern Russia for the state and for businesses alike. I guess I hope Yukos wins their court case because it would be good to establish a check on the power of the Russian state.
As an aside, the Wikipedia citation for Yukos subsidiaries also declared the oil they produced to be "oil-containing liquids"[3] to avoid paying full taxes is this Russian article
-- any Russian readers here know if Wikipedia is accurate on this point?
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Appears to be the case.
The key phrase is buried at the end of the article:
"The company is being charged for paying taxes on the extraction of oil-containing liquids, while extracting pure oil."
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
It takes a thief...
Sic semper tyrannis