On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a claim against Rosneft for the recovery of $ 419 million in favor of Yukos Capital, which is controlled by former executives of Yukos. Plaintiff was given 60 days to find the property of “Rosneft” in the State of New York, but there are no assets of the company. But Yukos has a chance in England, where the court has also seized the property of “Rosneft” on 425 million euro ($ 650 million). None of the specific sites has been determined. “Rosneft” assures that the decision will not affect its activities.
Yesterday, Rosneft said that at a hearing on March 17 the District Court for the Southern District of New York “decided that it lacks jurisdiction" to consider the case c oil company for recovering $ 419 million in favor of Yukos Capital. Yukos Capital confirmed that such a decision had been made.
"The only ground for jurisdiction acceptance may be the presence of Rosneft assets in the state”, they clarified in “Rosneft” with reference to the Court. “The Court granted the plaintiff about 60 days to find them, and then, if such assets are not found, the lawsuit will be denied completely.” Vice-president of “Rosneft” Peter O'Brien in his testimony to the court alleges that the company "had never had any accounts in any U.S. bank”, it had neither owned or leased any property in the country and does not supply oil there because it sells oil on conditions of FOB, that is ownership passes to the buyer at the moment of shipment to the Russian ports.
Yukos Capital S.a.r.l. - Luxembourg Company, used to be part of the Russia's Yukos, which was bankrupt and liquidated in 2007. Now it is controlled by former managers of Yukos. In 2004 Yukos granted a loan to Yuganskneftegaz, which then was acquired by “Rosneft”. The latter refused to pay and Yukos was cast in the Russian courts. But in the spring of 2009 it got support in the court in Amsterdam; it ruled that Rosneft must pay about 14 billion rubles to it (the sum is stated by today). Now the oil company disputes the decision, but the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has not yet taken its decision.
According to the report of “Rosneft”, it owns three companies registered in Great Britain (Shelf Limited, Rosneft Investments, and Rosneft Marine Holdings Limited), but all of them are located on the island of Jersey, which is not subject for the court’s approval. A lawyer of international law jurisprudence from the firm Magisters Vaneyev Alexander notes that "as a rule, such measures are applied to those payments that are to be paid by the third parties in favor of the defendant. "There are just a few companies registered in London which are engaged in trade with Rosneft; for example, there are trading subdivisions of Shell, BP and American ConocoPhillips. But even if specific funds defined by the court is frozen, this amount "is not essential for the business of “Rosneft”, they assure in the oil company. But still it intends to seek the abolition of the court.
