All of the shares of Russian oil firm Russneft have been seized as part of a criminal probe into tax evasion and "illegal business practices", the interior ministry said.
On July 31, Moscow's Lefortovo "approved the request to arrest 100 percent of the shares of this company. The shares have now been seized," the ministry said in a statement.
The request was made by the ministry in relation to a criminal case against
the company's former chief executive Mikhail Gutseriyev for tax evasion and "illegal business activities," the statement said.
The company, which employs 17,000 people, is one of the country's top ten oil firms by production.
The court action comes a week after Gutseriyev announced he was quitting the oil company and selling his shares, citing "unprecedented persecution" by the authorities.
Gutseriyev said the attacks came in the form of multiple inquiries by Russian tax authorities, the prosecutor general's office and the interior ministry.
Basic Element, the holding company of Kremlin-friendly tycoon Oleg Deripaska, said later that it had put in a request to the federal anti-monopoly committee for Russneft to be absorbed into its energy subsidiary.
Russneft pumped 17 million tons of oil last year of recoverable reserves estimated at 630 million tons.
(AFX News, 08/08/2007)