Executives of bankrupt oil company Yukos took Russia to Europe's top human rights court yesterday, accusing Moscow of destroying the firm through illegal, crippling tax demands.
The plaintiffs, including former U.S. directors at the company, are seeking a record $98 billion in damages, which they said would be distributed to former Yukos shareholders and other "stakeholders" if it is awarded.
Once Russia's largest oil firm, Yukos was brought to its knees in 2006 after a multibillion-dollar tax claim that its directors say was driven by then-president Vladimir Putin, who was consolidating power at the expense of tycoons.
"This was an expropriation in everything but name," said Piers Gardner, a lawyer for Yukos shareholders.
Former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion and could face a further 22 years behind bars if convicted in a second trial under way in Moscow.
Convinced they could not get a fair hearing in Russia, Yukos representatives turned to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights in 2004 and complain the firm was forced into liquidation by unlawful tax penalties.
The court, which has jurisdiction over 47 countries, deals with alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.