The Stockholm arbitration tribunal has found Russia liable for expropriating the investment of a minority shareholder of the now defunct oil giant Yukos and obliged it to pay $3.5 million in compensation, the Investment Arbitration Reporter website said on Thursday.
The arbitrators ruled in September of this year that Russia breached the terms of a bilateral investment protection treaty between the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation and obliged it to pay the $3.5 million sum to RosInvestCo UK Ltd., an affiliate of the prominent U.S.-based hedge fund Elliot and Associates, the website said.
Russian business paper Vedomosti reported on Thursday that Russia's defeat in the lawsuit filed by the Yukos minority shareholder was admitted by the Russian Finance Ministry in its Eurobond issue prospectus dated November 29, 2010.
"The ruling marks the first instance where an international court or tribunal has ruled on the merits of an expropriation claim filed against Russia by former Yukos investors," the website said.
RosInvestCo UK Ltd. initially sought some $75 million in compensation and later claimed as much as $200 million in damages from Russia over the loss of investment after Yukos' expropriation, the website said.
Yukos formally ceased to exist in November 2007, after its assets had been sold off through a series of liquidation auctions to meet vast creditor claims. State oil company Rosneft bought up the lion's share of the production assets, becoming Russia's largest oil producer.
Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion. He has consistently denied all charges against him, saying he was punished for supporting the tiny pro-Western opposition, and that the liquidation of Yukos was engineered by corrupt government officials aiming to seize lucrative oil assets.
MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti)
