Minority shareholders in BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP have accused local police of harassing them to give up a multi-billion dollar damages claim against the British oil major, Vedomosti business paper reported on Wednesday.
Six shareholders in TNK-BP Holding filed suits in August with a court in Siberia's Tyumen Region, demanding a total of $16 billion in damages from an aborted deal between BP and the Russian oil giant Rosneft to explore for oil in Russia's Arctic shelf. They claimed the deal broke TNK-BP's 2008 shareholder agreement, under which the partners had to offer all energy projects to TNK-BP first.
Minority shareholders Andrei Prokhorov, Svetlana Rodina and Yevgeny Filippov later withdrew their lawsuits from the court, giving up any claims against the British oil major, two sources familiar with the documents told Vedomosti.
But the three soon alleged that they were forced to sign statements that they had no claims against BP and its officers, the paper said, referring to lawyer Dmitry Chepurenko from Liniya Prava law firm representing their interests in the Tyumen commercial court.
"The police were waiting for them near their homes or at their workplaces, forced them into cars and drove them to a police station where the police demanded that they gave up the lawsuits, threatening them with criminal liability," the lawyer claimed.
The minority shareholders had filed complaints with the regional prosecutors' office, accusing the police of illegitimate actions, the paper said, adding that it had obtained copies of their complaints.
The shareholders themselves, however, refused to comment to Vedomosti on the information.
