Embattled Russian oil company YUKOS on Thursday filed notice that it would appeal to a higher court to overturn a bankruptcy judge's dismissal of its US bankruptcy case. The case will now go before a US District Court Judge in Houston. No date has been set. The notice came shortly after US Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark reaffirmed her ruling handed down last week to dismiss the case based on the lack of jurisdiction of the US courts.
YUKOS' efforts to seek bankruptcy protection and its dispute over a $27.5 billion tax bill levied by Russian authorities belonged in a court where Russian authorities would participate, she ruled.
The company had filed for Chapter 11 protection in Houston in December in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the sale of its main oil producing arm.
YUKOS had asked Clark to reconsider the dismissal, arguing she erred in her reasoning. The company also said the US court did carry weight in Russia and would allow shareholders and creditors to sue Russia for damages if the company is dismantled.
The company had also asked the court to compel Moscow to agree to submit to international arbitration regarding the disputed tax bill.
Clark told a hearing on Thursday that although she was sympathetic to the arguments from the company and its shareholders that they had been treated unfairly by Moscow, "for the reasons stated (in the earlier ruling) ... the motions are denied."
Clark also said that she had made her decision independently, without any political pressure.
"I have received no backdoor phone calls from the US Department of State or its Russian equivalent," she told the court.
The bankruptcy filing had raised concerns that the dispute would cool relations between Washington and Moscow. US officials have criticised recent Kremlin moves to roll back democratic reforms taken in the past decade.
YUKOS has complained it was the victim of a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to destroy it and former owner Mihkail Khodorkovsky, who is facing a 10-year prison term for fraud and tax evasion.
Russian authorities sold YUKOS' Yuganskneftegas at auction in December despite restrictions imposed by Judge Clark as part its efforts to collect on the tax bill.
A lawyer for shareholders groups, including main stock owner Menatep Group, said without the US court's intervention they would have no other recourse to protect their investments.
"This court represents our last hope, our best hope," Sanford Saunders, a lawyer for the groups told the court.
YUKOS has also filed a case against the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights and Menatep has sued Russia in Europe for about $30 billion in financial damages.
YUKOS spokesman Mike Lake told reporters after the hearing the company would consider its options and was mulling an appeal of the ruling to the US District Court level.
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