US bankruptcy court hears motion to dismiss Yukos filing News
US bankruptcy court hears motion to dismiss Yukos filing

[JURIST] Lawyers for Deutsche Bank [corporate website] told US Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark Wednesday that Russian oil company Yukos' [corporate website; JURIST Hot Topic news archive] request for bankruptcy protection should be thrown out for lack of jurisdiction [JURIST report]. Yukos filed for US bankruptcy protection in December [JURIST report] in a failed effort to prevent the auction of Yuganskneftegaz, it's main production arm. The Russian government ignored Clarke's injunction blocking the auction [JURIST report] and sold the unit for $9.3 billion [JURIST report]. Deutsche lawyers told the court that Yukos manufactured jurisdiction "just to gain litigation advantage," but Yukos says the Texas-based bankruptcy court is a proper forum for it to bring bankruptcy and related suits because several bank accounts and the company's CFO are located in Houston. In a filing with the court, Yukos said that its creditors and shareholders have been harmed by "massive politically motivated, unlawful actions in the form of over $27.5 billion of illegal taxes," and that "A bankruptcy case is the only kind of legal proceedings that can deal with these kinds of problems." Yukos maintains a website for its Chapter 11 case, which includes its response to Deutsche's motion to dismiss [PDF text]. AP has more.