Yukos shareholders vs. Russia

Yukos shareholders vs. Russia are several international court and arbitral cases seeking compensation from the government of Russia to the former shareholders of Yukos based on the claim that Russian courts were not acting in good faith in launching tax evasion criminal proceedings against Yukos, which led to the bankruptcy of the company.

The Yukos Oil Company's former shareholders and management filed a series of claims in courts and before arbitration panels in various countries, seeking compensation for their expropriation. The largest, for over $100 billion, was filed at the international Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2007 and resulted in the arbitrators awarding Yukos majority shareholders over US$50 billion in damages. This decision was appealed by Russia and overturned by the Hague's district court.

Observers note the bad timing of the final rulings on the majority shareholders' claim for Russia amid the Ukrainian crisis. Russia intends to fight these decision of the international courts.

US and Russian investors, representing about 15 percent and 5 percent of Yukos, respectively, lack the benefit of an investment treaty. The sole remedy of US-based investors in seeking approximately $12 billion in redress is to request the State Department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative to espouse the claim to their Russian counterparts, as it is determined by the Magnitsky Act of 2012; State Department officials have reportedly raised Yukos investors' concerns at deputy prime minister level in the past.

In 2005, Yukos unsuccessfully asked a US court in Houston to send its multibillion-dollar tax dispute with the Russian authorities to an international arbitration forum. By bringing the case in a US court, Yukos sought to focus international attention on its travails and increase pressure on Russian authorities.

On April 23, 2004, shortly after the imposition of the tax assessment for the year 2000, the former management of Yukos (OAO Neftyanaya kompaniya YUKOS) submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights.

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