Yukos, the embattled Russian oil company, yesterday asked a US bankruptcy judge to find that Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly, violated a court order by participating in the weekend auction of Yukos assets.
Lawyers for Yukos yesterday appeared at a hearing in Houston, Texas, as part of Yukos's US bankruptcy proceedings.
They presented a "report" to Judge Letitia Clark arguing that Gazprom violated her court's order by attending the auction.
"Gazprom's participation was the key event in allowing the auction to go forward" in violation of the court order, the document said, noting that the rules of the auction required at least two bidders to be present, and Gazprom was the second one.
"It is clear that Gazprom violated the order entered by this court" and the order of a US district court judge who upheld that ruling on appeal, the document added.
Gazprom has denied it had any part in the purchase of the Yukos assets, and lawyers for the company were expected to argue this point before the judge.
Gazprom said on Tuesday that it sold Gazpromneft, its oil unit, before it appeared at the auction. But if the judge rules with Yukos, it could expose Gazprom to asset seizures, legal experts said.
Yukos also stepped up its legal offensive in the United States by trying to persuade the judge that her restraining order should also be applied to Baikal, the mystery bidder for the Gazprom assets.
It added that any third parties who help Baikal finance the deal should also be included.
"It is Yukos's position that whoever sells, buys or finances the purchase of the stock, whether through direct or indirect transactions, will have committed an automatic stay violation, whether they were named in this court's order or not," the report said, referring to the fact that United States bankruptcy law automatically enjoins actions against a debtor's assets.
"Simply put, Russian authorities and companies can play the most expensive and dangerous game of hide-and-seek, but Yukos assets are protected by the court regardless of whoever gains control or ownership," a spokesman for Fulbright & Jaworski, Yukos's lawyers, said before the hearing.
