Russian oil firm Yukos today filed a 324 billion rouble ($11.53 billion) suit against the Russian government.
The filing came in the wake of the nine-year jail sentence handed down to Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky today.
A Yukos statement said the firm was demanding the sum in compensation for damage arising from the enforced sale of its main operating unit, Yuganskneftegaz, and asked the court to rule the sale invalid.
Moscow's court of arbitration will hold a preliminary hearing in the case on June 16th, Russian news agencies reported.
Yukos was forced to sell Yugansk after tax officials froze its assets and hit it with a $27.5 billion back-tax bill, widely seen as a Kremlin scheme to ruin the firm and Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man.
He and another top Yukos shareholder, Platon Lebedev, were both sentenced to nine years in jail today after a court case the defence said was a stitch-up designed to remove the ambitious Khodorkovsky from the political scene.
Yukos's suit is the latest in a storm of court cases and appeals involving the company and its owners that have scared off investors and caused the share price to plunge 97 per cent from its peak in 2003.
Analysts say they expect Russia to ruin Yukos and nationalise its remaining assets.