Wounded Russian oil company but American debtor-in-possession OAO Yukos has dismissed five banks from its tortious interference lawsuit that it has brought in federal court in Houston in connection with its pending chapter 11 case. Here are the previous posts on the Yukos case.
The lawsuit involves several Western banks alleged involvement in the financing of an auction bid on Yukos’ former production unit called Yuganskneftegaz (“Yugansk”), the Siberian oil giant that represents about 1% of world oil production. In December, the Russian government scheduled an auction of Yugansk to generate proceeds to pay Yukos’ alleged $28 billion tax debt to the government, which prompted Yukos’ to file a chapter 11 case in Houston in an effort to delay the auction. The Russian government went ahead with the auction despite the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. ß 362 and a Bankruptcy Court TRO enjoining the auction, and Yukos then initiated the lawsuit against a number of Western financial institutions for alleged involvement in financing the winning $9.3 billion auction bid in violatio of the automatic stay and the TRO.
Yukos dropped affiliates of ABN Amro Holding NV, BNP Paribas SA, Calyon, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Dresdner Kleinwort Wassertein from the lawsuit. Those banks had originally been members of a consortium of Western financial institutions that was prepared to finance an auction bid for Yugansk, but Yukos is now satisfied that these banks had nothing to do with the winning auction bid.
On the other hand, one of the banks that Yukos did not dismiss is Deutsche Bank, which is challenging the jurisdiction of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court over Yukos. The hearing on Deutsche Bank’s motion to dismiss the Yukos case is presently scheduled for February 16th in U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark’s Houston courtroom.