Group Menatep Ltd. is the offshore entity under which jailed Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky and several of his associates hold the controlling stake in Russian oil company and American debtor-in-possession OAO Yukos. Here are the previous posts on the fascinating Yukos case.
Yesterday, Group Menatep asserted a tidy $28.3 billion damage claim against the Russian government for its handling of Yukos under the European Energy Charter Treaty, a 1994 treaty that, among other things, protects investors against unfair treatment and expropriation of assets without fair compensation.
This new litigation front arises just a week before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark in Houston is scheduled to hear arguments on a motion to dismiss Yukos’ chapter 11 case in Houston. The availability of another legal forum in which Yukos’ owners can assert their claim for compensation from the Russian government may actually work to undermine Yukos’ opposition to dismissal of its chapter 11 case in the American civil justice system.