Chapter 22 cases — the nickname for successive but seperate reorganization cases under chapter 11 — are uncommon, but certainly not unheard of. However, a chapter 26 case — a reorganization under chapter 11 followed by a bankruptcy case in a foreign country and an ancillary case in the U.S. under chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court — well, you just don’t see that even once a decade.
Enter OAO Yukos, the embattled Russian oil and gas company that filed a chapter 11 case last year in Houston (subsequently dismissed) in a failed effort to stop a Russian government-imposed dismantling of the company to pay the government for past-due taxes. A couple of weeks ago, Russia’s Moscow Arbitration Court placed Yukos under outside supervision and appointed a supervisor, which is the rough equivalent of a bankruptcy trustee under the U.S. system. The Russian court then set a June 27 hearing in which it will consider formally declaring Yukos bankrupt under the Russian bankruptcy system.
Meanwhile, Yukos’ supervisor and institutional creditors are claiming that Yukos managers are engaging in a “fire sale” of assets in an attempt to subvert the Russian bankruptcy case. Consequently, yesterday, the supervisor initiated a chapter 15 bankruptcy case for OAO Yukos in the Southern District of New York in an effort to derail the purported impending sale by Yukos of the company’s interest in a refinery.
I wonder if Yukos will seek a change of venue of the chapter 15 case to Houston? ;^)