MOSCOW (AFP) - Law enforcement agents raided struggling Russian oil giant Yukos as tax authorities gave the company an impossible demand to pay up billions of dollars within hours, raising the spectre of a rapid fire sale of its main production asset.
Investigators descended on the Moscow headquarters of Yukos, a company spokesman told AFP, with another simultaneous raid reported at the Siberian offices of its main production unit.
"A dozen officials from the prosecutor general's office arrived in the afternoon for the search," Yukos spokesman Yevgeny Fokin told AFP. "But I don't know what they are looking for," he added.
The spokesman could not confirm that another raid took place in parallel in the offices of Yuganskneftegaz, which pumps 60 percent of Yukos oil, in western Siberia, as reported by the Interfax news agency, citing a law enforcement source.
The unnamed official said the two operations were undertaken in connection with "Yuganskneftegaz's tax debts for 2000," adding that tax authorities were preparing to file new demands for back taxes for that year.
Yugansk has already been hit with several billion dollars in tax claims for 2001 and 2002, part of a sustained campaign by tax authorities who have slapped a total bill of 18.4 billion dollars on Yukos and its subsidiaries.
Yukos, which is seen as the target of a Kremlin-inspired campaign, meanwhile found itself facing imminent default on a multi-billion-dollar tax claim for 2002.
Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin told the ITAR-TASS news agency that tax authorities had given the company until the end of Wednesday to pay 6.7 billion dollars (5.15 billion euros) in back taxes and penalties for 2002.
Russia's top oil producer has been racing against time to pay off existing tax demands from 2000 and 2001 in the hope of staving off the disposal of Yugansk, expected towards the end of this year.
But the new tax bill for 2002, now payable in full, effectively robs Yukos of any chance of meeting the liabilities.
"This is another argument for selling Yugansk," Yukos official Hugo Erikssen conceded to AFP.
The company's financial director Bruce Misamore on Tuesday said that Yukos had so far only paid 3.9 billion dollars in back taxes.
The tax bill could grow even more, as authorities have hinted they may file additional charges for 2003.
Analysts say that Yugansk may be sold off for a fraction of its value to a state-linked rival, possibly gas giant Gazprom, as well as other assets.
It is widely believed that the Kremlin went after Yukos's jailed founder and former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky because of his opposition to President Vladimir Putin, although the government insists it is merely punishing a tax cheat.
His company, once the top blue-chip firm in Russia, is now facing dismemberment and Khodorkovsky, in custody for more than a year, could get 10 or more years in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
11/17/2004 - 19:08 GMT - AFP