Those who persecuted Yukos find new jobs under Sechin

Olga Pleshanova & Alexandra Gritskova, Kommersant, 17.06.2008

Lawyers from the Federal Tax Service who made a name for themselves during the Yukos affair and other prominent cases against private companies are moving to jobs in organisations under the control of Igor Sechin, the new deputy prime minister.

The former deputy head of the Tax Service’s legal department, Vsevolod Kurkov, has been appointed adviser to the president of the United Shipbuilding Company and has already taken up the post of corporate secretary. This means he can act for the company’s board chairman, who will be Igor Sechin. [...]

In May Kurkov’s former boss Anton Ustinov, head of the Tax Service’s legal department, was appointed aide to Igor Sechin, the deputy prime minister in charge of industry. [...]

Ustinov’s team of lawyers have great experience in cases concerning major companies, above all Yukos, from numerous tax claims to supervision of the bankruptcy process. They participated in the bankruptcy of Volgotanker plc and tax investigations of Eldorado. Vsevolod Kurkov spoke at the arbitration court as a representative of the tax service in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit cases, the tax cases of Russneft and the companies of the Bashkortostan heat and energy complex.

Those in the shipbuilding sector say that Ustinov and Kurkov may be entrusted with the integration of shares in shipbuilding companies now controlled by private shareholders into the United Shipbuilding Company. [The company, which is 100% State owned, was set up by presidential decree in March 2007 and registered in November last year]

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