A Russian court has agreed to the Tax Ministry's demand to remove the judge hearing an appeal of a big tax claim against the Yukos oil company, the Interfax news agency reported, and a Swiss court ordered officials to free $1.6 billion in assets frozen in connection with the case.
The Tax Ministry's demand was the opening salvo in a Moscow Arbitration Court hearing on Yukos' appeal to invalidate the ministry's ruling that the company pay 99.4 billion rubles ($3.4 billion) in back taxes, which Yukos says could drive it into bankruptcy.
The ministry has accused the oil company of illegally using domestic tax havens to reduce its tax liability in 2000. In a countersuit, Yukos disputed the accusation, saying the tax moves it made were legal and that many of the tax liabilities applied to companies unrelated to it.
The Interfax news agency said that the Tax Ministry had complained of bias because Judge Natalia Cheburashkina had not rejected Yukos' appeal outright. The ministry had said that the signature on Yukos' appeal did not come from an appropriate person, Interfax said.
The ministry also said that Cheburashkina had intended to prevent it from presenting critical evidence, Russian media reported. The Arbitration Court agreed to the ministry's demand to remove the judge, Interfax reported.