MOSCOW, July 7 (UPI) -- Russia's top prosecutor believes the Yukos oil corporation faces more huge tax bills with no end in sight, the Moscow Times said Wednesday.
"This is snowballing," Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told Ekho Moskvy radio Tuesday, the paper said. "There is a beginning to this affair but there but it's very difficult to see the end. The level of stealing, fraud and tax evasion is so huge that it cannot all be packed into one case."
Yukos is Russia's largest oil company and is facing bankruptcy because it cannot pay off $3.4 billion in overdue taxes due by Thursday. Last week, Russia's Federal Tax Service hit Yukos with another $3.4 billion claim for 2001.
Ustinov told Ekho Moskvy Yukos could also be hit with additional tax claims for 2002 and 2003. Yukos founder, chief shareholder and former chief executive officer Mikhail Khodorkovsky is in a Moscow jail about to face trial on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
