Blasting the “immoral opportunism” of Western banks’ and energy firms’ participation in the upcoming controversial auctions of Yukos Oil Company assets in Russia, attorney for political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky has called for a Congressional investigation.

Attorney Robert Amsterdam called for protests to senior management and an investigation following news reports that Citibank, ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, among others, are providing loans of $22 billion to Rosneft to enable it to purchase the assets of Yukos, Khodorkovsky’s former company, in a highly contentious auction scheduled for late March and early April. In addition, today the Times of London reported that British Petroleum (BP) intends to participate in the auction through a subsidiary, despite sources quoted by the newspaper that BP’s name will likely only be used to give an appearance of competition to what many believe is a rigged auction to deliver these assets into the hands of the state.

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Posted: 03|23|07 at 3:33 pm. Filed under: Auction News.