A Dutch court ruled Wednesday that the sale of foreign assets held by YUKOS Finance, the Dutch subsidiary of YUKOS oil company, was illegal on grounds that a Russian bankruptcy move against YUKOS was invalid under Dutch law.

In a final auction to dispose of YUKOS assets, arranged by the company’s liquidator, YUKOS Finance was sold for 224 million euros ($302 million) to a former subsidiary of the Russian state-controlled oil group Rosneft.

YUKOS Finance had assets of around $2 billion.

YUKOS was declared bankrupt with debts of $27.5 billion (20 billion euros) after a Russian government tax fraud probe that was seen as politically motivated.

In its ruling Wednesday, the Dutch court slammed the Russian bankruptcy action against YUKOS.

“YUKOS Oil has been deprived of a fair trial in the determination of the amount of taxes it owed to the Russian state,” the judges said.

Because the Russian bankruptcy decision cannot be recognised under Dutch law, the decisions of administrator Edward Rebgun were declared null and void by the Dutch court.

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Posted: 11|1|07 at 11:31 pm. Filed under: Auction News.