Former Yukos share holders auction Russian vodka brandnames for $1.7 million

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Former Yukos majority shareholders have auctioned 18 Russian vodka brands for 1.6 million euros ($1.71 million), shareholder group GML announced on Monday.

The auctioned brands included Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya, GML, which previously held a majority stake in Yukos through its subsidiaries, added.

The former shareholders - Veteran Petroleum and GML subsidiaries Hulley Enterprises and Yukos Universal - first seized the Benelux brands four years ago. Russia fought the seizure in Dutch courts until the Dutch Supreme Court rejected Russia's last remaining appeal in March 2024.

Yukos went bankrupt in 2006 after oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky fell out with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the government began demanding billions of dollars in alleged back taxes that ultimately resulted in it being expropriated by the state.

The shareholders were awarded a little more than $50 billion by an arbitration tribunal in The Hague in 2014, on the grounds Russia had deliberately bankrupted Yukos.

They have since attempted to enforce the award - which has swelled to nearly $60 billion, with interest now running at $2.5 million a day - in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands.

"The money we raised today obviously pales in comparison to the almost $60 billion that Russia still owes us, but ... all great achievements have small beginnings," GML CEO Tim Osborne said in a statement.

($1 = 0.9332 euros)

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Sharon Singleton)