The Moscow Arbitration Court said Wednesday that hearings of the Federal Tax Service's lawsuit against PwC had been postponed from February 14 to 26 due to the absence of arbitration assessors.
The Federal Tax Service of Russia filed the suit against PwC in December 2006, accusing the auditor of covering up Yukos's illegal financial schemes and drawing up two different audit reports.
The tax service said preliminary hearings had met the request of the British auditor to invite arbitration assessors to the trial, despite objections from tax officials. The authorities also said they had offered their candidacy to the assessor.
"But the court materials say nothing about a candidacy from PwC," the tax service said, adding that a PwC representative had produced to court Wednesday a copy of a candidacy request allegedly submitted February 2. The date in the copy had been corrected by pen and the document contained no letter of authority, which prevented the court from proceeding, the tax service said.
"Actions of PwC representatives can be interpreted as unscrupulous and aimed at deliberately delaying the process," the tax service said.
PwC said it had filed the candidacy request on the afternoon of February 2, which was obvious from the court stamp on the document. The company said it did not know why the original was not among the case materials, and had to produce a copy of the request to the judge, who accepted it. The session was postponed because assessors from both sides failed to turn up, the press service said.
The tax service is seeking to invalidate Yukos-PwC contracts for 2002-2004 and to charge $480,000 from PwC. Tax authorities said Yukos failed to correct violations discovered in 2002 in the following two years.
"The company continued to illegally transfer money to the Production Development Financial Support Fund in 2003-04. Nor did the company start mentioning its profitless operations with bonds in its financial reports," the tax service said.
Tax officials also said that, despite the violations, PwC confirmed that Yukos's financial operations in 2003-04 were in full compliance with Russian legislation.
In 2005, another auditor, Horwath, refused to approve the oil company's financial report, the tax authorities said, adding that it was further evidence of PwC's involvement in Yukos's gray operations.
PwC denies the tax authorities' accusations, saying the management of a company, not an auditor, is responsible for financial decisions. PwC also said its report on Yukos contained an amendment highlighting the revealed irregularities, which PwC also included in a written statement recommending that the company review its operations.
