Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman yesterday signed off on a deal for Russian oil giant Lukoil to pay $93 million to its former Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. unit to resolve a trial over Getty’s collapse, Reuters reported yesterday. Getty, a gas station operator, declared bankruptcy in December 2011, eventually appointing a trustee, Alfred Giuliano, to liquidate its assets and pay back creditors. A key piece of Giuliano’s strategy was to sue Lukoil, saying the company stripped Getty of its best gas stations and exacerbated its insolvency. The sides reached a settlement earlier this month, halting a trial after 17 days of testimony. Giuliano alleged that Lukoil moved Getty’s most profitable stations to another subsidiary in 2009 in exchange for $120 million, far less than what Getty felt the assets were worth. Under the settlement, Lukoil will pay the Getty estate an extra $93 million, resolving both the trial and a separate dispute between the parties over the allocation of tax benefits, court documents show.
