MOSCOW, July 25 — The Yukos oil company’s long fight for its existence neared an end today when creditors rejected its plans for recovery and recommended that what was once Russia’s largest and most successful oil conglomerate be declared bankrupt.

The vote by creditors all but ensures that Yukos will be liquidated — the final chapter in a saga that began nearly three years ago when Yukos’s billionaire founder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, was arrested by masked law enforcement officers and hustled away.

Mr. Khodorkovsky is now serving a term in a Siberian labor camp, after being convicted last year of tax evasion and other crimes in what he and his supporters call a show trial orchestrated by the Kremlin to punish him for his political ambitions. President Vladimir V. Putin has denied that allegation.

But the fate of his company now lies in a bankruptcy hearing here next week, at which the creditors — largely connected to the Kremlin — will ask that the firm be liquidated and its assets redistributed.

To serve as the receiver, the creditors nominated Eduard Rebgun, the court-appointed manager who recommended that the company be declared bankrupt.

The meeting today progressed according to previous patterns, with the official Russian position trumping Yukos’s data and assertions.

Relying on financial information from Mr. Rebgun, the creditors ignored the company’s contention that its assets, which Yukos says are valued at nearly $38 billion, exceeded its liabilities by more than $20 billion and were more than enough for Yukos to pay off its debts.

Instead, the creditors accepted Mr. Rebgun’s assessment that the company’s assets were far less valuable — about $18 billion — and that its debts exceeded their value by more than $500 million.

Yukos’s lost its principal pumping subsidiary, Yuganskneftegas, in a bizarrely rigged auction in 2004. That firm, a huge asset that pumped as much oil in a day as Indonesia, has since fallen under the Kremlin’s control and become part Russia’s growing portfolio and might as an energy power.

But Yukos has retained ownership of several oil prospects, as well as 1,302 retail gas stations, five refineries and pumping concerns in Tomsk and Samara. It also owns a 9.2 percent stake in RosNeft, Russia’s state oil company. And a 20 percent stake in Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of the state-controlled energy giant, Gazprom, that it obtained when Gazprom acquired Sibneft.

Gazprom has offered to buy this stake at about half price.

Despite oil prices hovering near record highs and the company’s potential to increase its revenue, the creditors voted that Yukos would not be able to continue as a going concern and pay its debts.

In a swift succession of votes in the afternoon, the creditors rejected Yukos’s arguments, decided to ask the court to declare the firm bankrupt, and set up a committee of creditors.

A Yukos spokeswoman, Claire Davidson, called the events “the latest step in the forced and systematic expropriation of Yukos assets by the Russian Federation.”

It’s an old story. Be careful to whom you hitch your wagon, lest they ruin you. You may be the best intended business manager but putting in with a company that is burdened with legal baggage may give your more difficulty than you ever bargained for. More than one business was ruined by the wrong association. Naively, they entered strategic partnerships with companies that were either robbing and stealing or had inflated its true value. Can we say Enron? Thigns are going swimmingly until the day someone shows up at your door with a subpeona or, worse, the feds show up with a warrant to search and seize your files and freeze your money.

So there you are holding the bag, all because you entered into a joint venture with a company that had been up to something illegal. Only then do you find out their CEO and a half-dozen others are going to trial and then to jail, while what’s left of their assets are seized by their creditors. The thing is your assets may come under fire and also be vulnerable to attachment. Guilt by association.

You may be the most reputable company on earth, and you may have innocently broken bread with this nefarious entity, but like it or not, quite often you are going along for the ride. Whether your new partner meant to implicate you, or whether it was an accident hardly matters at the end of this long and trying day. Bottom line, tag, you’re it, and it will get expensive.

Even if you can show there was no deliberate conspiracy of any sort and you can wend your way out of total destruction, there are still severe penalties. Just think of the legal costs alone. Think of the embarrassment and how it may make your clients and associates feel about you and your business. Let’s face it, no matter how innocent you are there will always be some faction of the world who believes you are guilty.

So whether you are a large, small or medium sized business, before you enter into any strategic partnership or joint venture, check out the other guys. Run a background check. See if the other guys are still playing by the rules, or if they have warrants out or liens and judgments against the principals. Run background screenings that will help tell if they are legitimate and reputable. Conduct a background research to see if they are litigious and may after the courting is over end up suing you.

Check Them Out Before You Partner.