The troubled airline VIM-Avia, due to the fraudulent actions of its management, about 38 thousand passengers were stuck in foreign resorts, and accounts payable exceeded 7 billion rubles, lost its management and owners.
The general director of VIM-Avia, Alexander Kochnev, and the chief accountant, Yekaterina Panteleeva, were detained in the framework of a large-scale fraud case, according to a message on the website of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. In the near future, both defendants will be charged, after which the investigation plans to petition the court to choose a preventive measure against them.
And the co-owners of VIM-Avia, Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaevs, hastily left the country, and, according to the information available to the investigation, are abroad, "the UK noted. In this regard, measures are being taken to establish their whereabouts. "At present, investigative actions are being continued to identify all persons involved in the theft of funds and the circumstances of the crime," the press service said.
The Mursekayevs will be put on the wanted list in a criminal case of fraud, law enforcement officials told TASS. "Their whereabouts have not yet been established. They will be declared first on the federal, and then, possibly, on the international wanted list," the agency's interlocutor said. According to him, Rashid Mursekaev on Thursday was supposed to appear for questioning to the investigator, the day before he was sent a summons.
As part of compensation for damage to the victims of this fraud, a security arrest will be imposed on the property of the co-owners and the company's management. Soon, they may be charged in absentia and issued a warrant for arrest in absentia.
On the eve of TASS, the law enforcement agencies reported that the investigators interrogated Aleksandr Kochnev as a witness in the case, and then he was re-summoned for interrogation. A source clarified on Thursday that the general director was detained following interrogation in the UK. “It was a second interrogation, the day before he was interrogated as a witness, he came to the investigators himself,” the agency's interlocutor said.
After massive delays and cancellations of flights of VIM-Avia, a criminal case was initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on an especially large scale"). The official representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Svetlana Petrenko said that on behalf of the head of the department, Alexander Bastrykin, the case was transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee.
According to the investigation, since September 22, officials of the airline, knowingly knowing that funds for the purchase of fuel are not enough, including at Domodedovo airport, having no contracts with other suppliers and, thus, not having the ability to carry passengers, continued to sell tickets for flights. As a result, the management received more than 1 million rubles.
This week, VIM-Avia admitted that it does not have the funds to continue operating after massive flight delays due to fuel arrears of about 500 million rubles. The airline asked the Ministry of Transport "to consider the possibility of urgent provision of state guarantees" for 800-840 million rubles to pay for fuel and organize the export of passengers from abroad. The owner of the company, Rashid Mursekaev, published a video message in which he apologized to passengers for flight delays due to lack of funds.
VIM-Avia aircraft were detained at airports for debts in Russia and abroad - in particular, in Spain, Belgium, Turkey and France. Only four out of 29 aircraft flew to Vnukovo from Domodedovo. For Tuesday-Wednesday, VIM-Avia performed only about 10 flights.
Russian citizens who turned out to be "defectors", who are mainly in the resorts of Turkey and Greece, now rely only on the help of other airlines.
The Greek EllinAir will return 245 VIM-Avia passengers from Heraklion to Moscow, TASS reports. In addition, it is planned to connect Yamal and Siberia airlines to the transportation of passengers.
For the export of tourists from Antalya on September 28, three VIM-Avia aircraft will be used, which were released the day before from Domodedovo airport with refueling at Vnukovo. They will make two return flights each to deliver about 1,500 passengers from Turkey.
The Federal Air Transport Agency reports that Russian airlines that will carry passengers of regular flights of VIM-Avia will be allocated about 200 million rubles from the federal budget for 2018. However, we are only talking about domestic flights VIM-Avia.
"VIM-Avia" itself, which the Ministry of Transport restored for half a month passenger air transportation under its guarantees, it will also receive half a billion rubles of subsidies for air transportation from the state. However, experts are sure that such injections will not save the company and this is just a delay in its inevitable end of existence.
Currently, VIM-Avia, the last of the top 10 Russian airlines in terms of volume passenger transportation, there are six creditor banks, and its debt is about 7 billion rubles.
On Thursday night it was announced that VIM-Avia aircraft will operate until mid-October. Passengers with a scheduled flight date from October 16 and later are advised to return their tickets at the place of purchase for a refund.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the government, announced to the head of the Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, about incomplete official compliance due to the situation with VIM-Avia, and accused Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who is in charge of transport problems, of insufficient attention to the industry.
The owners of VIM-Avia are Svetlana and Rashid Mursekaevs. According to the SPARK-Interfax system, the company's revenue in 2016 amounted to 17.17 billion rubles, while the company recorded a small profit in its financial statements under RAS - 89 million rubles. According to SPARK, Svetlana Mursekaeva recently pledged part of her stake in VIM-Avia Aviation LLC - 5% of the authorized capital - in Zenit Bank.
Full name of the company: Limited Liability Company "Airline" VIM-Avia"Is a Russian company with headquarters in Moscow and a base airfield at Domodedovo. 100% of the shares belong to the spouses Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev. Airline specialization " VIM-Avia»- charter and regular domestic and international passenger transportation. In 2010, the company's air fleet consisted of 11 foreign-made aircraft, old domestic aircraft were removed from flights.
Contact Information
The site of the company: www.vim-avia.com
contact number for advice, ordering and booking tickets: 8-800-700-0-757 (for calls within Russia)
The central office of VIM-Avia is located at: Moscow, st. Novokhokhlovskaya, 23, building 1.
International company designations
IATA code: NN
ICAO code: MOV
Internal code: NN
Company management
Airline CEO: Kochnev Alexander Yakovlevich
Airline history
The history of the company begins in 2002, it was named after its first head Viktor Ivanovich Merkulov (died in 2006). Airline « VIM-Avia»Is considered one of the largest charter companies in Russia, part of regular flights in 2010 was only 32.4% of the total passenger traffic. Over the past years, the company's management has been paying great attention to domestic flights. In 2011, the company opened flights to many cities of the Russian Federation, including Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky, Magadan, Barnaul, Novosibirsk and others. settlements... During 2009, the number of transported passengers exceeded 1 200 thousand people. In some big cities the number of regular shipments was increased to twice a day. The airline "VIM-Avia" performs regular and charter flights to Barcelona, Basel, Rimini and Thessaloniki.
Alena Panarina, an employee of the VIM-Avia press service, told RBC that she did not comment on the movements of the owners.
According to SPARK-Interfax, Svetlana Mursekaeva owns 99% of VIM-Avia, Rashid Mursekaev - 1% (previously 20% of the airline belonged to Liechtenstein's Hercules Partners Fund Gemini-Gemini II).
On September 25, after massive delays in VIM-Avia flights and information that the airline did not have funds to pay for fuel, Mursekaev admitted that “the airline has a difficult economic situation, working capital has run out and funding has been frozen”. “Since the airline cannot operate flights without additional funding, we are studying the possibilities for introducing external anti-crisis management,” Mursekaev said in an interview with Rossiya 24.
On Monday, September 25, in relation to unnamed officials of VIM-Avia under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia (fraud). They are suspected of having received 1 million rubles. by selling tickets, knowing at the same time that the airline does not have money to buy fuel and operate flights.
In the evening of September 27, an investigation into the officials of VIM-Avia on behalf of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, to investigate particularly important cases.
The situation with "VIM-Avia" on Wednesday with members of the government, which was chaired by President Vladimir Putin. The head of state expressed bewilderment at the fact that the airline, according to officials, meets all the criteria, but at the same time cannot work.
Rashid Mursekaev in the early 1990s was engaged in the supply of food products from Asia at the expense of debts for the supply of Russian weapons together with Sergei Nedoroslev (now the chairman of the board of directors of the Kaskol group of companies). The partners established the Belukha company, which bought up shares in defense and aviation enterprises. Subsequently, Mursekaev went into independent business - he consolidated 68% of the shares of the Far Eastern Shipping Company, which he sold to Sergei Generalov for $ 60 million in 2002. In 2002, Mursekaev became a partner of the founder of VIM-Avia, Viktor Merkulov, and in 2003 he bought out 75% in an air carrier. In 2003, as Forbes wrote, Mursekaev spent $ 160 million on the purchase of 12 used Boeing aircraft.
Airline "VIM-Avia"
VIM-Avia was established in October 2002. The first flights were carried out by the carrier mainly in the Asian direction (Vietnam, China, Thailand). The airline's fleet consists of Boeing 777-300, 777-200, 767-300, 757-200 and Airbus 319-111, 330-200. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the founders of VIM-Avia LLC are Rashid (1%) and Svetlana (99%) Mursekaevs. They are also listed as founders of PJSC Invest Holding, which was declared bankrupt in July 2017.
Financial performance
In 2016, the company showed a net profit of 89 million rubles. with revenue of 17.174 billion rubles. The value of assets as of December 31, 2016 amounted to RUB 10.481 billion, and net financial debt - RUB 7.007 billion. (source: GMC Rosstat).
Traffic volumes
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, in 2016 VIM-Avia transported 2.076 million passengers, showing an increase in this indicator by 30% and taking ninth place in the industry. In the company itself, such growth was associated with the introduction of new aircraft(four Boeing 737-500, two Boeing 767-300, six Boeing 777-200 and one Airbus A330-200). From January to August 2017, the number of passengers carried continued to grow compared to the same period last year - by 31.4%. Nevertheless, the company dropped to tenth place, leaving behind “ North wind».
Airline problems
In 2016, the company had problems with passenger transportation. VIM-Avia allowed massive hours-long flight delays. In July 2016, the Federal Air Transport Agency warned VIM-Avia about the possibility of limiting the operator's certificate due to massive delays and gave it a week to solve all the problems. A spokeswoman for the carrier noted that the delays were related to the high season and the attempted coup d'état in Turkey. The day after the warning was issued, the company announced the stabilization of the situation with transportation and said that the problems were solved thanks to the introduction of new vessels.
In 2017, the company faced problems again when, after delays in early June, several dozen flights were canceled. The representative of Rostransnadzor then explained the failure of the charter program by delays in aircraft repair. The number of victims due to the problems of VIM-Avia in June 2017 was estimated at approximately 30 thousand people. As a result, the share of delayed flights of the airline this month amounted to 13.56%. In July-August, problems remained: in July the share of delayed flights was 13.83%, and in August - 19.45%. In September, the airline delayed over 40% of flights.
In January-September 2017, the department of state aviation supervision and supervision of transport security in the Volga Federal District conducted seven inspections at the airline, mainly at the request of citizens.
The founder of VIM-Avia, Rashid Mursekaev, left Russia after the Investigative Committee announced the start of an audit of the airline's activities. The businessman did not show up at the meeting of the Federal Air Transport Agency and does not get in touch with the law enforcement agencies, although he had previously promised to invest his own money in order to partially pay off the debt of VIM-avia. Meanwhile, it turned out that in last years the businessman's finances are not so good - two months ago his company "Invest Holding", which was engaged in consulting and intermediary services, went bankrupt.
Bankruptcy of non-flying assets
The next scandal with "VIM-avia" was preceded by a non-public, but interesting story bankruptcy, which characterizes the financial position of the structures of Mursekaev.
In 2006, Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana founded PJSC Invest Holding, which was supposed to deal with transportation and consulting services for business. Probably, the company was created "in support" of "VIM-avia", which was then just spreading its wings. According to the Kartoteka.ru database, last year Invest Holding showed a net profit of 9 million rubles. However, for some reason, he did not have enough million to pay off certain obligations to the Technopolis company in time.
Technopolis filed a bankruptcy petition with the Moscow Arbitration Court, including exactly 1 million rubles in the register of creditors' claims. The court materials do not say what exactly Invest Holding owes.
Be that as it may, in July 2017 the court satisfied the claim, and Invest Holding was declared bankrupt.
It is interesting that several years ago Mursekaev himself was a co-owner of Technopolis. Not later than 2015, he left Technopolis (just then the first warning bells appeared at VIM-avia. It is noteworthy that the current main owner of Technopolis is the fuel company Premier Oil. in another way) a share in Technopolis, which previously belonged to VIM-avia. It is possible that back in 2015, Mursekaev had problems with paying for fuel and he paid off the airline’s share in the company.
Look for me on the globe
At one time, Mursekaev was actively developing business in different parts the globe- in Germany, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. Therefore, it is possible that he still has the necessary connections or real estate there.
According to data from open sources, Mursekaev had an "aircraft" business in Ireland at least until 2014. City Leasing Limited is located in Dublin. Initially, it was created as a leasing operator - it was probably planned to rent aircraft for VIM-Avia through it.
According to the UK business register, the latest financial statements she provided only in 2014. And even then it was possible to understand that City Leasing was not doing as well as at first. The net worth in 2014 was € 1.3 million, while back in 2010 it was € 22 million. In 2014, the company had € 1.1 million in cash on its accounts.
Russian Aleksey Kurin was listed as the director of the Irish firm. It is interesting that a person with the same name a year earlier initiated the bankruptcy of the Bashkortostan airline, which owed a large sum to the VIM-avia structures.
The media, citing their sources, wrote that Mursekaev flew to Turkey on Tuesday. If this is so, then Mursekaev does not need anything from Turkey to go to United Arab Emirates... According to unconfirmed reports, he may have real estate there. In general, the Emirates and Mursekaev are linked by long-term cooperation. His airline rents a luxurious office in Dubai for its representative office. And Mursekaev leased wide-body aircraft from Emirates airline, which was founded by the UAE government.
A representative office of the airline is also open in Uzbekistan, however, there are no detailed data on the business activity of Mursekaev in this region in open sources.
But in Germany, for a long time, he financed a local cargo Air Cargo Germany. True, in 2012 it was bought by the Volga-Dnepr corporation. As the media wrote, again, in fact, for a song. Debts from Air Cargo Germany had accumulated up to € 30 million by that time.
The property remained with Mursekaev in Russia as well. If he has not sold it since 2011, then he still owns an apartment in the center of Moscow, in Skatertny Lane.
Financial rise and fall
52-year-old Rashid Mursekaev, who is now mired in debt, at one time did not get off the top lines of Forbes. It is symbolic that he began to build his own business empire on other people's debts. As the media wrote, in the 90s, he and his business partner Sergei Nedoroslev were engaged in the supply of consumer goods and food products from Asian countries at the expense of the debt for Russian weapons and aircraft. Then he created the Belukha company, which bought up shares in defense plants. By the beginning of the 2000s, he already owned most of the Far Eastern Shipping Company. In the media, he never really shines and a large number does not distribute interviews.
And in 2003, as a person who had never been involved in air transportation, he made a small revolution in this market. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, not all Russian airlines could fly abroad - old, noisy and gluttonous Russian aircraft they were simply not allowed into some countries. Then Mursekaev bought 12 used, but environmentally friendly Boeings for $ 160 million. He entered into many contracts with tour operators and began to crowd out competitors. Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana became the owners of the newborn airline. Two years later, VIM-avia turned into the largest charter operator in the country.
Now his company is in a deep dive. After the first wave of claims from government agencies in May-June, when dozens of flights were delayed, the company managed to stay afloat. For the second time, all departments fell upon the company at once: Rostransnadzor, Rostrud, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee.
Moreover, the claims of the latter may end in criminal cases for top management. According to representatives of the TFR, the management of the airline knew in advance that it would not be able to operate flights, but still sold tickets.
On Monday, September 25, a criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("Fraud"). If the co-owners of the company find themselves in business and prove their guilt, this could threaten them with a term. The last straw that broke the knees of the airline turned out to be multimillion-dollar debts for fuel: VIM-avia owed more than half a billion rubles to Domodedovo airport alone.
This week VIM-avia stopped all charter flights due to debts for aircraft maintenance. Because of this, tens of thousands of people were unable to fly. Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced incomplete official compliance with Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who allowed such a situation in the industry.
Rashid Mursekaev announced his readiness to sell the troubled airline for a symbolic amount of one ruble. This was stated by the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko. According to him, "he is tired of working in aviation, he is ready to sell his business for a ruble and leave."
The official explained that on Wednesday, September 27, the owner of the carrier was invited to a meeting due to the fact that he promised to cover operating expenses at his own expense to support the company's operations. According to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, we are talking about 50 million rubles. Neradko added that currently Mursekaev does not answer calls, and suggested that the entrepreneur could leave Russia.
Law enforcement agencies cannot contact the co-owner of VIM-avia, Rashid Mursekaev. The head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko suggested that the entrepreneur is no longer on the territory of Russia. According to him, the owner of the airline was invited to a meeting on the situation around the company. He did not come to the meeting. Neradko said this during a speech in the State Duma.
“Yesterday, by telegram, the owner of VIM-Avia was invited to a special meeting today at 8 o'clock in connection with the fact that he pledged from his own funds to pay current expenses to support operating activities in the amount of 50 million rubles. The owner of the airline did not appear at the meeting, stopped answering phone calls, and also stopped answering calls from the airline's secretariat, "Neradko explained.
Two informed sources also told Interfax that he could leave the country. “Since the very morning we have not been able to contact Mursekaev, his phones are disconnected,” one of the sources said. According to another source, Mursekaev on this moment is located in Istanbul. “According to some reports, he flew from Vnukovo to Turkey, presumably to Istanbul,” he said. According to another source of the agency, "Mursekaev flew away from Sheremetyevo."
"Vedomosti" failed to contact Mursekaev, his phone is temporarily unavailable.
Rosaviatsia provided the Investigative Committee with all the necessary documents on the airline's activities, Neradko said.
Chairman of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin instructed to urgently develop bills to prevent a repetition of the situation with "VIM-avia". It is necessary “to develop proposals that we could urgently consider as legislative initiatives in order to prevent a repetition of what happened,” he said. “The bad news is that we are constantly stepping on the same rake, this is unacceptable,” stated Volodin.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced to the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov that he was not fully qualified.
“I declare to you incomplete official compliance in connection with the situation with VIM-avia,” Putin told TASS about Putin’s words from a meeting with members of the government. Putin also rebuked Dvorkovich for “not paying enough attention to transport system". “We have just discussed this with the Prime Minister, I draw the attention of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of transport ... Maybe you are overloaded too? We have already spoken about this, ”the president said.
On September 25, on Monday, Domodedovo and other airports stopped accepting VIM-avia flights. The company faced financial difficulties, in particular the lack of working capital. On the same day, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on the fact of embezzlement of funds from passengers by officials of VIM-Avia. According to the investigation, no later than September 22, the management of the airline “had a criminal intent aimed at stealing money from passengers by deceiving on an especially large scale”. The ICR established that the officials of VIM-avia knew about the lack of money to buy fuel at the airports. However, the company continued to sell tickets for flights, “having received through fraudulent cash in the amount of over 1 million rubles. "
By the end of the season, the airline must transport and return from 50 to 80,000 passengers to resorts. In total, tickets were sold to more than 190,000 passengers, Interfax notes.
On September 26, Sokolov announced that the Ministry of Transport did not intend to save VIM-avia. "State support is already pointless, because the company has practically stopped working," he told TASS.
The press service of the Federal Air Transport Agency announced on September 26 that some of the passengers of VIM-avia are ready to carry “ Ural Airlines"," Ifly "," Red wings"," Nordstar "," Ikar "," North Wind "and" Yakutia ". The costs of these airlines will be reimbursed. For this, the 2018 budget provides for 200 million rubles, the department specified. Some of the passengers will be transported by VIM-avia itself, mainly charter ones, the Federal Air Transport Agency noted. These flights will be financed from extrabudgetary sources. Top manager major airline told Vedomosti earlier that at a meeting in the Federal Air Transport Agency it was said that the management of VIM-Avia could be transferred to Aeroflot and its subsidiary, Rossiya Airlines.
