Kochnev Alexander Yakovlevich vim air biography. “Aerial” theft: the general director and chief accountant of VIM-Avia were sent under house arrest. Two top managers of bankrupt airline arrested

On Friday, September 29, the court sent them to house arrest. As the press secretary of the Basmanny Court clarified to Gazeta.Ru, Panteleeva and Korchnev were assigned a preventive measure in the form of house arrest until November 25.

After massive delays and cancellations of VIM-Avia flights, a criminal case was opened against them under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“fraud”).

Meanwhile, the co-owners of the VIM-Avia airline and Svetlana Mursekaev have left the country and may be put on the international wanted list.

The problem with VIM-Avia flights began last week. On Monday, September 25, the airline announced that due to financial difficulties it would cease charter flights. refused to service the planes of the troubled carrier due to debts, and as of Tuesday VIM-avia relocated to.

The Ministry of Transport has created an operational headquarters to solve problems with the transportation of passengers who have already paid for VIM-Avia tickets, pay off wage arrears for the carrier’s employees and resolve the crisis situation. The Prime Minister signed an order on Thursday to allocate 98 million rubles. from the government reserve fund for the maintenance of VIM-Avia aircraft.

To transport VIM-Avia passengers abroad, primarily in Turkey, S7 and .

On Friday it was announced that, on instructions from President Vladimir Putin, to Antalya for export Russian tourists two Tu-214 special flight squad "Russia" were sent, serving the top officials of the state.

Some tour operators independently take measures to remove their clients from vacation spots.

Due to the current crisis situation, I signed a decree on disciplinary action against the head.

Since Friday, the Federal Air Transport Agency has been publishing on its website the daily flight schedule of regular and charter flights of VIM-Avia.

A repayment schedule for existing debts for fuel and airport services is currently being agreed upon. The new management of the company is cooperating with law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation, the company assures.

In the footsteps of Transaero

On Friday, Alexander was appointed the new general director of VIM-Avia. According to a representative of VIM-Avia, he was appointed “to resolve the crisis situation that has developed in the airline.”

Alexander Burdin was the general director of AK for almost two years, which he headed after the carrier stopped operating. He managed to pay off his debts wages in the amount of 4.1 billion rubles. in front of 10 thousand former employees, complete the inventory of fixed assets and collect the airline’s property to ensure payments to creditors. Before that, for two years he headed Unitile, the largest holding company in Russia for the production of ceramic building materials, and for 11 years he was deputy general director and member of the board.

At the same time, Gazeta.Ru reported that they had not received a notification from VIM-Avia about the appointment of a new general director.

According to current legislation, its appointment is accompanied by appropriate certification and inclusion in the operator’s certificate. The department said that Burdin is not currently listed there.

“We know Alexander Burdin from the situation with the Transaero airline, to which he was also appointed with the wording “to resolve a crisis situation.” As you know, Transaero was declared bankrupt in September. This specialist is unknown to the aviation community. “We’ll get to know each other,” said a representative of the Federal Air Transport Agency

The executive director of the industry agency AviaPort says that Burdin is a qualified financier with extensive experience in crisis management.

“Indeed, his work in his position at Transaero at a time when the company was no longer an airline, but a legal entity with dubious prospects, was effective, he demonstrated high results, satisfying the maximum part of the claims, first of all, paying salaries,” - the expert explained.

When asked by Gazeta.Ru to comment on Burdin’s appointment, the head of the Transport and Construction Committee said that the main thing is that the personnel decisions made benefit passengers.

However, analysts do not expect any feats from the new CEO.

If two weeks ago the airline was in the hands of management and they made decisions, now the fate of VIM-Avia is in the hands of creditors and suppliers, Panteleev notes.

“If they decide that the restoration or continuation of the operating activities of VIM-Avia will reduce the debt in some future, then the carrier, under the leadership of an experienced manager, will be able to fulfill its obligations, the anti-crisis transformation program and return to life, but if a decision is made to fix losses, then no manager will help, but only a bag of money will help,” the expert sums up.

MOSCOW, September 29. /TASS/. The Basmanny Court of Moscow placed Alexander Kochnev, general director of VIM-Avia, accused of fraud with the airline's funds, under house arrest until November 25.

“The court decided to satisfy the investigation’s request and choose a preventive measure against Kochnev in the form of house arrest for a period until November 25,” judge Elena Lenskaya announced the decision.

The judge also noted that while under house arrest, Kochnev can visit medical institutions to provide qualified assistance, having previously notified the investigative authorities. Otherwise, the court imposed standard restrictions on Kochnev - not to leave his place of residence, not to communicate with the media, not to use the Internet and not to send mail. The court also did not allow him to take walks.

On Friday, the airline's chief accountant, Ekaterina Panteleeva, was also placed under house arrest until the same date. She did not object to this preventive measure. The accused will be under house arrest in her Moscow apartment. She is prohibited from contacting other defendants in the case.

The airline's management carried out the withdrawal of the company's assets with the aim of their subsequent theft; the investigation also established that, not being able to provide passenger transportation services, the company continued to sell tickets, the investigator clarified in court. On this moment“not all possible accomplices of the crime have been identified and detained,” he added.

A source close to the investigation told TASS that the investigation accuses Kochnev and Panteleeva of selling flight tickets, despite the company’s objective inability to fulfill its obligations. “Kochnev and other persons knew in advance about the poor state of affairs in the airline, but did not take measures to stop the sale of tickets, and the received in cash disposed of it at their own discretion,” the agency’s interlocutor said.

According to the case materials, the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, was questioned as a witness in this case.

The case against the defendants was initiated on September 25 on the grounds of Part 4 of Art. 159 (“Fraud committed on an especially large scale”). The maximum punishment under this article is 10 years in prison.

The investigator in court said that the owners of the airline, Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev, disappeared exactly on the day the criminal case was opened. Their location is being established. They will be put on the wanted list as part of a criminal case of fraud, law enforcement agencies previously reported to TASS. According to the Investigative Committee, “Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev hastily left the country; according to the information available to the investigation, they are abroad.”

Positions of the parties

The investigator asked to place Kochnev and Panteleeva under house arrest and impose standard restrictions. “Kochnev managed the company and made all significant decisions,” the investigator said, motivating the petition. According to him, Kochnev and Panteleeva “by virtue of their official position can put pressure on other defendants in the case.”

The prosecutor supported the position of the investigation in court. “The investigation materials, taken together, allow us to consider the investigation’s position as justified,” the prosecutor said.

Kochnev, in turn, asked to be released on his own recognizance to eliminate difficulties that had arisen at the airline. He added that if house arrest is chosen as a preventive measure, he asks to be allowed two-hour walks and visits to doctors. Senior partner at the Yukov and Partners Bar Association, Kochnev’s lawyer Mikhail Voronin supported his client’s statement. He also added that “(Kochnev’s) detention was carried out with violations and is illegal.”

Non-flying airline

On September 25, VIM-Avia announced the termination of all charter flights due to financial problems and lack of working capital. This was preceded by a series of flight delays in Russian and foreign airports. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the total debt of VIM-Avia is about 7 billion rubles.

The day before, the government allocated 98 million rubles to the Federal Air Transport Agency for maintenance aircraft"VIM-Avia", including payment for fuel and services for airport and ground flight support. According to the order signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the funds will be allocated from the Reserve Fund. At the same time, the total debt of VIM-Avia for work, services, fuel, airport and ground support for flights is about 1.3 billion rubles.

The court placed under house arrest the former general director of VIM-Avia, Alexander Kochnev, and the airline’s chief accountant, Ekaterina Panteleeva, accused of fraud. The owners of the company, Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev, left the country

Alexander Kochnev (Photo: Artem Geodakyan / TASS)

The Basmanny Court of Moscow placed under house arrest the former general director of VIM-Avia, Alexander Kochnev, and its chief accountant, Ekaterina Panteleeva, whom the Investigative Committee accuses of fraud with the funds of air passengers in the amount of more than 1 million rubles. The decision on house arrest was made by judges Natalia Dudar and Elena Lenskaya, an RBC correspondent reports.

“The management of VIM-Avia, not having the financial ability to continue carrying out transportation, continued selling tickets. In addition, it was established that the company’s managers carried out the withdrawal of its assets for the purpose of subsequent theft,” said a representative of the Investigative Committee at a meeting to prevent Kochnev. In addition, potential witnesses in the case are about a thousand employees of VIM-Avia, all of them are directly subordinate to Kochnev and are subject to his influence, an ICR employee indicated. Financial documentation on the company's condition has not yet been seized; the accused knows where it is kept and can destroy it, the investigator added.

The former himself CEO asked to be allowed to go for walks and visit a doctor. “I also ask, if possible, to change my preventive measure to a written undertaking not to leave the place, so that I can take part in eliminating the delays and other problems that have arisen,” Kochnev briefly stated. His lawyer, senior partner at Yukov and Partners, Mikhail Voronin, insisted that he “did not see evidence of a basis for house arrest, which is a rather serious preventive measure.” According to him, Kochnev’s detention was formalized with violations: for example, his protocol says that he was “caught by the investigation at the moment of committing a crime.” In fact, Kochnev was registered as detained after a ten-hour interrogation by the Investigative Committee.

The investigation has already managed to interrogate several witnesses in the case, including the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko. A representative of the Investigative Committee attached the protocol of his interrogation to the petition for a preventive measure against Kochnev as evidence of the involvement of the former general director of VIM-Avia in fraud, Judge Lenskaya said.

Owners' flight

Kochnev and Panteleeva were detained on Thursday morning after a multi-hour night interrogation by the Investigative Committee, RBC Mikhail Voronin. The owners of the airline are Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev, the ICR confirmed in its official statement on Thursday. Two RBC sources reported their departure the day before; according to one of them, the couple on Tuesday, September 26, between 18:00 and 19:00. According to Alexander Neradko, on Monday evening Rashid Mursekaev was in Moscow at work, the next day the agency employees could not find him to continue negotiations about the problems of VIM-Avia. “Without the owner of the enterprise, it is very difficult to change the management of the enterprise, to introduce so-called anti-crisis management,” Neradko lamented.

If the founders fled, the accused himself may do the same, the investigator said in the Basmanny Court at the hearing to prevent Kochnev. “The escape of the founders has not been documented by the investigation. Moreover, they are not directly related to my client,” lawyer Voronin objected.

Carrier problems

Investigators from the Investigative Committee opened an investigation into fraud at VIM-Avia on the evening of September 25. A few days earlier, at Moscow Domodedovo Airport, where the company is based, dozens of its flights on Russian and international destinations. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that the company operated 12% of flights in 2017 with multi-hour delays.

The delays are related to fuel suppliers, Rosaviatsiya reported then. According to the department, problems at VIM-Avia began due to the fact that the airline leased long-haul Airbus A330 and Boeing 777, but did not calculate the demand for transportation and suffered losses.

Mursekaev admitted that “the airline has a difficult economic situation, its working capital has run out and financing has been frozen.” At the same time, about 200 thousand passengers bought tickets for VIM-Avia flights by the end of the year, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). According to her information, the carrier’s total debt to counterparties, passengers, airports and banks ranges from 3 billion to 10 billion rubles. On Friday, September 29, Alexander Burdin, an air carrier, was appointed the new general director of VIM-Avia.

Massive delays of VIM-Avia flights began to occur in July 2016. The company then associated them with the high season and an attempted coup in Turkey. The problems were resolved thanks to the commissioning of new ships, a representative of the carrier reported. In June 2017, the company attributed a wave of cancellations of charter flights to delays in aircraft repairs. The number of victims was then estimated at approximately 30 thousand people.

In January-September 2017, the Rostransnadzor office for the Volga Federal District conducted seven inspections of the airline (registered in Tatarstan), mainly based on requests from citizens. A case was initiated against the top management of VIM-Avia for delays in salaries in the amount of 206 million rubles, another case was opened on September 29 by Rospotrebnadzor.

​According to the files of arbitration courts, in January-September 2017, 38 cases were registered in which the airline was a defendant.

Kremlin reaction

On the morning of September 26, more than 20 regular flights and more than ten charter flights of the airline were canceled in three Russian cities and six foreign countries. At an emergency meeting at the Federal Air Transport Agency, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said that supporting VIM-Avia was pointless, since “the company has practically stopped working.” According to him, main task Now we are exporting from abroad from 40 thousand to 100 thousand VIM-Avia clients whose vacation has come to an end.

They agreed to transport VIM-Avia passengers from abroad. Part of the obligations for the return of tourists will have to be assumed by purchasing them new tickets - these additional expenses may exceed $10 million. In addition, the government will spend about 1.8 billion rubles on Aeroflot to fulfill VIM-Avia’s obligations. own funds.

On September 27, President Vladimir Putin announced to Minister Sokolov. At a meeting with members of the government, the head of state expressed bewilderment that the airline, according to officials, meets all the criteria, but cannot operate. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees transport, also received criticism from the president. “You don't pay enough attention to this industry. Maybe you are too overloaded? - Putin said. ​The head of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, in turn, pointed out to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Neradko, that there was insufficient attention to alarming signals about the state of VIM-Avia, which had been received for about a year.

VIM-Avia airline was founded in October 2002. 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 the founders of Invest Holding PJSC, which was declared bankrupt in July 2017.

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 was 10.481 billion rubles, and net financial debt was 7.007 billion rubles. (

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia has completed the main investigative actions in a high-profile criminal case of fraud and abuse in what was once one of the largest airlines countries "VIM-Avia", which is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. On Friday, GSU ​​investigators brought final charges against three persons involved in the investigation. Depending on the role of each of them, the former CEO of the company Alexander Kochnev, Vice President Alevtina Kalashnikov and accountant Ekaterina Panteleeva were accused of committing crimes under Part 2 of Art. 201, part 1 art. 176 and part 3 of Art. 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of authority resulting in grave consequences; illegal receipt of a loan and transfer of currency to non-residents of the Russian Federation using forged documents). Similar articles, but in absentia, the investigation incriminated the co-owner of the company Rashid Mursekaev, who left Russia even before the start of the proceedings.

Initially, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation accused the defendants of particularly large-scale fraud committed by an organized criminal group (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, knowing that the airline located in a difficult financial situation and unable to pay for fuel and airfield services, they continued to sell tickets for flights that ultimately did not fly. However, according to Alexander Kochnev’s lawyer Mikhail Voronin, investigators, having analyzed this episode, obviously came to the conclusion that the airline still tried to fully fulfill its obligations to customers. The former top managers of VIM-Avia did not admit their guilt.

“Alexander Kochnev conscientiously performed the duties of the airline’s general director, so all his actions complied with the law,” says lawyer Voronin. “Kochnev himself believes that if the company had been able to pay for fuel in September last year, its planes would still be flying.”

According to Voronin's lawyer, after the final accusation was presented, his client refused to testify, considering it necessary to first familiarize himself with its text in detail. “In addition, we need to study several more documents that are not in the case,” the defense lawyer explained to Kommersant. “We assured the investigation that we would give our answer to the charges in a week.”

After the charges of fraud were dropped, the main issue in the case was the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on abuse of power, which provides for up to ten years in prison. According to the investigation, top managers of VIM-Avia allowed it, in particular, in relation to CJSC "Commercial agency of Domodedovo airport", which was not paid more than 500 million rubles for ground maintenance of aircraft, as well as the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State ATM Corporation”. The latter was unable to receive more than 200 million rubles for air navigation support of flights of VIM-Avia airliners. It is worth noting that the guarantor for fuel loans in Domodedovo was Rashid Mursekaev. The claim against him personally for 300 million rubles was satisfied, but in fact there was nothing to recover.

The press service of Domodedovo Airport reported that according to the arbitration decision, the entire debt was collected from VIM-Avia, but then it was fully included in the register of claims of the airline’s creditors.

Lawyers for those involved in the investigation were unable to explain exactly which episodes the charges under Art. 176 and 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, explaining this by the fact that they did not familiarize themselves with the investigation documents in detail. According to a Kommersant source, the investigation believes that hundreds of millions of rubles were withdrawn from the airline under fictitious contracts. The banking episode is obviously connected with PJSC "Bank Zenit"(62.66% belongs to PJSC Tatneft), which provided VIM-Avia with a credit line of 3.6 billion rubles until December 31, 2020. Funds were allocated as collateral for expensive aircraft engines, auxiliary power plants and securities of various companies. In 2017, VIM-Avia stopped servicing the loan without paying interest on it in the amount of 32 million rubles. In addition, in violation of the agreement with Zenit, the airline received another loan - from Absolut Bank for 581 million rubles. Absolut, by the way, is still trying to get its money back through arbitration.

In turn, Zenit assigned the right to claim the loan to LLC RNGO, which also went to court. During an inspection of the collateral, it turned out that six out of ten aircraft engines and one auxiliary unit (valued at almost 1 billion rubles) were missing, and the securities did not really correspond to the value at which they were taken as collateral. The arbitration court recovered 3 billion rubles from the suspicious borrower in favor of the RNGO, allowing the remaining engines to be put up for auction and the bills to be sold.

It is expected that in a couple of weeks the persons involved in the investigation can begin to familiarize themselves with its materials, after which the indictment will be sent for approval to the Prosecutor General's Office.

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia has completed the main investigative actions in a high-profile criminal case of fraud and abuse in what was once one of the largest airlines in the country "VIM-Avia", which is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. On Friday, GSU ​​investigators brought final charges against three persons involved in the investigation. Depending on the role of each of them, the former CEO of the company Alexander Kochnev, Vice President Alevtina Kalashnikov and accountant Ekaterina Panteleeva were accused of committing crimes under Part 2 of Art. 201, part 1 art. 176 and part 3 of Art. 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of authority resulting in grave consequences; illegal receipt of a loan and transfer of currency to non-residents of the Russian Federation using forged documents). Similar articles, but in absentia, the investigation incriminated the co-owner of the company Rashid Mursekaev, who left Russia even before the start of the proceedings.

Initially, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation accused the defendants of particularly large-scale fraud committed by an organized criminal group (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, knowing that the airline located in a difficult financial situation and unable to pay for fuel and airfield services, they continued to sell tickets for flights that ultimately did not fly. However, according to Alexander Kochnev’s lawyer Mikhail Voronin, investigators, having analyzed this episode, obviously came to the conclusion that the airline still tried to fully fulfill its obligations to customers. The former top managers of VIM-Avia did not admit their guilt.

“Alexander Kochnev conscientiously performed the duties of the airline’s general director, so all his actions complied with the law,” says lawyer Voronin. “Kochnev himself believes that if the company had been able to pay for fuel in September last year, its planes would still be flying.”

According to Voronin's lawyer, after the final accusation was presented, his client refused to testify, considering it necessary to first familiarize himself with its text in detail. “In addition, we need to study several more documents that are not in the case,” the defense lawyer explained to Kommersant. “We assured the investigation that we would give our answer to the charges in a week.”

After the charges of fraud were dropped, the main issue in the case was the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on abuse of power, which provides for up to ten years in prison. According to the investigation, top managers of VIM-Avia allowed it, in particular, in relation to CJSC "Commercial agency of Domodedovo airport", which was not paid more than 500 million rubles for ground maintenance of aircraft, as well as the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State ATM Corporation”. The latter was unable to receive more than 200 million rubles for air navigation support of flights of VIM-Avia airliners. It is worth noting that the guarantor for fuel loans in Domodedovo was Rashid Mursekaev. The claim against him personally for 300 million rubles was satisfied, but in fact there was nothing to recover.

The press service of Domodedovo Airport reported that according to the arbitration decision, the entire debt was collected from VIM-Avia, but then it was fully included in the register of claims of the airline’s creditors.

Lawyers for those involved in the investigation were unable to explain exactly which episodes the charges under Art. 176 and 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, explaining this by the fact that they did not familiarize themselves with the investigation documents in detail. According to a Kommersant source, the investigation believes that hundreds of millions of rubles were withdrawn from the airline under fictitious contracts. The banking episode is obviously connected with PJSC "Bank Zenit"(62.66% belongs to PJSC Tatneft), which provided VIM-Avia with a credit line of 3.6 billion rubles until December 31, 2020. The funds were allocated against the collateral of expensive aircraft engines, auxiliary power units and securities of various companies. In 2017, VIM-Avia stopped servicing the loan without paying interest on it in the amount of 32 million rubles. In addition, in violation of the agreement with Zenit, the airline received another loan - from Absolut Bank for 581 million rubles. Absolut, by the way, is still trying to get its money back through arbitration.

In turn, Zenit assigned the right to claim the loan to LLC RNGO, which also went to court. During an inspection of the collateral, it turned out that six out of ten aircraft engines and one auxiliary unit (valued at almost 1 billion rubles) were missing, and the securities did not really correspond to the value at which they were taken as collateral. The arbitration court recovered 3 billion rubles from the suspicious borrower in favor of the RNGO, allowing the remaining engines to be put up for auction and the bills to be sold.

It is expected that in a couple of weeks the persons involved in the investigation can begin to familiarize themselves with its materials, after which the indictment will be sent for approval to the Prosecutor General's Office.

 

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