Rashid Mursekaev's condition. Russian airline "VIM-Avia". Dossier. The owners of VIM-Avia left Russia
Round dance of money. How the family of the owner of VIM-Avia dumped assets before the collapse
Consulting firm Rashida Mursekaeva a month before the collapse of the airline business, his acquaintance went bankrupt Sergey Galan, and Mursekaev’s daughter sold her fuel company to Galan. Investigators in the VIM-Avia case are finding out how the co-owners brought the airline to collapse and where they could have hidden assets and money. It is possible that Rashid Mursekaev guessed about the imminent collapse of the airline business and withdrew assets ahead of time, including through relatives and proxies. According to one version, the money went to Luxembourg - there Mursekaev’s son-in-law (or his full namesake) discovered an offshore. And Mursekaev’s daughter sold her billion-dollar fuel company a few weeks before the collapse of VIM-Avia. A month earlier, the company that was created to manage the carrier’s finances went bankrupt. Both stories involved the Mursekaevs’ long-time business partner Sergei Galan.
Strong family business ties
Most of Rashid Mursekaev's companies are family-based. Even in VIM-Avia the main owner is not he, but his wife Svetlana. His two sisters, for example, owned real estate companies.
Rashid Mursekaev
And in 2014, the businessman’s daughter also went into business. Anna Ambrosova(Mursekaeva) founded the fuel company FT International while still in her fourth year at MGIMO. Just two years after its creation, FT International was earning 2.5 billion a year. The second co-owner was Anna’s husband, a 25-year-old graduate of the Higher School of Economics Nikolai Ambrosov. He is the son of Mursekaev’s long-time business partner, Evgenia Ambrosova. Together, at the beginning of the 2000s, they managed a large maritime hub in Russia - the Far Eastern Shipping Company. Presumably, the daughter’s fuel company also made money from the sale of kerosene at the Bratsk airport in Irkutsk region. This airport has long been owned by the Mursekaev family - first through the Invest Holding office, and now through VIM-Avia.
Bratsk is a small but important hub that is used transatlantic flights for refueling, and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations - for extinguishing fires in the taiga and for observation flights. VIM-Avia needed it as a transfer point for refueling and maintenance of its Chinese flights: they started their business with charter flights to China. And this airfield is halfway from Moscow to China. Experts say you can make money from it by selling fuel.
“The main income there is from refueling helicopters and planes,” says the head of the consulting company Infomost. Boris Rybak.
Despite good financial performance, in August this year Anna Ambrosova My husband and I unexpectedly decided to sell FT International. It’s interesting that by that time my father’s airline was just beginning to have problems with debts for aviation kerosene. If we assume that the Mursekaevs guessed about the imminent collapse and were preparing to flee abroad, then this step looks like getting rid of Russian assets. Especially considering the buyer's personality. It was a Moscow businessman Sergey Galan- an old family friend. The offices of his companies are even located in the same business center as the Mursekaevs.
It is interesting that a month before the buyout of FT International, Galan, through Technopolis, which he controlled, bankrupted the very Mursekaev company that originally owned the Bratsk airport. We are talking about "Invest Holding". The Mursekaevs created it 10 years ago to manage assets and securities, in a word, for management and operational support of VIM-avia. According to the Kartoteka.ru database, last year Invest Holding showed a net profit of 9 million rubles. However, for some reason he didn’t have enough million to pay off certain obligations to Technopolis on time. The court materials do not say what exactly Invest Holding owes for.
Offshore latitudes
The family's foreign assets may also be of interest to investigators. At one time, the airline was 20% owned by a company from Liechtenstein called Hercules Partners Fund. This may indicate, at a minimum, that the Mursekaevs have connections there, and at maximum, that part of the profit was transferred there.
And now, thanks to the Mossack Foneska database, it has been possible to find out that a person with the same first and last name as Mursekaev’s son-in-law is connected with an offshore company in Luxembourg. This is a company called Aloma S.A. Nikolay Ambrosov- its beneficiary. And the owner of the shares is a certain structure called The Bearer. It is noteworthy that one of the meanings of this word is “aircraft engine support.” The investigation will have to find out whether the company is really controlled by Mursekaev’s son-in-law or simply by his namesake. To do this, a request can be sent to Luxembourg through Interpol.
Aloma has chosen the largest French Credit Agricole as its correspondent bank. “Correspondent bank” means that all payments were made through it, and, most likely, the company’s funds are stored there. It is located in the same building that occupies the Luxembourg branch of the bank.
Experts are divided
Some experts say that this whole path of bankruptcies, changes of owners and offshore companies could serve to withdraw assets. The Mursekaevs understood that the airline might soon go under, and were preparing the ground for withdrawal. Thus, the chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov I am sure that the owners of VIM-Avia did not plan to save the airline.
– The owners of VIM-Avia acted according to a well-known fraudulent scheme. We obtained loans against guarantees of property (liners) in four banks (according to preliminary data from the investigation, these are Sberbank, Absolut Bank, VTB and Zenit), Kirill Kabanov told Life. According to the chairman of the NAC, most likely the majority Money The Mursekaevs took the banks abroad. And this process began not now, but three years ago, when the owners began to obtain loans from large Russian banks, Kabanov believes.
“There are questions for the supervisory authorities who poorly controlled the movement of funds from the airline’s bank accounts,” notes the head of NAC.
However, other experts believe that the Mursekaevs did not plan to leave the country hastily. According to the expert, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Air Transport Review" Alexey Sinitsky Most likely, the reason for the collapse of VIM-Avia was a lack of working capital due to the desire to earn the maximum during the high season.
– The owners did not calculate their financial capabilities. The money that the airline received for tickets sold during the autumn-winter season was not enough to pay off creditors, Sinitsky suggests. “There could have been a cash gap, and then everything just fell apart.”
Sinitsky is sure: the Mursekaevs hoped that banks would support them with loans, and Domodedovo Airport would continue to be serviced on credit.
“Autumn is always a financially difficult time of year, and the owners of VIM-Avia could not find a way out of this situation,” the interlocutor sums up. “But it seems that they fought until the last for the survival of the company and did not plan in advance to leave Russia.
Flew away, but did not promise to return
Whether the Mursekaevs planned to leave the country or not, they did it. According to the Investigative Committee, the family flew out of Russia early last week. Presumably they flew to Turkey immediately after the pre-investigation check of the Investigative Committee was publicly announced. Türkiye usually cooperates quite willingly with Russian security forces. Therefore, Life, in a previous article about VIM-Avia, suggested that the family could move from Turkey to the UAE, Great Britain or Uzbekistan.
They still have some real estate assets in Russia. Thus, Svetlana Mursekaeva is registered in an apartment two steps from Arbat. Mursekaev's son Rashid and daughter Anna own shares in this apartment. The apartment building in Skatertny Lane was built at the beginning of the last century, and in the 2000s it was restored and turned into a club. Now there are only 12 apartments in it, each with an average of 200 square meters and a price of no less than 200 million. From Arbat, through Moscow traffic jams, the Mursekaev children traveled to their place of study. Both entered MGIMO. Moreover, Rashid was recommended for enrollment with only 65 points for the Unified State Exam in Russian.
Mursekaev Jr., unlike his sister, has not yet completed his studies. On his way to university, he sometimes breaks the rules traffic. He drives recklessly, drives in oncoming traffic and shows disrespect for other drivers. At the beginning of 2017, he did not give way to a car with special signals. This is stated in the materials of the capital's courts. True, it does not say who exactly Rashid did not give way to - the ambulance or the police. Based on the judicial database, Life counted four fines against him in the amount of 18 thousand. He did not pay them on time, which doubled the fine and left the guy with a debt burden.
In this sense, Mursekaev Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps. Mursekaev Sr.’s problems also began because of debts. This led to the collapse of his business, criminal cases, and thousands of our compatriots could not return home on time. The first wave of claims hit his company in May: the carrier delayed dozens of charter flights across the country. Then the company justified itself by the fact that allegedly not all planes managed to return from scheduled maintenance.
The second wave turned out to be the last for the company. Fuel suppliers and airports said that VIM-Avia owes them more than half a billion and they do not intend to borrow more fuel. And in August-September all departments began to make claims against VIM-avia: Rostransnadzor, Rosaviation, Rostrud, Prosecutor General's Office, Investigative Committee. Rostransnadzor blamed the company for violating the terms and conditions of aircraft maintenance. The Prosecutor General's Office and Rostrud discovered cosmic - more than 200 million - salary debts.
And the Investigative Committee actually opened a criminal case for fraud against the accountant and the general director. The investigation believes that the airline knew about the lack of funds for fuel for flights, but still sold tickets to passengers. Because of this, property damage was caused to at least 2,997 passengers. In total, at resorts abroad and in the Russian Federation due to the collapse More than 40 thousand passengers were stuck. Even when the Investigative Committee’s claims were at the pre-investigation stage, the Mursekaev family fled abroad.
On Friday, President Vladimir Putin told the deputy prime minister in charge of transport Arkady Dvorkovich that he is not coping with the situation. And to the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov generally applied disciplinary measures - signed a decree on incomplete official compliance. The President criticized the approach of the Ministry of Transport to developing criteria by which the agency evaluates the work of the carrier.
The VIM-Avia scandal highlighted the essence of capitalism
Putin scolded the ministers over the problem with VIM-Avia 09/28/2017
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The owner of VIM-Avia, who in the 1990s started the business by buying up other people's debts, got burned by his own
“I don’t think he ran away anywhere. This is the wrong person,” they say about an ambitious businessman in Tatarstan. Today, after Putin’s harsh reprimand to the curators of the aviation industry, the Russian Investigative Committee arrested the management of VIM-Avia and announced that Mursekaev and his wife had already left Russia. “BUSINESS Online” found out what path the Barnaul businessman took when he almost launched cargo transportation in the Republic of Tatarstan, and how he was remembered by his colleagues for his masterful purchase of “Ruslan” and successful escapes from bankruptcy.
Vladimir Putin had to intervene in the situation, who angrily reprimanded Maxim Sokolov and Arkady Dvorkovich for the collapse of the VIM-Avia airline. Photo: Denis Grishkin, RIA Novosti
ALMOST ALREADY TATARSTAN
Owner of the scandalous airline "VIM-Avia" Rashid Mursekaev V Last year I almost connected my business with Tatarstan. In February 2016, he re-registered the airline from Moscow to Bogatye Saby, and also opened an international cargo hub in Kazan on the Europe-China route. True, against the backdrop of current events, these plans look like fabulous promises - according to the official report of the RF Investigative Committee, recently Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana, fleeing from creditors and 40 thousand angry passengers, flew from Russia, presumably to Istanbul. And in Tatarstan, Mursekaev’s arrival is hardly welcome: tomorrow the local transport prosecutor’s office promises to talk at a press conference about wage debts and other sins of VIM-Avia. According to our information, the VIM-Avia company owes Tatneft Bank Zenit about a billion rubles. It is apparently already unrealistic to repay these debts - according to the Federal Air Transport Agency, VIM-Avia owes creditors about 7 billion rubles (the lion's share of this amount is debt to Sberbank).
Yesterday the Russian President had to intervene personally in the situation Vladimir Putin, who held a meeting with members of the government and the angrily Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Maxim Sokolova and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich for the collapse of the airline. At the same time, Sokolov received a reprimand for incomplete official compliance. “If you deal with this situation quickly and effectively, then we will think with Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev] what to do with this incomplete service compliance. If you can’t handle it, then we’ll think about it too,” Putin told him. According to some reports, the president gave his subordinates three days to completely normalize the situation. Today, as reported by the RF Investigative Committee, the general director of VIM-Avia was arrested Alexander Kochnev and chief accountant Svetlana Petrenko, they will be charged.
The Tatarstan court has already received an application for bankruptcy of the airline from Mosstroybank, which represents the deposit insurance agency (DIA). However, the DIA later announced that it would withdraw the claim, “taking into account the social tension that has arisen.”
Moscow's BUSINESS Online source on the aviation market has no doubt that Mursekaev could have left Russia. According to him, the market knows the stormy and spontaneous style of work of Rashid Maviyaevich, and his personality is characterized rather as a dark horse. Tatarstan colleagues, interestingly, generally speak favorably of him. “We've known each other for many years. The manager is interesting, intelligent, but, unfortunately, did not calculate his financial strength,” the chairman of the board of directors of Tulpar Aero Group told us, in particular. Azat Hakim. “I don’t think he ran away anywhere.” This is not the same person. He didn't do anything fraudulent. It's just a management error." “I wish only the best for this airline, especially since I personally know its leader and would like them to get out of this situation quickly,” says the general director of UVT Aero. Petr Trubaev.
BUSINESS Online tried to collect the background to the creation of the collapsed airline and outline the rise and fall of the disgraced businessman.
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, VIM-Avia owes creditors about 7 billion rubles (the lion's share of this amount is debt to Sberbank)Photo: Alexander Tarasenkov, RIA Novosti
PURCHASE OF DEBT AND “SEA – AIR”
52-year-old Mursekaev is a Barnaul businessman with at least 20 years of experience. He did not come to the aviation industry right away: as the industry portal www.aviaport.ru indicates, in the 1990s he was involved in finance and leasing. In the first half of the 1990s, according to Forbes, together with a fellow countryman from Barnaul Sergei Nedoroslev(he was associated with Sergei Chemezov) was engaged in the supply of consumer goods and food products from Asia to pay off debts for Russian weapons and aircraft. At the same time, their company Belukha was buying up shares of defense and aircraft factories. This is how, in 2000, Mursekaev took the post of a member of the board of directors at two enterprises at once - the Far Eastern Shipping Company and the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol aircraft plant, and a year later became a member of the board of directors of another aircraft plant - Ulan-Ude.
But by the beginning of the 2000s, the tandem of Nedoroslev and Mursekaev broke up. The first began to build machine tools in the interests of Rostec, and the second began to build own business. During the purchase of Inkombank's debts, Mursekaev received a stake in Morbank, an industry bank of the Ministry of Transport. After that, he consolidated 68% of the shares of the Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), and then sold his stake in FESCO to the Industrial Investors group. Sergei Generalov for $60 million.
VIM-Avia, registered in Bogatye Sabah, has an office in the village - it is a one-story building with a red sign with the name of the airlinePhoto: BUSINESS Online
In 2003, Mursekaev decided to enter the market air transport with the involvement of foreign courts. He bought 12 used Boeings from the Condor airline of the German company Lufthansa, spending, according to experts, $160 million, and began actively concluding agreements with tour operators. By the way, according to information Boris Rybak, director of the consulting company Infomost, the Tatarstan bank Zenit helped finance this transaction. The businessman started out very ambitiously: just two years later, in the first half of 2005, VIM-Avia transported 680 thousand people and took 6th place among all Russian airlines, behind only large companies like Aeroflot, Siberia and KrasAira". During this time, analysts estimated the company's annual revenue at more than $60 million.
The VIM-Avia building is located on the territory of JSC Sabinskoe MPP Housing and Communal Services and is fenced with a green fence on which hangs a barn lockPhoto: BUSINESS Online
The actual name “VIM-Avia” is an abbreviation for the original creator of the airline, Viktor Ivanovich Merkulov, from whom Mursekaev subsequently bought the business. Victor Merkulov- former deputy general director cargo air carrier "Volga-Dnepr", together with him in 2000, Mursekaev pulled off a very successful deal with the purchase and resale cargo plane“Ruslan” of a bankrupt airline, after which (and battles with competitors for the plane went on for two years) the business community began to respect him.
DUMPING, BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGY AND DEBT
By the way, from the very start of the VIM-Avia project, Mursekaev’s business style emerged - lightning-fast, often spontaneous decisions, “jerky” market capture. In 2005, when entering the charter market, VIM-Avia actively dumped, attracting clientele, and “failed” - it delayed more than half of its flights. Moreover, tour operators were informed about this in just two or three days, leading partners to sincere indignation. To get its charter program in order, the airline was forced to cancel approximately 25% of flights scheduled for the summer. After this, flights stabilized. But the purchased aircraft had to be repaid - Mursekaev opened internal regular flights. In order to fly from Moscow to Chita without obstacles, the businessman bought Chita airport, spending several million dollars on it.
After that, for ten years the company remained a prominent market player, only periodically receiving scoldings from regulators. Thus, in 2007, the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Evgeniy Bachurin called VIM-Avia one of the airlines that most often delays departures of charter flights, after which the carrier significantly increased the share of regular flights in Russia and smoothed out the flight program. In 2011, VIM-Avia received confirmation from the international IATA of inclusion in the IOSA operator register, recognizing the safety of the services provided by the airline in the domestic and international air transportation market. At the same time, VIM-Avia and Mursekaev personally founded the Bashkortostan airline; in 2015 it was sold to a businessman Sergei Galan.
The next scandal surrounding Mursekaev’s business erupted in 2014–2015, when VIM-Avia’s billions of dollars in debt to banks surfaced. At the end of 2014, VTB won in court to recover $2.8 million from the carrier and subsequently tried to initiate bankruptcy, but the bankruptcy case was dismissed twice. In 2015, Sberbank also decided to bankrupt the airline in order to repay a debt of 4.3 billion rubles, but the case was also dropped.
In 2016, VIM-Avia again began to delay both domestic and international flights; it was called to the carpet by the Federal Air Transport Agency - 100 lawsuits were filed against the company with the prosecutor’s office. To normalize the situation, the airline began to replenish air park long-haul aircraft. And now, a year later, VIM-Avia has 40 thousand passengers “abandoned” at airports around the world and 7 billion rubles in debt.
« HAS ALWAYS given the impression of being a DECENT PERSON AND A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN.”
BUSINESS Online experts discussed Mursekaev’s personality and business.
Boris Rybak- Director of the consulting company "Infomost":
— I don’t know Mursekaev very well, but he always gave the impression of a decent person and a successful businessman. Despite the fact that he was not born in Tatarstan, being a Tatar, he had certain connections in the republic. He had not only aviation projects there. Another first transaction with the purchase of 12 Boeings, which is where the history of VIM-Avia began, was helped by Zenit Bank to finance Mursekaev. I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner of the company also has relatives living in Tatarstan. The fact that detentions of the carrier’s employees began, in my opinion, indicates that Mursekaev actually left the country, although the border service has not yet confirmed this fact. As for the fate of this still successful company, everything depends on the government. If it supports the carrier and gives state guarantees, they will screw up, since VIM-Avia does not have its own working capital. But judging by the intensity of passions, I don’t see that they are trying to save them. It could all end with this carrier leaving the market following Transaero.
Azat Hakim- Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tulpar Aero Group:
— Rashid Mursekaev is a major aviation manager. And in aviation, one way or another, we all know each other. I met him in 2003. It is clear that due to the nature of my work I met him very often. We interacted, at one time I even lent him planes. We had some good partnerships. I can't say anything bad about him. In any case, everything was always decent in the relationship with me, no special problems arose. Yes, there were working issues, but they were resolved. He is an unconventional aviation manager because he made unconventional decisions. So, in particular, in 2004, he imported 12 Boeing-757 aircraft, registering them in Russia and paying customs duty. No one has done this before. Everyone else used different schemes to avoid payments. He did this first. For everyone else, this was an incomprehensible and risky step. But, in principle, he turned out to be right. I only learned that the airline had come to Tatarstan from the media.
I don't think he ran away anywhere. This is not the same person. He didn't do anything fraudulent. This is just a management error - I didn’t calculate my strength. The last time I spoke with him was about six months ago, before the airline’s problems began. He had questions about the interiors. We discussed how we could help them with interior design matters. But then somehow we never met again. There is no fraud here, in my opinion. It's just a management error. Well, Transaero got into trouble due to the jump in the dollar exchange rate, UTair had a difficult financial situation. This is business, it is always a risk. He simply didn't appreciate the risks.
Andrey Kramarenko— Research Fellow at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, expert on the air transportation market:
— The fate of VIM-Avia has already been decided. The company had large accounts receivable. But this is only one of the factors in the problem that has arisen. The main reason for bankruptcy is the excess of expenses over income. This suggests that the airline did not have the best management. And the peculiarities of the Russian market also contribute to the bankruptcy of airlines. Although at one time Transaero had much worse indicators. However, the company operated for a long time, since the Pleshakovs had influential patrons. Mursekaev cannot boast of this. In Tatarstan, too, apparently, today he does not have serious connections or close friendly relations, otherwise Zenit Bank would have given him a loan. As for the detentions of representatives of the company's management, in my opinion, the investigative committee simply decided to earn points from the scandalous story, in which even the president intervened. I don’t think this will end in real landings. But the management will still have to take the rap for the head of the company, who (while the bankruptcy process is ongoing) quickly moved on, as the real prospect of spending several months in a pre-trial detention center loomed.
The Investigative Committee reported that the co-owners of the airline fled abroad. According to media reports, they flew to Istanbul. Why exactly there and how did Mursekaev manage to do it?
The owners of VIM-Avia, Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev, will be put on the wanted list. The investigation intends to demand arrest in absentia for them, a source told Interfax.
On the evening of Monday, September 25, 52-year-old Rashid Mursekaev gave an interview to television cameras in Moscow. On the same day, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case for fraud. And on Tuesday, September 26, according to Interfax sources, Mursekaev flew to Istanbul either from Sheremetyevo or from Vnukovo. But why to Turkey, and not to London or Monaco? Lawyer Alexander Treshchev, who previously encountered Mursekaev in trials, presented his version to Business FM:
Alexander Treshchev
advocate
“In some fantastic way he managed to Turkish Airlines leave the territory of the Russian Federation, where a criminal case has already been initiated against an unidentified group of people. Why to Turkey? Because Mursekaev has real estate in United Arab Emirates, in Uzbekistan and in a number of other countries. But I think that he finally decided to get to AE, counting on the fact that because of the special relationship, because of the leasing of aircraft from them, the Arabs would not extradite him at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office or the Investigative Committee.”
Mursekaev has an apartment in Moscow not far from Arbat, on Skatertny Lane, on the same site as Primakov’s apartment. According to media reports, Leonid Fedun and Vagit Alekperov live in the same lane. Lenta.ru's source even reported that Mursekaev did not leave anywhere, that he was supposedly in Kazan, where the carrier's head office is located. The Mursekaevs were seen in Kazan, but in the summer, says the editor of the Kazan online publication “ Real time» Dmitry Semyagin:
Dmitry Semyagin
editor of the Kazan online publication Realnoe Vremya
“No one knows anything about his stay in Kazan today, yesterday or the day before yesterday. Moreover, the company’s head office is not in Kazan. And in general, there is no company office. There is formally a head office in Bogaty Saby, in the regional center of the Sabinsky district, but this is, in fact, a formal office, they rent a few square meters there, and nothing more.”
In the 1990s, Mursekaev was involved in the supply of food and consumer goods from Asia to pay off debts for Russian weapons and aircraft, together with Sergei Nedoroslev, now the president of the KASKOL group. Then Mursekaev headed Morbank, an industry bank of the Ministry of Transport. Later, Mursekaev’s company gained control over the Far Eastern Shipping Company; in 2002, the businessman bought part of VIM-Avia, and subsequently received full control over the airline. He purchased 12 used Boeings, and VIM-Avia became a major charter operator. Forbes’ interlocutors gave Mursekaev the following description: “An excellent professional speculator who has a keen sense of when to do what things and when not to do them.” Banker Alexander Lebedev, former owner of Red Wings airline, commented on Mursekaev’s sudden departure:
Alexander Lebedev
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Reserve Corporation
“His reaction is understandable, the arrests began there, and he probably doesn’t really want to... He wants to survive this difficult period abroad. But what will be wanted, and the fact that, most likely, in connection with the intervention of the president, this pyramidal structure will be very carefully investigated, and it is, of course, a pyramidal... It is clear that much more tickets were sold than the company could distribute . It is clear that the company saved on leasing payments, on wages and kerosene, and took out loans. And part of this money - I mean cash flow - is in the owner’s pocket. I don’t believe that he could safely board the plane on the 26th. Someone warned. Maybe some Colonel Zakharchenko from prison continues to warn his wards. I'm being ironic. Colonels Zakharchenko are also at large. Nobody canceled the roofs.”
By the way, the main owner of VIM-Avia is not Rashid Mursekaev, but his wife Svetlana. True, people who had business contacts with Mursekaev say that they have never seen his wife; perhaps she is a housewife. So far, VIM-Avia CEO Alexander Kochnev and chief accountant Ekaterina Panteleeva have been detained in connection with the theft case. Both do not admit guilt and claim that there were no thefts.
The co-owner of the VIM-Avia airline, Rashid Mursekaev, was suspected of fleeing Russia during the scandal and the virtual ruin of the carrier. The entrepreneur did not show up for a special meeting regarding the financial condition of VIM-Avia, and then stopped answering phone calls. What is known about the disappearance of Mursekaev, what the situation threatens the management of VIM-Avia and how an entrepreneur once founded one of best airlines in Russia - in the material “360”.
Where is Mursekaev?
Interfax was the first to report Rashid Mursekaev's possible escape from Russia, citing an informed source. The agency's interlocutor said that the entrepreneur left the country on Tuesday, flying from the capital's Sheremetyevo airport. Another source of the publication clarified that Rashid Mursekaev allegedly flew to Turkish Istanbul.
RBC's unnamed interlocutor added that his wife Svetlana, who is also a co-owner of the VIM-Avia airline, left Russia together with the entrepreneur.
The head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, speaking in the State Duma, did not rule out the possibility of Mursekaev leaving the country. He told deputies that the co-owner of VIM-Avia did not come to a special meeting regarding his obligation to pay the carrier’s expenses in the amount of 50 million rubles. Mursekaev did not transfer the money, and then stopped answering phone calls. The VIM-Avia secretariat also did not pick up the phone.
According to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Mursekaev previously spoke of his readiness to “sell his business for a ruble and part ways.” Allegedly, the businessman is tired of aviation and he will say goodbye to the business without regrets.
“I assume that he is no longer on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Neradko concluded.
What threatens the management of VIM-Avia?
Associate Professor of the Department of Civil and Business Law of the Russian Legal Academy of the Ministry of Justice Andrei Nekrasov, at the request of the 360 website, explained what the current situation and the initiation of a criminal case threaten Rashid Mursekaev himself and the management of the VIM-Avia company. According to the expert, the co-owner of the airline can be extradited from Turkey only if he is suspected of fraud. The investigation claims that the management of VIM-Avia sold tickets for flights, knowing that they would not be able to carry them out. The company's employees knew that there would not be enough money to pay for airport services and fuel, flights would be delayed, and many would never take off. This is what law enforcement officials classify as fraud.
Whether the co-owner of the company will be personally liable is an open question. Mursekaev could not have done anything personally, because he has top management, and it was his representatives who sold the ill-fated tickets. Investigators will have to prove that the entrepreneur had anything to do with this. The fact that Mursekaev can be called the richest person in the company does not mean that charges will be filed in the future. So far, it is quite difficult for law enforcement to limit him in anything. As long as Mursekaev's name does not appear in the criminal case, he can fly anywhere.
It is unlikely that the entrepreneur will be arrested in the near future. To do this, Mursekaev must have the official status of a suspect or accused. These things rarely happen quickly.
These are quite serious procedural matters. This can be done quickly, but I don’t think that this will be the case in such a serious and large issue. Seven billion rubles [of debt] is a lot of money. You must understand that an especially large amount, according to the Criminal Code, is one to one and a half million rubles, and this is an astronomical amount. I don’t think that everything will turn around so quickly and this person will receive some kind of status in the criminal case that has just been opened. If this happens, the investigation may make a motion to seize his assets. This is, of course, possible. But it doesn't happen with the snap of a finger.
Andrey Nekrasov.
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the main creditor of VIM-Avia is Zenit Bank. According to the expert, employees of the credit institution will try in any way to return the money allocated to the carrier. The main assets of airlines are aircraft, which can be leased or purchased. If VIM-Avia uses them on a lease basis, then creditors have nothing to count on. Otherwise, Zenit may file an application to declare the airline bankrupt. Then external management will appear at VIM-Avia, which will try to “squeeze” the maximum out of the carrier, which is on the verge of ruin.
This can be done by the main creditor or a pool of creditors, that is, those who want their money back. If the accounts are empty, we urgently need to look for property and block the management of this company, introduce professional management so that this property does not “fly away” if there is anything left. This is quite serious, aggressive work.
Andrey Nekrasov.
How did Mursekaev found the company?
Back in 2002, Rashid Mursekaev, who had experience in international supplies and purchasing shares in aviation and defense factories, decided to found his own company. Then the ex-deputy general director of the Volga-Dnepr cargo air carrier Viktor Merkulov, who had previously collaborated with Mursekaev, registered the VIM-Avia company (Viktor Ivanovich Merkulov), which was supposed to deal with charter flights. Rashid Mursekaev became interested in the project, and soon he bought 75% of the company from Merkulov.
After this, Mursekaev purchased 12 used Boeing airliners for 160 million rubles, entered into a number of agreements with tour operators and began to force other air carriers out of the market. A year and a half later, VIM-Avia became the largest charter operator in Russia. At that time, 20% used the company’s services Russian tourists, flying abroad.
In the first half of 2005 alone, VIM-Avia ranked sixth in terms of traffic volume in the country with 680 thousand people. In six months, the company earned $60 million.
Over the next 12 years, VIM-Avia experienced ups and downs, but never found itself in a situation similar to the current one. How exactly the story of what was once one of the best airlines in Russia will end, time will tell.
Society, 29 Sep 2017, 20:47
The court sent under House arrest ex-CEO and chief accountant of VIM-Avia ... chief accountant of the airline Ekaterina Panteleeva, accused of fraud. Owners of the company Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaevs left the country. The Basmanny Court of Moscow placed under... 19:00. According to Alexander Neradko, on Monday evening Rashid Mursekaev I was in Moscow at work, the next day the employees... 777, but did not calculate the demand for transportation and suffered losses. Mursekaev admitted that “the airline has a difficult economic situation, working capital... Mursekaev Rashid Mursekaev Rashid Mursekaev and his wife left Russia. Artem Filipenok, Ilya NemchenkoSociety, 28 Sep 2017, 18:38
Left without food and sleep, the general director of VIM-Avia was unable to testify ... . RBC's source in the operational investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicated that if Mursekaev If he does not appear on September 28 for questioning, he will be announced first... in front of the fueling organizations. September 25, one of the owners of VIM-Avia Rashid Mursekaev admitted that “the airline has a difficult economic situation, working capital... important matters. At the same time it became known that the owners of VIM-Avia Rashid Mursekaev and his wife left Russia. Airline "VIM-Avia" Artem Filipenok...Business, 28 Sep 2017, 12:05
... the RBC information was confirmed by a source familiar with the investigation materials. "Because Mursekaev is abroad, then the charge in the criminal case regarding... this article is imprisonment for a term of up to ten years. Rashid Mursekaev Rashid MursekaevBusiness, 28 Sep 2017, 12:05
Co-owner of VIM-Avia will be charged in absentia with fraud ... . Flight cancelled: VIM-Avia passengers in the waiting rooms “Since Mursekaev is abroad, then the charge in the criminal case about... . “Incomplete compliance”: the VIM-Avia scandal reached Vladimir Putin Rashid Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana are abroad, this was confirmed by the Investigative... ", Svetlana Mursekaeva owns 99% of VIM-Avia, while Rashid Mursekaev only 1%. Earlier, the Investigative Committee reported on the detention of the general director of VIM...Business, 28 Sep 2017, 10:49
The owner of VIM-Avia was summoned for questioning Investigators summoned for questioning the owner of the air carrier VIM-Avia, who fled Russia. Rashida Mursekaeva. Previously, the TFR opened a case against unnamed executives of the company regarding... due to debts, the air carrier refused charter flights. Then Mursekaev admitted that “the airline has a difficult economic situation, working capital... time, according to RBC, it became known that the owners of VIM-Avia Rashid Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana left Russia. “They flew out in the morning to... ... » Rashid Rashid Mursekaev Mursekaev Rashid Mursekaev MursekaevBusiness, 27 Sep 2017, 18:14
The owners of VIM-Avia left Russia ... » Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaevs left Russia. Owners of VIM-Avia airline Rashid Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana, according to RBC, flew abroad. " Mursekaev with... officials, meets all the criteria, but cannot work. Rashid Mursekaev in the early 1990s, he was engaged in the supply of food products from... the Belukha company, which bought shares of defense and aviation enterprises. Subsequently Mursekaev went into independent business - consolidated 68% of the shares of the Far Eastern Shipping Company, which...
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