VIM-Avia leaders land in court

the general director and chief accountant of the airline are accused of fraud with loans and the withdrawal of currency.
14.11.2019
Kommersant
Origin source
The Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) completed the criminal case of the former general director of VIM-Avia Airlines LLC Alexander Kochnev and chief accountant Ekaterina Panteleeva. According to investigators, both were participants in a criminal scheme created by the airline’s owner Rashid Mursekaev, as a result of which hundreds of millions of rubles were caused to the airline’s partners.

The Investigative Committee of Russia has charged the final version to the former general director of VIM-Avia airline bankrupt at the end of 2017, Alexander Kochnev, and chief accountant Ekaterina Panteleeva. Depending on the role of each, they are charged with part 2 of article 201 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power), part 4 of article 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (credit fraud) and clause “a”, clause “b”, part 3 of article 193.1 of the Criminal Code (currency transactions to transfer funds in foreign currency to non-residents' accounts using forged documents).

According to the Investigative Committee, the investigation established that, in fact, the VIM-Avia company, under the leadership of Rashid Mursekaev, was a “fraudulent pyramid scheme”.

Its leaders, the criminal case states, “carefully concealed losses, indicating deliberately false profit information in the documents of financial statements. This made it possible to obtain loans from banks, as well as to avoid restrictions on the airline’s activities by the Federal Air Transport Agency. ” In particular, they say in the Investigative Committee, the members of the criminal group submitted inaccurate accounting reports to the Absolut Bank JSCB (PJSC), due to which they received a loan of 1.6 billion rubles from this financial organization. According to the investigation, he was not returned. According to the materials of the case, part of this amount - more than $ 9 million, under fictitious contracts for the sale of aircraft was transferred to the accounts of an affiliate with Mr. Mursekaev, registered in Ireland.

In such circumstances, knowing the distress of the company, Mursekaev and his wife received more than 162 million rubles from May 2015 to September 2017. in the form of wages and dividends, ”stressed the SKR.“ Moreover, the company's losses by September of that year amounted to more than 2.5 billion rubles. ”

According to the case file, in 2015-2017, the defendants, having abused their powers, purchased aviation fuel at overpriced cost from nominal companies controlled by Mr. Mursekaev. As a result, according to the TFR, the airline’s counterparties suffered damage worth more than 890 million rubles. 13 legal entities were recognized as victims of the case. VIM-Avia itself suffered damage worth more than 117 million rubles.

During the investigation, a number of economic examinations were carried out, the results of which, according to the Investigative Committee, "fully confirm the involvement of the accused in the acts incriminated to them." The indictment has already been approved by the prosecutor's office, and the case was sent to the court for consideration on the merits.

The criminal case against Rashid Mursekaev and the former first deputy general director - financial director Alevtina Kalashnikova is in a separate proceeding, since both went abroad. They were charged in absentia and a preventive measure in the form of detention was taken. The defendants are put on the international wanted list. It was not possible to find data on them in the Interpol database.

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