Who is the owner of vim. “Aviation Capital”: Rich Sabs have acquired their own international airline. Tatarstan met halfway

A month before the collapse of the airline business, Rashid Mursekaev’s consulting firm was bankrupt by his acquaintance Sergei 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.

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, 25-year-old graduate of the Higher School of Economics Nikolai Ambrosov. He is the son of Mursekaev’s long-time business partner, Evgeniy Ambrosov. 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 him as transhipment point to refuel and maintain their 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 Boris Rybak, head of the consulting company Infomost.

Despite good financial performance, in August of this year Anna Ambrosova and her husband 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 Moscow businessman Sergei Galan, an old acquaintance of the family. 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 Liechtenstein firm 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. Nikolai Ambrosov is its beneficiary. 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, is confident 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 cash 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 Aviatransport Review magazine Alexei 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 they publicly announced the pre-investigation check of the Investigative Committee.

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, each with an average of 200 square meters and a price of at least 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.

Life, based on the judicial database, 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, Rosaviatsiya, Rostrud, the Prosecutor General's Office, the 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, more than 40 thousand passengers were stuck at resorts abroad and in the Russian Federation due to the collapse. Even when the Investigative Committee’s claims were at the pre-investigation stage, the Mursekaev family fled abroad.

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin told Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees transport, that he was not coping with the situation. And he took disciplinary measures against the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov - he 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.

TATARSTAN WENT TO MEETING

For last 24 hours two federal publications at once - The Bell (former RBC team) and Vedomosti - reported that Tatneft agreed to help the VIM-Avia airline, which cancels and delays flights and may stop flights altogether due to debts to the airport Domodedovo. On Saturday, September 23, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that the carrier had canceled or delayed indefinitely more than a dozen flights, both domestic and international. The head of the investigative committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered a pre-investigation check on these facts. According to the Investigative Committee, the delay of 15 flights on September 22 and 23 caused damage to almost 3 thousand passengers.

The main problem, according to information leaked to the media, is the carrier’s large debt to Domodedovo for airport services and, above all, for fuel. Debts to the airport alone reach 500 million rubles. Here Tatneft met VIM-Avia halfway by providing Domodedovo with a letter of guarantee for payment. Let us remind you that the supply of aviation fuel is carried out by Tatneft’s subsidiary, Tatneftaviaservis. In addition, according to The Bell, Tatneft Bank Zenit also provided financial assistance to the airline. According to the BUSINESS Online source, Tatneft and Zenit are indeed creditors of the airline (how many of them there are is unknown). According to him, VIM-Avia’s debt to Zenit exceeds 1 billion rubles. The bank retains aircraft and real estate as collateral. Yesterday in Moscow, on the initiative of the Federal Air Transport Agency, a council of creditors of VIM-Avia was held with the participation of Tatneft, Zenit and Domodedovo, as well as a whole group of players. At the meeting, a decision was made to restructure the airline's debts, with which all creditors agreed. For how long, our interlocutor did not specify.

An interesting point: the airline is registered in Tatarstan, in the village of Bogatye Saby - it changed its registration from Moscow to Tatarstan in February of this year. The owners of VIM-Avia, according to official information from the airline, are Tatar businessman Rashid Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana. Note that, according to the Kontur.Focus database, VIM-Avia has been receiving loans from Zenit for a long time: 5% of VIM-Avia Airlines LLC is pledged to this bank according to the loan agreement dated December 8, 2016.

Bank Zenit refused to comment on the situation, and Tatneft responded very restrainedly. “Yes, we, as fuel suppliers, are one of the creditors, but no more,” the oil company’s press service said in response to our request. And the head of the press service of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Eduard Khairullin, told BUSINESS Online that “neither the government of Tatarstan nor Tatneft have anything to do with the VIM-Avia airline and its obligations.”

“THE MANAGER IS INTERESTING, INTELLIGENT, BUT HAS NOT CALCULATED HIS FINANCIAL STRENGTH”

Players of the Tatarstan aviation market say that they are very familiar with the owner of VIM-Avia. “I know Rashid Mursekaev well. He is not from Tatarstan, he is from Barnaul, he is just an ethnic Tatar. We've known each other for many years. The manager is interesting, intelligent, but, unfortunately, did not calculate his financial strength,” says Azat Hakim, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tulpar Group of Companies.

General Director of UVT Aero Petr Trubaev also speaks about his personal acquaintance with Mursekaev: “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. We wouldn’t want our colleagues to find themselves in such a situation and come out of it unworthy.”

A BUSINESS Online source in the aviation market told how VIM-Avia got to Tatarstan. According to his information, Mursekaev planned to develop freight air transport in the direction China - Europe through Kazan and, accordingly, intended to “make friends” with the Kazan airport. To establish work in Tatarstan, he, on the advice of his business partners, large businessmen, registered a company in Sabah. However, the cargo project did not take off (but the registration remained!), and the existing one began to experience difficulties. The two main areas of VIM-Avia’s work are charter transportation of tourists and rotation workers, the first of which failed. The company developed rapidly, too dynamically and ultimately “undermined its strength,” says our source.

However, VIM-Avia entered into a relationship with Zenit even before “moving” to Tatarstan - probably back in Moscow. Let us recall that Tatneft itself entered the aviation business two years ago by purchasing air gate southeast of Tatarstan - Bugulma airport. The only republican airline, UVT Aero, remaining after the bankruptcies of AK Tatarstan and Ak Bars Aero, is based in Zakamye (registered as a private individual). The latter has planned to renew its fleet; the company now owns seven Bombardiers and two helicopters. Just the other day, UVT Aero received permission for international flights from the Federal Air Transport Agency.

SHALL WE FLY?

Judging by our source, after the decision on debt restructuring, flights should resume as normal. Judging by the online display of the VIM-Avia base airport, the company is very busy in the next two days and is planning flights not only across Russia and neighboring countries, but also to Belgium and China. Today, 10 company aircraft are scheduled to fly from Domodedovo to Antalya (Turkey), Sochi, Simferopol, Blagoveshchensk, Anadyr, Taiyuan (China), Pevek, Irkutsk, Haikou (China). Another 9 planes should fly to Moscow from Antalya, Krasnodar, Yerevan (Armenia), Liege (Belgium), Dalaman (Turkey), Sochi and Simferopol. On September 26, VIM-Avia planned 15 flights to the same cities as today, and 13 more back.

So far, neither the airline itself nor the authorities have provided official information about the regularity of flights. Advisor to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Sergei Izvolsky, in an interview with BUSINESS Online, said that the official position of the department on the situation with VIM-Avia will be published on the official website of the Federal Air Transport Agency during the day. He refused to even approximate the state of affairs, since, in his words, the matter concerns “the fate of thousands of passengers who bought tickets.”

VIM-Avia Public Relations Director Elena Fedorova told us that the airline is now participating in a meeting of the operational headquarters of the Federal Air Transport Agency, and has also held a number of consultations with government bodies that control the aviation industry. “Negotiations are underway with the airline’s partners. IN at the moment preliminary agreements have been reached, which should lead to a correction of the situation. A plan to resolve the situation is being developed jointly with financial institutions that have decided to support the airline. The airline apologizes to passengers for the inconvenience caused,” Fedorova said in response to an official request from our editors.

“THEY HAVE VERY STRONG MANAGEMENT AND THEY HAVE ALWAYS MANAGED TO BE EFFECTIVE”

BUSINESS Online experts spoke about the likely fate of VIM-Avia and what passengers of the airline should expect.

Azat Hakim - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tulpar Air Group of Companies:

— The situation is really critical, because the airline has had these debts for several years now and they are constantly negotiating and reaching agreements. But, apparently, the debts have become so critical that the airport will no longer make any concessions. It is clear that this did not just arise out of nowhere. The airline has assembled a lot of equipment, especially the expensive Boeing 777. There are very large leasing payments that need to be paid on time, and it is clear that the airline simply cannot afford such costs financially. It is normal for an airline to borrow fuel, but in this case this already indicates that the financial situation is very difficult. If they already owe everyone, then the situation becomes critical. They owe lessors, carriers, they owe money for the flight, and the worst thing is that they also owe salaries to employees. And when employees work on debt, they work without much zeal. It is more likely that the company will be forced to stop its operations.

As for government support, there is no state participation in the company, and the Ministry of Transport is unlikely to cooperate. The fact that tickets have already been sold, passengers need to be transported - we have already gone through this. They will redistribute it to other airlines and take everyone out. In my opinion, the Ministry of Transport will make a more informed decision - to subsidize those airlines that will then fly VIM-Avia passengers.

Oleg Panteleev - editor-in-chief of AviaPort.Ru:

— It all depends on what kind of relationship there will be between the carrier and creditors, including service providers. Of course, we have had precedents where service providers have stopped servicing an airline, causing the organization to cease its operations. Unfortunately, the risks are very high, but no one is interested in stopping the airline, because even for service providers it is quite obvious that stopping the airline means that a significant part of the debt will no longer be able to be repaid. In addition, from the government’s point of view, VIM-Avia is one of the few carriers operating on regular routes in the Far East. The airline flew to Magadan, flew to Blagoveshchensk. From this point of view, of course, it would be important for the carrier to remain, because it increases transport accessibility Far Eastern regions. I repeat once again that a lot depends on the creditors, and if the government does support the company and provides financial guarantees, this will enable the airline to continue flying. In the long term, nothing positive is visible yet.

When traveling on a trip, it makes sense for passengers to take a supply of cash with them in order to pay for food, overnight accommodation or transport home. You need to constantly monitor the readings on the board, where the flight arrival and departure parameters are indicated, and if possible, contact airline representatives. But it is worth noting that we see, following the example of previous problematic situations, when one or another company was on the verge of stopping or even stopped its flights, the government found an opportunity to redistribute passengers to other airlines. Thus, in a number of cases, their problems were minimized. If a passenger's ticket provides for a refund, then in the event of a long delay it makes sense to make a refund, and with a high degree of probability the money will be returned quickly.

Roman Gusarov is the editor-in-chief of the industry portal Avia.ru:

— The airline always has a chance of survival, but it all depends on the goodwill and capabilities of those to whom the company turns for help. There are both negative and positive outcomes of such a situation. A striking negative example is the TransAero company, which accumulated so much debt that its support did not make any sense, even with support it would remain unprofitable and accumulate debts. At the same time, UTair airline experienced similar difficulties. And here the situation was completely different. The shareholders found an opportunity to support the airline with their resources by negotiating with creditors, restructuring debts, optimizing the company structure, and reducing the aircraft fleet by approximately 40 percent. They gave up their position in the market, made a number of sacrifices, but brought the airline into a positive profitability zone. Yes, it has become smaller in volume, but it has stopped making losses, and now it is operating quite successfully.

As for VIM-Avia, they have very competent management, they have always managed to be effective. They were not inclined towards any adventures, did not take particular risks, but always maintained their financial viability quite well. And the company’s reputation is good, it has never had serious failures until this summer, there have been no problems with creditors. I think we need to support her. Nobody is interested in reducing market participants. If it goes at this rate and they leave one or two at a time major airline per year, then in a few years we may simply remain with one carrier. Monopolizing the market is of no interest to anyone - neither the state nor passengers. Therefore, an airline with a good reputation could be supported. I would estimate the chances of survival to be 50/50.

Co-owner of VIM-Avia Rashid Mursekaev and his wife Svetlana, who also has a stake in the airline, left Russia on September 26; on September 25, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case for fraud against the management of VIM-Avia. According to investigators, airline officials, lacking money and contracts for the purchase of fuel for aircraft and “the ability to fulfill obligations to transport passengers,” continued to sell air tickets and received “for this, by deception, funds in the amount of over 1 million rubles.”

Mursekaev’s departure became known on the evening of September 27, Interfax sources and the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko reported this. “Mursekaev left the country on Tuesday, flew away from Sheremetyevo,” they said. “According to some reports, he flew from Vnukovo to Turkey, presumably to Istanbul.” Neradko, speaking in the State Duma, said that Mursekaev was called to a special meeting due to flight delays, but he did not show up. “He stopped answering phone calls,” Neradko said. “I assume that he is no longer on the territory of the Russian Federation.” Then RBC sources confirmed that “Mursekaev and his family left the country” by flying to Istanbul.

On the morning of September 27, Mursekaev was supposed to appear at a special meeting in the State Duma and pay the airline’s operating expenses in the amount of 50 million rubles from his personal money, said the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Neradko.

Previously, Neradko said that VIM-Avia had accumulated a huge debt for aviation fuel, because of this, on September 23, the airline had to postpone 15 of its flights indefinitely. On Monday, September 25, it delayed another 20 scheduled flights and canceled all charter flights. In addition, the remaining VIM-Avia flights had to be moved to Vnukovo because Domodedovo (the airline’s home airport) refused to refuel its planes on credit. Despite all the problems with paying for fuel, the airline continued to sell tickets for its flights.

Neradko also stated that according to the results of the last financial audit of VIM-Avia in 2016, no problems were identified with the airline. Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted harshly to his words. He demanded the development of new airline inspection criteria that would better identify financial problems. He also told Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov about a “complete official discrepancy” and criticized Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees transport, for failing to cope with the situation.

“And I want to tell the minister [Maxim Sokolov]: I am announcing to you that you are not fully qualified for official duties,” the head of state addressed the head of the Ministry of Transport.

In addition, Putin criticized the ministry’s criteria, which did not prevent the crisis surrounding the airline.

“Yesterday we talked with the Minister [of Transport] about this. Maxim Yuryevich [Sokolov] told me that this company fully met all the criteria [for carriers],” Putin said at a meeting with members of the government. “He knows my reaction, I won’t repeat [it], but I will repeat in one part: if you have developed such criteria, then what are they worth?” – the president asked the question.

Putin demanded that Sokolov “quickly and effectively” solve the problem around VIM-Avia and present proposals to strengthen regulation of the air transportation sector.

TASS, September 27

Due to delays in VIM-Avia flights, about three thousand people were injured on September 23, and due to the cancellation of all charter flights two days later, up to 80 thousand people were injured. Press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina said that this number includes VIM-Avia passengers who had already flown on vacation or were planning to go on vacation before the end of the season. Moreover, if those who were just getting ready to go on vacation can get their money back for unused trips, then for those who have already flown to it, they now need to urgently look for free planes. The Federal Tourism Agency had to create an operational headquarters for the return of Russian clients of VIM-Avia from abroad (according to Tourpomosch, there are 43 thousand of them).

Other Russian airlines have agreed to operate regular VIM-Avia flights: " Ural Airlines", i-Fly, Red Wings, Nordstar, "Icarus", " North wind" and "Yakutia". Their costs will be compensated from the federal budget; about 200 million rubles will be allocated for this.

As stated in the Ministry of Transport, the transportation of passengers on regular VIM-Avia flights will be carried out until October 15, and from October 16 it will be stopped. Passengers who have tickets for a regular flight dated from October 16, the Ministry of Transport advised to return them to the ticket office at the place of purchase.

September 28, 10:31 Business FM reports that co-owner of VIM-Avia Rashid Mursekaev is in Russia and is being interrogated by investigators. There is no confirmation of this information from other sources yet.

VIM-Avia CEO Alexander Kochnev was detained. Searches of key airline employees were also carried out at night.

Business FM

The co-owners of the company, Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev, hastily left the country, and according to the information available to the investigation, they are abroad. In this regard, measures are being taken to establish their whereabouts.

Alena Panarina, an employee of the VIM-Avia press service, told RBC that she does 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 the Liechtenstein Hercules Partners Fund Gemini-Gemini II).

On September 25, after massive delays of VIM-Avia flights and information appeared that the airline did not have the funds to pay for fuel, Mursekaev admitted that “the airline has a difficult economic situation, working capital has run out and financing has been frozen.” “Since the airline cannot operate flights without additional funding, we are exploring the possibilities of introducing external crisis management,” Mursekaev said in an interview with Rossiya 24.

On Monday, September 25, against unnamed officials of VIM-Avia under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia (fraud). They are suspected of receiving 1 million rubles. through the sale of tickets, knowing at the same time that the airline does not have money to purchase fuel and operate flights.

On the evening of September 27, an investigation against VIM-Avia officials on behalf of the head Investigative Committee Alexandra Bastrykina for the investigation of 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 operate.

In the early 1990s, Rashid Mursekaev was involved in the supply of food products from Asia to pay off 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 shares in defense and aviation enterprises. Subsequently, Mursekaev went into independent business - he consolidated 68% of the shares of the Far Eastern sea ​​shipping company, which he sold to Sergei Generalov for $60 million in 2002. In 2002, Mursekaev became a partner with the founder of VIM-Avia, Viktor Merkulov, and in 2003 he bought 75% of the air carrier from him. In 2003, as Forbes wrote, Mursekaev spent $160 million on the purchase of 12 used Boeing aircraft.

Airline "VIM-Avia"

VIM-Avia airline was founded in October 2002. The carrier operated its first flights 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 the founders of Invest Holding PJSC, which was declared bankrupt in July 2017.

Financial indicators
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. (source: GMC Rosstat).

Transportation volumes
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, in 2016 the VIM-Avia company transported 2.076 million passengers, showing an increase in this indicator by 30% and taking ninth place in the industry. The company itself associated this growth 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, behind North Wind.

Airline problems
In 2016, the company had problems implementing passenger transportation. VIM-Avia allowed massive flight delays of many hours. In July 2016, Rosaviatsia warned VIM-Avia about the possibility of limiting its air operator certificate due to massive delays and gave it a week to resolve all problems. The carrier's spokeswoman noted that the delays were due to the high season and the attempted coup in Turkey. The day after the warning was issued, the company announced that the transportation situation had stabilized and reported that the problems had been resolved thanks to the introduction of new ships.

The company ran into problems again in 2017 when dozens of flights were canceled after delays in early June. A representative of Rostransnadzor then explained the failure of the charter program by delays in aircraft repairs. The number of victims due to problems at VIM-Avia in June 2017 was estimated at approximately 30 thousand people. As a result, the airline's share of delayed flights this month was 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 more than 40% of its flights.​

In January-September 2017, the department of state aviation supervision and supervision of transport safety in the Volga Federal District conducted seven inspections of the airline, mainly at the request of citizens.

The problematic airline VIM-Avia, due to fraudulent actions of its management, about 38 thousand passengers were stuck at foreign resorts, and accounts payable exceeded 7 billion rubles, lost its management and owners.

General Director of VIM-Avia Alexander Kochnev and chief accountant Ekaterina Panteleeva were detained as part of a case of major fraud, 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 impose a preventive measure against them.

And the co-owners of VIM-Avia, Rashid and Svetlana Mursekaev, “hastily left the country, and, according to the information available to the investigation, are abroad,” the Investigative Committee noted. In this regard, measures are being taken to establish their whereabouts. “Currently, investigative actions are ongoing aimed at identifying all persons involved in the theft of funds and the circumstances of the crime,” the press service said in a statement.

The Mursekaevs will be put on the wanted list in a criminal case of fraud, law enforcement agencies told TASS. "Their whereabouts have not yet been established. They will be announced first to the federal, and then, possibly, to international search", said the agency's interlocutor. According to him, Rashid Mursekaev was supposed to appear for questioning by the investigator on Thursday; the day before he was sent a summons.

As part of compensation for damages to victims of this fraud, a security lien will be imposed on the property of the co-owners and management of the company. Soon they may be charged in absentia and issued a warrant for arrest in absentia.

The day before, TASS was reported by law enforcement agencies that investigators interrogated Alexander Kochnev as a witness in the case, and then he was summoned again for questioning. The source clarified on Thursday that the general director was detained following interrogation by the Investigative Committee. “This was a repeated interrogation, the day before he was interrogated as a witness, he appeared before the investigators himself,” the agency’s interlocutor said.

After massive delays and cancellations of VIM-Avia airline flights, a criminal case was opened 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, from September 22, airline officials, knowing that there were not enough funds to purchase fuel, including at Domodedovo Airport, without having contracts with other suppliers and, thus, not having the ability to transport passengers, continued to sell tickets for flights. As a result, management received more than 1 million rubles.

VIM-Avia admitted this week that it does not have the funds to continue operating after massive flight delays due to fuel debts of approximately 500 million rubles. The airline asked the Ministry of Transport to “consider the possibility of urgently providing state guarantees” for 800-840 million rubles to pay for fuel and organize the removal 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 planes 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. During Tuesday-Wednesday, VIM-Avia performed only about 10 flights.

Russian citizens who turned out to be "defectors", who are mainly in resorts in Turkey and Greece, are now only hoping for help from other airlines.

Greek EllinAir will return 245 VIM-Avia passengers from Heraklion to Moscow, TASS reports. In addition, it is planned to involve Yamal and Sibir airlines in the removal of passengers.

To transport 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 to deliver about 1.5 thousand passengers from Turkey.

The Federal Air Transport Agency reports that Russian airlines, which will transport passengers on regular VIM-Avia flights, about 200 million rubles will be allocated from the federal budget for 2018. However, this is only about domestic flights"VIM-Avia".

VIM-Avia itself, which the Ministry of Transport restored for half a month passenger air transportation under its own guarantees, it will also receive half a billion rubles in air transportation subsidies from the state. However, experts are confident that such injections will not save the company and this is just a delay in its inevitable end of existence.

Currently, VIM-Avia, which closes the top 10 airlines in the Russian Federation in terms of passenger traffic, has six creditor banks, and its debt is approximately 7 billion rubles.

On Thursday night it was announced that VIM-Avia aircraft would operate flights until mid-October. Passengers with scheduled flight dates from October 16 and later are recommended 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 oversees transport issues, of insufficient attention to the industry.

The owners of VIM-Avia are Svetlana and Rashid Mursekaev. According to the SPARK-Interfax system, the company's revenue in 2016 amounted to 17.17 billion rubles, while the company reported a small profit in its reporting under RAS - 89 million rubles. According to SPARK, Svetlana Mursekaeva recently pledged part of her share of VIM-Avia Airlines LLC - 5% of the authorized capital - in Zenit Bank.