UPDATE 4: CEO, Chief Accountant of VIM-Avia face criminal charges

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MOSCOW, Sep 29 (PRIME) -- Russian investigators have filed criminal charges against CEO of troubled airline VIM-Avia Alexander Kochnev and Chief Accountant Yekaterina Panteleyeva, their lawyers Mikhail Voronin and Yekaterina Pavlovskaya, respectively, told PRIME on Friday, and Panteleyeva was put under house arrest by a Moscow court.

“My defendant has been presented an official charge,” Voronin said. He said that an interrogation of Kochnev as a suspect has not started and that he cannot say whether Kochnev will plea guilty.

Pavlovskaya said: “My defendant has been presented a charge under part 4 of Article 159 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation (large-scale fraud).”

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow ordered Panteleyeva be put under house arrest until November 25.

A representative of VIM-Avia told PRIME that the company appointed Alexander Burdin, former CEO of Transaero, as its new CEO because Burdin “has a significant experience as a crisis manager.”

The airline has been delaying a large number of flights since mid-summer, and on Monday it admitted it had no money to continue its activities and it would have to stop charter flights. According to a statement by the government, VIM-Avia owes the suppliers about 1.3 billion rubles.

The Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against the airline accusing its managers of stealing money of passengers. The Prosecutor General’s Office launched an inspection of the airline.

On Thursday, the government allocated 98 million rubles to the airline to help it pay for fuel and bring home the passengers. Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot said late Thursday that it will use own money to finance the activities of VIM-Avia.

The Transport Ministry said in a statement that the airline transported more than 2,000 of its passengers on Thursday, while other Russian airlines carried 1,247 passengers of VIM-Avia and foreign air carriers transported 548 of its passengers in the day.

A VIM-Avia representative told PRIME that the carrier agreed with leasing companies to leave all planes under operative control of the airline.

Leasing companies approved an anti-crisis plan of the airline and said it is realistic. “All aircraft remain under operative control of VIM-Avia despite some delays in leasing payments,” the representative said, adding that a moratorium on control of aircraft could have led to further worsening of financial condition of the company and could have made the process irreversible.

(58.4255 rubles – U.S. $1)

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