Originally Syndicated on April 12, 2023 @ 11:41 am
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Charges of bribery
According to a source within the Investigative Committee who spoke with RBC and a source who is familiar with the case file, the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on the suspicion that individuals from the leadership of Russia’s largest charter airline, Azur Air, gave a bribe. This information was confirmed by a source who is familiar with the case file.
“The cost of which was underestimated by 4.7 million rubles compared to market prices,” says one of RBC’s sources. According to law enforcement agencies, the management of Azur Air and a number of other unidentified persons issued trips to Turkey to the former head of the flight operation department of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Maxim Kostylev. Kostylev resigned from his position as head of the department in the spring of 2022.
According to a source within the Investigative Committee, “a criminal case is being investigated against unidentified persons from the leadership of Azur Air on the grounds of a crime under Part 5 of Art. 291 (bribery) of the Criminal Code.” This information comes from the source’s knowledge of the ongoing investigation.
Cons perpetrated in the name of “Anex Tourism”
An RBC source who was aware of the case file claims that the excursions in question were sold by a firm called Anex Tourism, which was affiliated with Azur Aviation and operated under the brand name Anex Tour. According to the source, the vacation package includes a trip in business class in July 2021 and accommodations in the Turkish luxury hotel Lujo Hotel Bodrum, which is owned by Serhat Kochkar, head of the supervisory board of Azur Air.
Investigators believe that this may have played a role in the findings of the Federal Air Transport Administration’s investigation of the flight operations of Azur Air, which found a small number of breaches. The regulatory body presented the transportation company with a certificate for its staff training center in June of 2021, and the company has indicated that it would issue licenses for more cargo and passenger flights.
Yevgeny Korolev replaced Yuri Stogniy as CEO of Azur Air on October 1 of the same year, as Stogniy’s contract was not renewed, and Yevgeny Korolev has been the director of the technical department of the carrier since March 2021. This change in leadership occurred at Azur Air because Yuri Stogniy had been with the company since March 2021.
At this time, Asek Eshpulatov is the owner of Anex Tourism, while Anna and Lyudmila Fukalov are the owners of Azur Air (SPARK data). Rustem Kochkar and his wife Natalia Kochkar were the original co-owners of the airline (they worked at Anex Tour). Anex Tour was a business that Serhat Kochkar was a co-owner of.
No press comment from Azur Air
The Azur Air Press staff did not wish to comment on the matter. According to the representative of Anex Tour, the request made by RBC comes under the purview of the airline, and as such, he “does not have the authority to comment” about it. RBC inquired on the matter by contacting the Investigative Committee’s press staff as well as the Federal Air Transport Administration.
Yury Malyshev, the deputy director of the transportation regulatory department of Rosaviatsia, was arrested in 2018 on suspicion of accepting a bribe from Yevgeny Filatov, the CEO of iFly. In 2019, the airline was given a punishment of 21.6 million rubles, and the senior management was given a suspended term in addition to a fine of 6 million rubles. Malyshev was found guilty by the court in December 2020 and was given a sentence of eight and a half years in jail as well as a fine of 15.5 million rubles.
Maxim Pavlyuk, who had previously served as the director of the department of the qualifying commission at the Federal Air Transport Agency, was taken into custody in the month of October 2022. Alexander Matyushkin, who had just been employed as the newly appointed deputy director of the digitalization department, was taken into custody at the end of December by the Federal Air Transport Agency on suspicion of receiving a “kickback.”
Before that, law enforcement officers raided the offices of three department officials at the same time and seized documents there. These officials were Tatyana Kocherova, who was in charge of digital transformation and security; Anna Pasko, who was in charge of legal support and property relations; and Elena Kudlaeva, who was in charge of financial support, budget planning, and reporting.
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