On July 10, Moscow's Meshchansky Court authorized the arrest of E.V. Filatov, according to the court's website. His last name and initials match those of the CEO of the Russian charter airline I Fly. Yevgeny Filatov was indeed arrested in connection with the criminal case. An airline employee said this, and the co-owner of I Fly, commercial director of tour operator Tez Tour, Alexander Burtin, also confirmed it, Vedomosti reports.
Filatov is accused of accepting a bribe on an especially large scale (over 1 million rubles) as part of an organized group or by prior conspiracy. The maximum penalty for such a crime is up to 15 years. "We learned about the criminal case just recently, but the exact connection remains unclear," says Burtin. "As far as we understand, it's related to some old incidents, even before Filatov's appointment as CEO of the airline (he has headed I Fly since July 2016 – Vedomosti)," Burtin continues.
When news of the criminal case broke, Filatov was on vacation, and Maxim Grinenko was appointed acting CEO, according to an I Fly manager. The decision on whether to replace the CEO will be made later, depending on how the situation develops, Burtin clarified.
I Fly operates charter flights, including for Tez Tour. Between January and May, it carried approximately 300,000 passengers (17th place in Russia). According to Rosaviatsia, its fleet includes six long-haul Airbus A330s and three medium-haul aircraft—two A319s and one Boeing 757. The airline, with 25%, is owned by Burtin, while 66% is owned by his son, Ivan Burtin, through Galaktika M LLC. Since March 2018, 9% has belonged to the Russian subsidiary of the Chinese tour operator Joy Tour Global.
The criminal case hasn't affected the airline's operations, Burtin says. Approximately 30,401,300 I Fly passengers are Tez Tour tourists, and the airline works with many tour operators, just as Tez Tour partners with many airlines, he added.
"The 'accepting a bribe' article applies to individuals in government service or working for state-owned companies. The 'commercial bribery' article applies to managers of private commercial organizations. In the absence of additional information, such a classification seems odd in this case," says Vyacheslav Losev, partner at the law firm Losev & Partners.
Source: trn-news.ru