A criminal case has been opened against IrAero Airlines for refusing to evacuate Russian tourists from China's Hainan Island, according to Alexander Kurennoy, spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
According to him, during An audit of the airline revealed evidence of embezzlement from more than 1,500 tourists. "This was essentially done through fraud and abuse of trust when selling tickets, even though the airline no longer had any real intention of operating these flights," said Alexander Kurennoy, according to TASS.
As a result, two criminal cases were opened against the carrier under the articles “Fraud” and “Abuse of authority resulting in grave consequences.”
Moreover, as a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office noted, the prosecutor's investigation also revealed that the airline suspended its flight program to China on December 7 because it had outstanding payments for services already rendered to transport tourists from the Pearl River Airlines, amounting to 126 million rubles.
As a reminder, on December 7, IrAero Airlines announced the cancellation of flights to and from Hainan on the Pearl River route. At the time, the company stated that the cancellation was due to the tour operator's debts.
Later, on December 12, Pearl River was removed from the tour operator registry. Shortly before, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Pearl River's legal entity, Travel Designers, whose management is suspected of abuse of power.
Source: trn-news.ru