The leaders of the two bankrupt travel agencies are arrested in absentia

The court in absentia arrested the leaders of the travel agency Labyrinth and Ideal Tour Sergey Azarskov and Mikhail Shamanov, the press service of the SKR reports . He was charged in absentia of committing a crime under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale).

Shamanov and Azarskov are put on an international wanted list. In the framework of the criminal case, the amount of damage caused to customers travel agencies and the accomplices of the accused are established.

Also, the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of St. Petersburg opened another criminal case under the same article on the fact of illegal financial transactions conducted by the Nordic Star travel company. “In addition, in other criminal cases investigated in St. Petersburg, people from among the owners and managers of travel agencies are established, from whose actions tens of thousands of customers suffered,” the message says.

On August 7, the TFR press service reported that investigative departments in Moscow and St. Petersburg opened cases following the results of inspections of tourist firms Labyrinth, Rosa Vetrov-Mir, Ideal Tour, Neva and Expo-Tour. During the checks, illegal financial transactions were identified. According to the department, the owners of travel agencies knew about large debts to partners and did not have the opportunity to pay off these debts, but continued to collect money from citizens, "selling them trips and misleading their customers regarding their intentions and real opportunities for the fulfillment of obligations to organize tourist trips." "The practical activities of the named tour operators turned into a financial pyramid," the TFR said. Inspections of other tour operators who suspend the work are being conducted.

Travel agencies of travel agencies began on August 4 this assignment of the head of the Investigative Committee of Alexander Bastrykin.

Neva, founded in 1990, announced the suspension of activity on July 16 . Marina Bakleneva, director of marketing, explained that this year, ticket sales fell by almost 25 percent. “There are orders prohibiting some categories of citizens to travel abroad,” she remarked. “Therefore, it hit the sales, tourism, a large segment of those people who have always been our customers fell off.”

"Labyrinth" informed the suspension of work on August 2. Meanwhile, more than 40 thousand people acquired vouchers in the near future. In addition, 16 thousand Labyrinth clients as of the beginning of August were abroad.

In addition, several small tour operators declared bankruptcy.