Bankrupt tour operator 'Mouzenidis Travel' may rip off Russians for € 18 million

Federal Tourism Agency is trying to find an acceptable option for the Greek tour operator Mouzenidis Travel.  The company has ceased operations and has not renewed the insurance contract yet. This must be done before November 14 and the notification should be sent to the Russian department.

Most experts doubt that the insurance will be extended.  This means that several legal entities representing the interests of the Greek tour operator will be removed from the register.

At the same time, about 27 thousand Russians who were clients of Mouzenidis may be left without insurance payments.

Among the possible victims of the company, there are celebrities, reports TASS. For example, actor Vladimir Vdovichenkov demands to return more than 1.2 million rubles to his family, including 600 thousand as moral damage, through the court.

The problems of the company, founded in 1995 by a citizen of the USSR Boris Mouzenidis, began in the spring of 2021.  A heart complication caused by Covid-19 infection took the life of the founder of the Mouzenidis Group holding.  The procedures for the transfer of property by inheritance began, which caused the suspension of the economic activities of firms.  The dates for this were constantly postponed.

In the summer, it was reported that the tour operator would not start work until October 31.

Considering that earlier, the Mouzenidis firms annually sent to Greece up to half a million tourists from Russia, the collapse of the tour operator could lead to serious complications in cooperation between the countries.

It is known that on November 9, the Federal Tourism Agency hastily held a meeting with market participants, discussing the situation around the company.  According to the RBC, in Russia Mouzenidis is represented by four firms, one of which is located in the capital, and three more in St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg.  At the same time, the insurer for all the above mentioned firms is the ‘Tit’ company, the contract with which expires on December 31, 2021.

Experts note that the company must provide financial guarantees provided for by the legislation on tourism activities no later than 45 days before the end of the contract.  However, given that the capital company is insured for 50 million rubles, and companies in the regions - for 10 million rubles each, the amount of payments is unlikely to be able to cover Mouzenidis' debts to clients in an amount exceeding 1 billion rubles.

Litigation against the Mouzenidis Group has also been launched in the court of Thessaloniki, where the parent company was based.

It is known that until December 23, the court extended protection from creditors for the company in the hope that the company would find an opportunity to return money to tourists for services that were never provided. The former head of the firm's office, Albert Hovhannisyan, posted information about this on his Facebook page.