NEWS FLASH
The defunct carrier FlyBosnia has been revealed to owe 1.5 million euros in VAT debt to the taxation office. The debt was amassed in just over a year and half of operations, between January 2019 and November 2020. FlyBosnia was set up by Saudi Arabia's Al Shiddi Group, which was founded in 1975 with interests in various fields, including construction, real estate, agriculture, and tourism. The Saudi conglomerate has been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006. At one point, FlyBosnia boasted two Airbus A319 aircraft in its fleet. It is unlikely the taxation office will be able to recover the debt.
This really is a prime example of a money laundering scheme.
ReplyDeleteMozda moze Šeik da im donira nešto para...
DeleteWhat was laundered? This is just incompetence from the management and a tough economic climate in Bosnia. Starting an airline in one of the poorest countries in Europe is not easy.
Delete14:03 I know an industry insider who said it was 100% a money laundering operation actually. Just look at Noel Phillips flight review of LTN-SJJ route, there was 6 people on the flight, no service at all on board and they were charging something like £250 one way. There is no other explanation for this…
DeleteSometimes I wonder if balkan people even know what money laundering is.
DeleteHow the hell can an airline be used for money laundering? No transactions are done in cash plus its one of the most regulated industries.
Much easier methods to clean dirty money: kladionice, kafići, splavovi, etc. These are cash businesses and its easy to cook the books to show non-existant income.
18:41 then how do you explain them flying with almost no people, having extortionate prices and no onboard service? They were clearly not a serious operation.
Delete^it's called a BAD BUSSINESS IDEA and investors with too much money and not enough knowledge/experience. Nothing new. The majority of new businesses don't make it very long.
DeleteThey thought that a market exists but it turns out that they flew empty planes until their money ran out. They made fools of themselves.
I suggest reading what money laundering actually is because this is not it.
What would happen if some small Bosnian business doesn't pay VAT for just one month? I hate to see these kinds of companies owning VAT money for months or even years and then the debt being written off by the state while small businesses get closed and heavily fined after not issuing one single VAT bill...
ReplyDeleteHow come in the Balkans it’s always “unlikely the taxation office will be able to recover the debt”? Laziness I say.
DeleteYou can use an airline to launder money. It's obviously very inefficient as they tend to hemorrhage cash, but depending on how much illegally obtained funds you have and wish to "clean", an airline can sometimes be a good way of doing it, accepting that a lot will be lost in the process. These people will do anything to make money "legal". A (now defunct) Romanian carrier was the product of this, but actually ended up being commercially viable for a time.
DeleteKako ono bese? Seki Seki....tako ti a..... dovescu te do prosjackog stapa
ReplyDeleteHow long does everyone give it before another start up Bosnian company is formed? Lol
ReplyDelete