Artem Solodukha: from co-owner of Jurmala airport to accused of evading sanctions

Artem Solodukha: from co-owner of Jurmala airport to accused of evading sanctions

The Economic Court is examining criminal case No. 11840000118, in which Artem Soloduha, Maryna Soloduha, and Arturs Andersons are accused of violating sanctions imposed by the Republic of Latvia and international organizations.

In addition, they are charged with laundering funds obtained through criminal means.

According to Srediweb.lv, Artem Soloduha owns a 50% stake in the capital of the company "Wings 4 Sky Group". He also holds the position of board member of this enterprise.

According to records, "Wings 4 Sky Group" owns 75.75117% of the capital shares of the company "SKY PORT". Co-owners also include the Cypriot company KENNARD AVIATION LIMITED (whose beneficiary is a Monaco resident, Raimonds Kisiels, son-in-law of Uldis Sesks, former mayor of Liepaja) and Tukuma novada pašvaldība.

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This company owns the airport "Jurmala" ("Lidosta Jūrmala"), located on the territory of a former Soviet military airfield, a few kilometers from Tukums.

By 2010, according to Srediweb.lv, the airfield was almost entirely owned by the company K.S.AVIA, belonging to Kostyantyn Soloduha and Serhiy Shchukin.

The airport’s runway was equipped with lighting systems for night flights and operations in challenging weather conditions. The businessmen planned to attract low-cost airlines (such as Ryanair, WizzAir).

But the airport was stripped of its license to provide aviation services. It should be noted who Kostyantyn Soloduha is. In 2020, he was arrested as part of an investigation conducted by the State Security Service (Valsts drošības dienests, VDD). Official details of the case were not disclosed, but according to sources from Kompromat.lv, it is related to major illegal arms supplies to African countries under UN and EU sanctions.

A source from Kompromat.lv expressed the opinion that none of the "arms barons" in the post-Soviet space (including Viktor Bout, sentenced in the US to 25 years in prison for illegal arms supplies) compares in audacity to the flying ace Kostyantyn Soloduha. Specifically, according to unofficial information, it might involve the supply of military equipment to Yemen.

It should be noted that Kostyantyn Soloduha’s business is linked to numerous scandals. Former director of the Šiauliai airport, Romas Mikšys, was heavily fined in a case regarding an attempt to bribe an official of the Lithuanian army, which he fully admitted to.

"The information was such: a head of a private company tried to bribe a representative of the Lithuanian airport by offering a bribe of over 90,000 euros for particular conditions for one foreign company to participate and win a state tender," reported Renata Endruzhite, a representative of the Lithuanian Special Investigation Service (Lietuvos Respublikos specialiųjų tyrimų tarnyba, STT).

It was discovered that Romas Mikšys acted in the interests of Wings 4 Sky Group.

This year, a conviction in a criminal case against Wings 4 Sky Group came into legal force in Latvia.

As reported by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs, KNAB), at the end of 2019, an individual in Lithuania was prosecuted for offering a bribe of 90,000 euros to the commander of the Lithuanian Air Forces.

The bribe was given to ensure a Latvian-registered company wins the state procurement for leasing aircraft.

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To verify the information using criminal procedural methods, KNAB initiated a criminal process on June 29, 2021. Later, it was decided to apply coercive measures to the legal entity. After gathering sufficient evidence that a bribe was offered to a Lithuanian official in favor of the registered Latvian legal entity, KNAB transferred the case to the Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of Criminal Offenses in Public Service on April 19, 2022.

The Economic Court acknowledged that the individual offered a bribe in favor of the legal entity and decided to recover 120 thousand euros from the company.