Airport, Corruption, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

The pre-trial investigation continues, and the the prosecutor's office has refrained from making any further comments on the case or where Flick was questioned.

Flick, who is currently in Germany after fleeing Latvia in 2011 when the Corruption Prevention Bureau began investigating possible mismanagement of the airline, previously refused to arrive for his arraignment hearing in Latvia, as well as meet with a prosecutor for questioning at the Latvian Embassy in Berlin.

As reported, the Prosecutor General's Office has decided to bring charges against Flick. The Corruption Prevention Bureau has also asked the Prosecutor General's Office to press charges against Flick.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau wants Flick held responsible for abuse of office and intentional activity resulting in serious consequences. Under the Criminal Law, if a person is convicted of such crimes, he or she may be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau says it has evidence proving that Flick, possibly in an attempt to sabotage the Cabinet of Ministers' decision regarding an increase in the airline's share capital, cancelled several airBaltic flights on September 12 and 13, 2011.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau believes that the former airBaltic official had abused his office and did not act in the interests of the company. On the contrary – he cancelled several flights for no apparent reason, which not only damaged the airline's reputation in Latvia and abroad, but also caused the airline significant losses.

airBaltic is seeking compensation of LVL 14,496 from Flick.

The Transport Ministry said that the cancellation of several flights by the board of airBaltic without informing about the reasons for this could be seen as sabotage, because the actions of airBaltic board were damaging to the airline's reputation and may reduce the value of the airline.

Flick quit airBaltic in the fall of 2011 after it became apparent that the airline's losses had reached a record-breaking amount. The airline's current CEO Martin Gauss said that airBaltic operated with a loss of LVL 77 million in 2011.

Flick, airBaltic and the state of Latvia are also involved in several parallel litigations, having filed multimillion lawsuits against each other.