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Rostourism confirms arrest of head of Russian travel company’s Thailand office

Lanta Tur has operated for more than 12 years

MOSCOW, January 31 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Federal Tourism Agency (Rostourism) has confirmed the arrest of the director of the Thailand office of the Russian bankrupt travel company Lanta Tur Voyage.

“The head of Lanta Tur’s officein Thailand has been arrested,” Rostourism’s special envoy in Thailand Grigory Sarishvili told Itar-Tass. “There no details of the arrest, but it is quite likely that the company’s office director was arrested over the office’s debts to Thai hotels.”

Lanta Tur Voyage, one of Russia's largest travel agencies, unexpectedly suspended its operation on January 27. The company announced bankruptcy as Master Bank denied it a credit line.

Lanta Tur has operated for more than 12 years and specialized in organizing trips to Thailand, Vietnam and India.

As many as 2,385 Lanta’s tourists are still abroad. The bulk of them are in Thailand – about 900 people. About 1,000 tourists filed to leave Russian for their foreign trips.

Russia’s Investigations Committee opened a criminal case against Lanta top managers on charges of large-scale fraud.

"During a pre-investigation check, which was launched after the media reports about numerous violation of Russian citizens' rights, it was ascertained that more than 3,500 Russian citizens had been affected by illegitimate actions by Lanta Tur Voyage executives, which had caused considerable damages," said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigations Committee.

"Investigators will establish the identity of all the company executives whose actions resulted in the violation of Russian citizens' rights in and outside of the country,” he said.