SMARTLYNX AIRLINES: Criminal Investigation Has Been Launched
A criminal investigation has been opened into suspected fraud involving the management of SIA Smartlynx Airlines and the alleged fictitious sale of the airline to a new owner. BLACKLIST.AERO learned this information from a source familiar with the investigation. The case was initiated after a complaint was filed with the police by one of the creditors. It is also possible that additional complaints have been submitted by other defrauded counterparties of Smartlynx.
The investigation is being conducted by the Economic Crimes Investigation Unit of the Latvian National Police. It is not excluded that Latvian investigators may later have to cooperate with law-enforcement authorities in Ireland and Lithuania. Their task will be to clarify how the airline accumulated debts of at least EUR 238 million, of which EUR 174.374 million is owed to companies belonging to the Avia Solutions Group ecosystem, while EUR 64 million represents debts to external companies.
BLACKLIST.AERO has also learned that Smartlynx CEO Edvinas Demenius departed for an “extended vacation” in Bali immediately after the Economic Crimes Investigation Unit expressed interest in him. BLACKLIST.AERO is attempting to obtain a comment from Demenius; however, he has blocked all attempts to contact him. We will be happy to publish his comment at any time.
Earlier, the administration of the Global Aviation Register of Defaulter Companies BLACKLIST.AERO questioned the transparency of the transaction in which the previous owner, Avia Solutions Group, sold Smartlynx Airlines to a newly formed entity — Stichting Break Point Distressed Assets Management, incorporated in the Netherlands just one month before the sale.
BLACKLIST.AERO discovered that the head of Stichting Break Point Distressed Assets Management — Cypriot lawyer Elias Heracleous — is a nominal owner or director of roughly 70 other companies, which further intensified suspicions that the transaction may have been fictitious.
The structure of Smartlynx’s debt also raises significant questions. In particular, the fact that three-quarters of the debt is owed to companies within the Avia Solutions Group. Law-enforcement authorities will need to determine whether ASG-affiliated companies (primarily ASG FINANCE DAC, which holds EUR 117,156,477.64 of the debt) artificially inflated the cost of their services to increase Smartlynx’s liabilities and thus present “paper profits” in the financial statements shown to holders of previously issued bonds.
BLACKLIST.AERO will continue to monitor developments surrounding the bankruptcy of Smartlynx Airlines and the events that follow.
After the European Business Aviation Association announced the cancellation of the EBACE 2026 exhibition, even the laziest observers said—either publicly or to themselves—“We warned you!”, addressing the organizers. At the same time, the frustration over losing the exhibition as a nostalgic symbol of business aviation mixed equally with anger that market participants had not been heard and were forced to protest with their wallets.
Two years prior to its bankruptcy, SIA SmartLynx Airlines (Latvia) issued an unsecured loan to the Lithuanian company UAB Portlite. This information follows from a letter sent to creditors by the official insolvency administrator of SIA SmartLynx Airlines, Marija Mišina. The editorial team of BLACKLIST.AERO has obtained a copy of this letter.
According to information obtained by the editorial team of the BLACKLIST.AERO registry, Harmony Jets and Harmony Aircraft Services have completely ceased operations.
BLACKLIST.AERO would like to inform industry participants about outstanding operational debts associated with aircraft T7-PSJ (Gulfstream IV-SP, MSN 1251).
