Bavarian Airlines 18-year-old founder accused of fraud

Bavarian Airlines promised to bring competition, innovative solutions, and a crypto-based loyalty program to Munich Airport (MUC), Germany. Instead, founder Adem Karagöz is now accused of numerous fraud activities, including lying about his age.

According to reports by Yahoo.de, there are indications that Karagöz, the founder and Chairman of Bavarian Airlines, has been lying about his age and that he is in fact 15 years old, rather than 18. Several factors have been involved in this revelation, not least the truth being discovered by Michael Lampel, an investor who has joined Karagöz to develop the carrier based in MUC.

Furthermore, the airline’s executive owes Lampel a total of up to €160,000 ($169,688), for hotels, flights, and ‘business meals’, as well as consulting, security, and Public Relations (PR) services. When pressed about these debts, Karagöz responded that his assets had been frozen on a short notice, including CHF3 million ($3.1 million) stashed in a Swiss bank.

One capital injection into the company, registered in the United Kingdom (UK), was CHF25,000 ($26,874) in December, according to records by the Companies House in Cardiff, Wales, UK. The same records indicate that the airline’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mehmet Basyigit was removed as one of the directors on January 20, 2023, no more than a month after his appointment.

According to the report, Universal Air, an Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) airline based in Malta, was meant to provide the aircraft for Bavarian Airlines, which would have operated as a virtual airline. However, the Maltese ACMI operator is also owed more than €330,000 ($350,233).

Currently, the Bavarian Airlines original website is down, while another site, under the domain ‘flybavarian.com’, shows as being in ‘Maintenance Mode’. The latter’s footer says that the carrier “is a premium airline that offers a superior level of comfort and convenience for its passengers,” providing “luxurious amenities and attentive service to ensure a stress-free and enjoyable travel experience”.

Bavarian Airlines planned to launch flights with leased Embraer E195-E2s from Munich Airport (MUC) to several airports across Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, including London City Airport (LCY). Promising to redefine loyalty programs, the airline wanted to differentiate itself with a cryptocurrency-based loyalty program, replacing travel miles, which it deemed to be ‘worthless’.

Tickets had been planned to go on sale in Q2 2023.