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First Collection Bureau, involved in Baring Vostok’s case, appoints new general director

The current general director, Pavel Mikhel, previously headed the company from 2005 to 2016

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The First Collection Bureau has appointed a new general director Pavel Mikhel replacing Maxim Vladimirov, who was detained in case of the Baring Vostok fund, the company said in a statement.

Mikhel previously headed the company from 2005 to 2016.

The company also stressed that they consider allegations made against Vladimirov to be ungrounded.

Read also

Kremlin on Baring Vostok founder’s arrest: Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law

"The company has always conducted its activities in full compliance with the law. We consider all the charges against our general director Maxim Vladimirov to be groundless and will defend our position in court," the company said.

The company also stressed that it not controlled by Michael Calvey, founder of Baring Vostok.

"The beneficiaries of the BVCP shares (Baring Vostok Capital Partners - TASS) are the investors in the BVCP funds, the vast majority of them are representatives of the global investment community," the statement said.

Earlier on Monday, Baring Vostok also issues a statement saying that the Vostochny band and First Collection Bureau, involved in the case, are not controlled by Calvey.

Baring Vostok’s case

On February 15, founder the Baring Vostok investment fund, US citizen Michael Calvey, who is the chairman of the board of directors of Vostochny Bank, was detained on suspicion of embezzling 2.5 bln rubles ($37.5 mln).

According to the investigation, under a criminal scheme, which was organized by Calvey, the 2.5 bln rubles loan the First Collection Agency received from the Vostochniy bank in 2015, was credited with the assignment of shares.

According to the investigation, the real value of the shares was 600,000 rubles, which means that those 2.5 bln rubles were stolen.

Besides Calvey, the Basmanny Court in Moscow also detained five defendants in the case, including three employees of Baring Vostok: Ivan Zyuzin, Investment Director, Philippe Delpale, partner in the financial sector, and Vahan Abgaryan, partner, and Alexey Kordichev, Advisor to the Head of Norvik Bank and head of the First Collection Bureau Maxim Vladimirov.

Minority shareholder Sherzod Yusupov, shareholder Artyom Avetisyan and deputy chairman of the board of Vostochny Konstantin Rogov testified against Calvey in court. Calvey rejected all charges and accused Yusupov and Avetisyan of a false denunciation caused by a "corporate conflict" in the bank.

Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev said he was ready to vouch for Calvey. Business ombudsman Boris Titov called Calvey’s detention illegal, noting that the situation was a "purely corporate dispute".

About Baring Vostok

Baring Vostok is one of the largest private equity firms focusing on Russia and the CIS with $3.7 bln in capital. Since 1994, the fund has poured more than $2.4 bln of investments into 70 projects in the areas of financial services, oil and gas, telecommunications and media, and into the consumer sector. aring Vostok’s projects include CTC Media, Yandex, Avito, Ozon, ER-Telecom, 1C, and Novomet.

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