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Calvey’s defense appeals against Moscow court’s decision to extend house arrest

On April 12, the Basmanny District Court extended Calvey’s house arrest until July 14

Michael Calvey Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

Michael Calvey

© Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The lawyers of Michael Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity firm, have appealed against a court decision to extend his house arrest, Spokesperson for Moscow’s Basmanny District Court Yunona Tsareva told TASS on Tuesday.

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Kremlin: Putin has nothing to do with mitigation of preventive measure for Calvey

"The Basmanny District Court has received an appeal in Michael Calvey’s case," she said, adding that no date had been set for an appeal hearing.

On April 12, the Basmanny District Court upheld the Russian Investigative Committee’s request and extended Calvey’s house arrest until July 14. The court earlier released Calvey from a detention center and placed him under house arrest. Under the court’s ruling, Calvey will stay in his apartment in downtown Moscow and will not be allowed to use any means of communication except for calling emergency services or talking to his lawyers. The court also released another defendant in the case, former head of the Vostochny Bank Alexei Kordichev, who pleaded guilty and gave testimony regarding other defendants. He was also placed under house arrest.

Calvey case

On February 16, the Basmanny District Court arrested Calvey for two months in a 2.5 bln ruble ($38.2 mln) embezzlement case. According to the investigation, Calvey and his accomplices put together a scheme, where the First Collection Bureau, under their control, waived its right to a 59.9% stake in a Luxembourg-based company called the International Financial Technology Group to the Vostochny bank in order to pay it back for a 2.5 bln ruble debt. However, law enforcement agencies say the stake was actually worth 600,000 rubles ($9,100).

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. Baring Vostok’s projects include CTC Media, Yandex, Avito, Ozon, ER-Telecom, 1C, and Novomet.

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