MOSCOW. June 6./TASS/. Michael Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity firm who is currently under house arrest on fraud charges, is still waiting for an approval from the Russian Investigative Committee to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, nevertheless, he hopes to get the okay, Calvey’s lawyer Dmitry Kletochkin, told TASS on Thursday.

"We haven’t got a response from the investigators, but we are still waiting for it," he said. The attorney specified that he had filed a request for Calvey to attend the major forum in the building of the Investigative Committee on May 30.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is taking place on June 6-8. The Kremlin said earlier that Russian authorities would like Calvey to participate in the event but the situation would hardly make it possible for him to attend. The media said last week that Calvey’s lawyers had requested Russia’s Investigative Committee allow their client to take part in the SPIEF.

Calvey case

Calvey was arrested in a 2.5-bln ruble ($38.2 mln) embezzlement case. According to the investigation, he 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).