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US financier Calvey’s SPIEF visit unlikely, says lawyer

Calvey regrets that his planned SPIEF visit won’t take place

Michael Calvey Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

Michael Calvey

© Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

MOSCOW, June 7./TASS/. It is unlikely that Michael Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private equity firm arrested in a major embezzlement case, will attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, his lawyer Dmitry Savochkin told TASS on Friday.

"Calvey expressed regrets that his planned SPIEF visit won’t take place in all probability due to reasons beyond his control. He hoped he would be able to attend the forum, as he had been its constant participant in the previous years," Savochkin said.

Calvey case

Michael Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok private-equity firm, was detained and then arrested on February 16 on suspicion of embezzling 2.5 bln rubles ($37.5 mln) from Vostochny Bank. Moscow’s Basmanny Court also arrested five other suspects in the case. Calvey was sent to a pre-trial detention center, but later he was placed under house arrest.

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).

On February 7, Serzod Yusupov, a minority shareholder in Vostochny Bank filed a complaint with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). In addition, Artyom Avetisyan, another Vostochny shareholder, along with the deputy chairman of the bank’s board Konstantin Rogov testified against Michael Calvey.

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