MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Founder of the Baring Vostok private equity firm Michael Calvey said in his final statement in court that all the evidence proved his innocence, a TASS correspondent reported from Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court.
"Your honor, you heard a lot of testimonies and statements from both sides over this long trial, and all of them undoubtedly prove that both my colleagues and I acted solely within the law and in the interests of the bank and its depositors. The evidence, which was presented to the court by the prosecution and assessed during the trial, not only failed to establish my guilt, but simply proved my innocence and the innocence of my colleagues," he emphasized.
According to Calvey, all the evidence collected during the court trial, including emails, documents and witness statements, proves that the loans provided to the First Collection Bureau company in December 2015 had been presented and structured by the bank’s top officials.
"A 100-percent consent was received from the board members and the entire team of the bank’s managers to grant their request, so in any case, there was no need for instructions. My role was only to vote for it at a meeting of the bank’s board of directors, like all other directors did," Calvey said, addressing the court.
Baring Vostok case
On February 13, 2019, Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a criminal case into the embezzlement of 2.5 bln rubles ($33.5 mln) from the Vostochny Bank following a complaint by Sherzod Yusupov, a minority shareholder in Vostochny Bank, filed with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Michael Calvey is the key defendant in the case.
According to investigators, Calvey put together a scheme where 2.5 bln rubles lent to the First Collection Bureau company in 2015 was offset by an assignment of shares. Investigators said that Calvey had misled the bank’s board of directors about the price of the First Collection Bureau’s shares, which was estimated as equal to the debt, while the actual price was 600,000 rubles ($8,000), which led to the embezzlement of the funds. Calvey pled not guilty, saying that his case was actually an attempt by the bank’s minority shareholders to resolve a corporate dispute.