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Defendant in Baring Vostok case Delpal transferred to house arrest — court

On Thursday the court was considering an appeal against the decision of the district court to extend Delpal’s arrest

Philippe Delpale Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

Philippe Delpale

© Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has transferred Philippe Delpal, one of the defendants in the Baring Vostok case, from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

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On Thursday the court was considering an appeal against the decision of the district court to extend Delpal’s arrest.

"Upon hearing the views of the parties, the court upheld the request of the defense of defendant Delpal to change the preventive measure for him from detention to house arrest," judge Anatoly Korolev said.

Delpal will be under house arrest until October 13. He is not allowed to communicate with other accused, witnesses and victims, as well as to use the telephone and other means of communication, except in cases of emergency calls.

Baring Vostok’s case

On February 13, Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a criminal case into the embezzlement of 2.5 bln rubles ($37.5 mln) from the Vostochny Bank. US citizen and founder of the Baring Vostok private equity firm Michael Calvey is the key defendant in the case. On February 15, law enforcement agencies arrested Calvey and five others: Vagan Abgaryan, partner at Baring Vostok, Philippe Delpal, an investment partner for the financial industry sector at Baring Vostok, Ivan Zyuzin, investment director at Baring Vostok, General Director of the First Collection Bureau Maxim Vladimirov and Advisor to the Management Board of Norvik Bank, Alexei Kordichev. They are all facing charges under part 4 article 159 of Russia’s Criminal Code (Swindling committed on a large scale by an organized group).

By now, all of them have been placed under house arrest.

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 (IFTG), to the Vostochny Bank to pay it back for a 2.5 bln-ruble debt. Before the deal, IFTG’s shares were valued at 3 bln rubles. However, the investigation is examining another estimate of 600,000 rubles (according to a Cyprus-based company’s valuation). That said, the Central Bank claimed that the price of these shares was close to zero, the investigator noted.

Calvey rejected all charges and accused Yusupov and Avetisyan of a conjuring up bogus charges caused by a "corporate conflict" in the bank.

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