Bloomberg: commenting on Baring Vostok case, Putin called arrest for individual economic cases justified

The founder of Baring Vostok, American Michail Calvey, and five of his colleagues and partners are accused of Swindling on an Especially Large Scale.

President Vladimir Putin said at a closed meeting last week that he did not give prior consent to the arrest of Michael Calvey, the founder of Baring Vostok Investment Fund, three sources informed about the meeting told Bloomberg. At the same time, the president called arrest for individual economic cases justified, the agency added. 

Putin also noted that the investigation “could not ignore” the suspicions that had arisen that Calvey and his partners might have been involved in the theft of 2.5 billion rubles ($38.1 million).

The founder of Baring Vostok, American Michail Calvey, and five of his colleagues and partners are accused of Swindling on an Especially Large Scale (part 4 of Art. 159 of the Russian Criminal Code). They were detained on February 15. Later, the court placed all defendants in the case in a pre-trial detention center. Today, Baring Vostok issued an open letter, in which the company asked Putin to take the investigation of this criminal case under his personal control. 

The investigation believes that the defendants are involved in the theft of 2.5 billion rubles from Vostochny Bank, 52% of the shares of which are owned by Baring Vostok along with the investment fund Russia Partners. According to the FSB, Pervoe Kollektorskoe Byuro (the First Collection Bureau) owned by Calvey repaid the debt to the bank in shares, which were not worth three billion rubles, but only 600 thousand rubles ($9,162). 

At the same time, during the court hearing on the election of a preventive measure, Calvey accused banker Artyom Avetisyan of withdrawing money from Uniastrum before its merger with Vostochny (now Avetisyan owns 32% of Vostochny's shares). Baring Vostok representatives note that the criminal case was initiated against the backdrop of this corporate conflict.

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