US, French bankers’ house arrest extended in Russia

Michael Calvey and Philippe Delpal, a pair of executives and investors who face charges of embezzlement in Russia, will remain under house arrest until May 13, a Moscow court ruled on Monday.

Calvey, from the United States, and Delpal, from France, are among a group of several executives from private equity firm Baring Vostok Capital Partners who were detained in early February 2019. All the executives have denied wrongdoing.

They said the charges against them are being used to pressure them in a business dispute over control of Vostochny Bank.

The case against Baring Vostok has rattled Russia’s business community and prompted several prominent officials and businesspeople to voice concerns about the treatment of the executives.

The court also ruled on Monday to lift a freeze on 2.5 billion roubles ($39m) worth of shares in Vostochny Bank that were frozen as part of the case, a Baring Vostok representative said.

The shares are held by Evison Holdings, a subsidiary of Baring Vostok, the representative said.

Calvey, the founder of the multibillion-dollar Baring Vostok investment fund, faces up to a decade in prison on charges that he participated in the embezzlement of $37m. Five others were charged along with him in February 2019.

Investment

Authorities believe the funds were embezzled from Vostochny Express Bank, in which Baring Vostok holds an ownership stake of more than 50 percent.

Baring Vostok describes itself as one of the largest investment firms in the former Soviet Union, with $3.7bn of committed capital. Calvey has been with the firm since its inception 25 years ago. 

The firm has stakes in a number of Russian companies such as online video services and internet and cable TV providers.

The company was also an investor in Yandex, now Russia’s biggest internet search engine, during its build-up. Yandex, also known as Russia’s Google, currently has a market capitalisation of $10.3bn.

Several high-profile figures have spoken on behalf of Calvey, with Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov saying last year that the case was a typical corporate dispute and calling Calvey’s arrest illegal.

And this is not the first time foreign investors have run afoul of the law in Russia. 

US-born Bill Browder, once the biggest foreign investor in Russia, faced a string of criminal charges in 2008 after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky revealed massive fraud by state officials.

Both were charged with tax fraud, but Magnitsky died in pre-trial detention of untreated health issues.

His case later inspired the Magnitsky Act, a bill passed in 2012 by the US Congress and intended to blacklist Russian officials implicated in human rights abuses.

Browder, meanwhile, was sentenced in absentia to nine years in jail.