US investor & top partners of Baring Vostok equity fund detained in Moscow on fraud allegations

A Moscow district court has ordered the detention of the founder and senior partner of Baring Vostok private equity, as part of an ongoing inquiry into fraud allegations. Other employees were also taken into custody.

Michael Calvey, a US citizen, was detained in the Russian capital on Friday along with other Baring Vostok associates, Vagan Abgaryan, Philippe Delpal, and Ivan Zyuzin, the firm said in a statement. It said the arrests have nothing to do with the company’s activities but relate to a dispute around Russia’s Vostochny Bank.

Moscow’s Basmanny court is set to consider the next legal motion soon, according to the spokesperson Yunona Tsaryova. Investigators are reportedly seeking the arrest of all the defendants in the case.

Calvey is suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($37.5 million) from Vostochny Bank via a fraudulent scheme, according to an investigating officer, as quoted by TASS.

“The investigators established that Calvey knew about the 2.5 billion debt of the First Collection Bureau, controlled by him,” the officer told the court. “However, the suspect arranged sale of shares of the enterprise to Vostochny Express Bank, that is seen as embezzlement.”

The firm, founded by Calvey in 1994, specializes in private equity investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

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