Council of business union vouches for Calvey, asks for release

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (PRIME) -- The International Council for Cooperation and Investment of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs has asked the Investigative Committee to release American investor Michael Calvey under the union’s guarantee, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham) Alexis Rodzianko told reporters on Tuesday.

“We sent a letter to (Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander) Bastrykin in which we ask to change the pre-trial restriction from criminal to civil and to release the man under our guarantee,” he said following the council’s meeting.

The whole union signed the letter. “There is a signature of the union, of the American chamber, and of other chambers,” he said.

But Alexander Kharudzhi, spokesman for business ombudsman Boris Titov, said out that the letter will be sent to Bastrykin very soon.

On February 16, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow arrested Calvey, the founder of investment company Baring Vostok, over alleged 2.5 billion ruble embezzlement from Orient Express Bank.

Investigators believe that Calvey, his partner Philippe Delpal, and several other unidentified managers convinced shareholders of Orient Express Bank to vote for a compensation agreement to receive a 59.9% in International Financial Technology Group instead of money. The shares were valued at 3 billion rubles under the deal, while their real value amounted to 600,000 rubles.

Besides Calvey and Delpal, law enforcers detained Ivan Zyuzin, director for investment at Bering Vostok, Vagan Abgaryan, partner of Baring Vostok focusing on media, real estate, and construction materials projects, Maxim Vladimirov, CEO of the First Collection Bureau, and Alexei Kordichev, chairman of the board of directors of Vyatka-Bank, now known as Norvik Bank, and former CEO of Orient Express Bank.

(66.2470 rubles – U.S. $1)

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