Court orders Baring Vostok to sell 9.99% stake in Oriental Express

BLAGOVESHCHENSK, Jun 11 (PRIME) -- The Arbitration Court of the Amur Region ruled on Tuesday that fund Baring Vostok must immediately sell a 9.99% stake in Orient Express Bank to Finvision of Artyom Avetisyan, lawyer for Baring Vostok Dmitry Savochkin said.

On May 17, the court ordered Evison Holdings Limited, which represents interests of fund Baring Vostok, to sell the 9.99% stake in Orient Express Bank to Avetisyan’s Finvision Holdings. The decision did not come in force but Finvision sent a motion for immediate fulfillment of the court order.

In February, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow arrested businessman Michael Calvey, founder of Baring Vostok, and five other defendants for two months over alleged 2.5 billion ruble embezzlement from Orient Express Bank. In April, Calvey was released under house arrest, and it was prolonged until July 14.

Investigators believe that Calvey, his partner Phillippe 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.

(64.7919 rubles – U.S. $1)

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