Titov to ask Chaika to check legitimacy of Baring Vostok arrests

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (PRIME) -- Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov will ask Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to check the legitimacy of arrest of defendants under a 2.5 billion ruble Baring Vostok embezzlement case, Titov’s representative Alexander Khurudzhi told PRIME late Tuesday.

A relevant letter to Chaika is expected to be sent on Wednesday, he said.

“This letter will be clearly focused on the excessiveness, in our opinion, of the chosen preventive measure. It is clear to everyone that Baring is purely an entrepreneurial activity. Interpreting this as a common criminal offense, in violation of the principles that have been repeatedly explained by the plenum of the Presidium of the Supreme Court, is violation of the law, to which we pay attention,” Khurudzhi said.

“We will petition that, in formulating the position of the General Prosecutor’s Office, they would pay attention and verify this fact,” he said.

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow earlier arrested Baring Vostok founder Michael Calvey and five other defendants for two months over the fraud case.

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% stake 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, the court arrested Ivan Zyuzin, director for investment at Baring 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.

The International Council for Cooperation and Investment of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs has warned that a criminal case over Orient Express Bank may lower Russia’s investment attractiveness for foreign companies that are considering entering the Russian market.

A financial market source said that the central bank plans to meet on a high level with shareholders of Orient Express Bank, including Baring Vostok, on Wednesday.

(66.2022 rubles – U.S. $1)

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