UPDATE: Court puts RVC CEO Povalko under house arrest

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MOSCOW, Jun 5 (PRIME) -- Moscow’s Gagarinsky court on Friday put Russian Venture Company’s (RVC) CEO Alexander Povalko under house arrest until July 21 on suspicion of power abuse, the court’s press secretary Anastasia Igoshina told PRIME.

Lawyer Georgy Antonov said that Povalko may face up to 10 years of imprisonment.

The investigative authorities launched an investigation on Wednesday over deals that the company did in 2012–2016, and interrogated Povalko. The investigation may be connected to RVC’s investment in Alion Energy, according to a spokesperson for RVC.

U.S.’ Alion Energy develops and builds solar power plants in different countries of the world. RVC has itself already initiated another investigation of the deal. The investigation believes that co-founder of Bright Capital Mikhail Chuchkevich colluded with the director of RVC’s investment department and provided false information to the board of directors of RVC persuading them to invest in Alion Energy. The invested funds were later withdrawn to the accounts of other companies, inflicting a U.S. $22.7 million loss on RVC.

Alion’s defense said at court in 2019 that it received $70 million of investment from several U.S. and European venture funds. The company has been building and servicing solar power plants in Mexico, Brazil, and India since 2017, and no fund has made any claims against the company outside RVC.

Chuchkevich was arrested on charges of swindling but later released.

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