Baring Vostok founder Michael Calvey back to work
MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - U.S. businessman, founder and senior partner of Baring Vostok Michael Calvey told Interfax he is now back to work.
"I am back to work, yes," Calvey said on Monday.
Responding to a question from the agency as to whether he will continue investment activities in Russia after the trial, the businessman said he would answer this question later.
On November 12, the Russian Supreme Court released Calvey and the other people implicated in the so-called Baring Vostok case from house arrest, however, banned each of them from going out between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., from talking to other defendants, and from receiving and sending correspondence.
The Supreme Court also banned all the Baring Vostok defendants from visiting the premises of Vostochny Bank and First Collection Bureau.
Calvey said after the hearing he would go back to work soon, but at the same time he said he was looking forward to his trial, where he intended to prove his innocence.
The Baring Vostok case defendants have been charged with defrauding Vostochny Bank of 2.5 billion rubles through a non-performing loan received by the First Collection Bureau in December 2015.
There are seven defendants in the case, namely Baring Vostok founder and senior partner Calvey, finance industry partner and French citizen Philippe Delpal, partner Vagan Abgaryan, investment director Ivan Zyuzin, former First Collection Bureau CEO Maxim Vladimirov, former Vostochny Bank CEO Alexei Kordichev, and former Vostochny Bank investment director Alexander Tsakunov.
None of the defendants have pleaded guilty. According to Calvey, the case stems from a commercial conflict over control of Vostochny Bank and was initiated by Baring Vostok's opponents, bank shareholders Artyom Avetisyan and Sherzod Yusupov.
In late October, the conflicting parties, Evison Holdings controlled by Baring Vostok and Avetisyan's Finvision Holdings, said that they had settled all mutual claims in a conciliation agreement.
In addition, Vostochny Bank and the First Collection Bureau said on October 28 that they had reached an agreement under which the bank would receive 2.5 billion rubles (the sum of the damage claimed to have been caused by Calvey and his colleagues) and would drop the civil lawsuit lodged earlier within the criminal case against the defendants.
On November 9, a Vostochny Bank representative confirmed at the Supreme Court that the lender had received the money.