The Moscow City Court has agreed to consider in absentia the complaints filed by US investor Michael Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok investment fund, who received a suspended sentence for embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($30 million), a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court room on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2023) The Moscow City Court has agreed to consider in absentia the complaints filed by US investor Michael Calvey, the founder of the Baring Vostok investment fund, who received a suspended sentence for embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($30 million), a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court room on Friday.
"The court has a statement from convicted Calvey that he refused to participate in the court of appeal," the presiding judge said.
French national Philippe Delpal, another defendant in the Baring Vostok case, has also requested a hearing of his complain in absentia, saying that he had received the French translations of all complaints and protocols.
However, the court could not continue the hearing on Friday, as one of the defendants did not give written consent to the consideration of the case in his absence, limiting himself to oral communication through a lawyer.
The next hearing will be held on June 9.
Calvey, Delpal and other defendants of the Baring Vostok case received suspended sentences in August 2021. Calvey was sentenced to 5.5 years on probation and Delpal to 4.5 years. The court also removed the arrest from Calvey's property. According to the verdict, Calvey is required to regularly visit for criminal inspection after it goes into effect, but his freedom of movement has not been limited in any other way. Both Calvey and Delpal have left Russia.
Calvey and his Baring Vostok associates were arrested in 2019. Investigators accused them of persuading shareholders of Russia's Vostochny Bank to approve a deal that would see them pay off the debt to the bank with a controlling stake of another company. A probe found that the shares offered were overpriced. None of the defendant pleaded guilty.
