Michael Calvey, the US founder of Moscow-based investment company Baring Vostok, is going to continue recommending to foreign investors to pour funds into Russia, as he finds the country's economy and jurisdiction attractive, despite the fact that he is currently detained in Russia, Boris Titov, Russia's business ombudsman, said on Tuesday after vising Calvey in a detention facility
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2019) Michael Calvey, the US founder of Moscow-based investment company Baring Vostok, is going to continue recommending to foreign investors to pour funds into Russia, as he finds the country's economy and jurisdiction attractive, despite the fact that he is currently detained in Russia, Boris Titov, Russia's business ombudsman, said on Tuesday after vising Calvey in a detention facility.Calvey, a US citizen, was detained in Moscow alongside five other suspects earlier this month over suspected complicity in the theft of 2.5 billion rubles (over $38 million) from Russia's Vostochny Bank. On February 16, Moscow's Basmanny Court ordered Calvey to be held in custody for two months.
"Michael Calvey ... has been attracting foreign investment into Russia for many, many years, more than ten years. In this sense, he is the biggest patriot [of Russia]. He has been saying that one should come here and invest into the Russian economy, and he does not doubt a single word that he said because [he believes that] the country, its jurisdiction and its economy are very attractive," Titov told reporters.
He added that Calvey, who denies his involvement in the fraud, qualified the criminal case brought against him as an "economic dispute" that could have happened anywhere else in the world.
"He regards this as a corporate conflict and hopes that the issue will be resolved very soon, so that he he can continue his work, because he has been working here for so many years and loves Russia," Titov added.
At a court hearing in mid-February, Calvey suggested that his detention could be related to his corporate conflict with a major shareholder of the Vostochny Bank, Artyom Avetisyan.
Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Kremlin had known Calvey as a consistent major investor who defended the attractiveness of the Russian market. Peskov has also expressed hope that Calvey's arrest would not affect the investment climate in Russia.
