US Investor Calvey Receives 5 Years 6 Months of Suspended Sentence

Calvey, who founded private equity group Baring Vostok, was arrested in 2019 alongside other executives on charges of embezzling  2.5 billion rubles (nearly $34 million) from Russia’s Vostochny Bank.

“The court found [the defendants] committed embezzlement, that is, theft of property entrusted to the accused, using their official position, on an especially large scale,” Judge Anna Sokova of Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court announced on Thursday.

When US President Joe Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, in June, he suggested Calvey’s prosecution had put a damper on American businessmen’s interest in doing business in Russia. US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan has also condemned Calvey’s charges, saying it was “clearly a private business dispute.”

In addition to Calvey, French banker Philippe Delpal, a partner in the firm, was given a suspended sentence of four years and six months.