Michael Kalvy pleaded guilty in the case of embezzlement of Vostochny bank funds

The founder of Baring Vostok, Michael Kalvy, pleaded guilty in the case of embezzlement of Vostochny bank funds. “Interfax” writes about this with reference to the court of cassation.

Taking into account the new circumstances, “full admission of guilt and remorse for what he did,” the judicial panel softened Kalva’s sentence, reducing his conditional term by two months to 4 years and 4 months.

In 2021, the court sentenced Kalvy to 5.5 years of conditional imprisonment in the case of embezzlement of 2.5 billion rubles, which “Vostochny” gave to the First Collection Bureau affiliated with Baring Vostok. Later, the deadline was reduced by an hour. After Kalva’s sentence, he left Russia.

Six more colleagues of Kalva were convicted in the case of embezzlement of “Vostochny” funds. They also received conditional terms, but did not appeal the sentence in the cassation court.

Earlier, Kalvy called the sentence unfair and insulting. “Unfortunately, the court did not, or could not, understand the essence of the case, in which there is no victim, no damage, and no beneficiaries other than Vostochny Bank itself. The judge repeated the prosecutor’s speech word for word,” he said.

• The criminal case against Kalva and his colleagues at the Baring Vostok fund and the Vostochny bank was initiated by the Investigative Committee in February 2019 – after the statement of a member of the board of directors of the bank, Sherzod Yusupov, submitted to the FSB of Russia.
• Baring Vostok is one of the oldest players in the Russian direct investment market. He specializes in investments in Russian industry, technology, IT companies and media. The fund invested in the largest Russian IT company “Yandex” at the early stage of the project’s development.