Michael Calvey

Michael Calvey (1967) is an American businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Baring Vostok, a Russian investment company.

Michael Calvey and five colleagues were arrested in Russia in February 2019, for allegedly defrauding Russian businessman Artem Avetisyan, who is an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Calvey maintains the charges are baseless, supported by a BBC investigation, and the real reason for the arrest was because Calvey was suing Avetisyan in a separate business dispute in London, and winning, so Avetisyan used his connections with Putin and the FSB to have Calvey arrested on trumped up charges. If Calvey is convicted Avetisyan stands to gain 10s of millions, and Calvey faces 10 years in the notorious Matrosskaya Tishina, the same prison where Sergei Magnitsky died under mysterious circumstances. The same judge who prosecuted Magnitsky is assigned to the Calvey case.[1]

Biography

Michael Calvey was born in 1967 in Oklahoma.[1] He has a master's degree in finance and accounting from the London School of Economics. He worked for Salomon Brothers and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He is a board member on the Atlantic Council.[1]

Calvey founded the financial investment firm Baring Vostok in 1994, and since then has invested over $2.8 billion into over eighty Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) companies.[1] Investments included in financial services, oil and gas, telecommunications, and media. According to Bloomberg, "Calvey became a legend in the Russian market, in part because of his reputed aversion to any kind of foul play and focus on industries and companies unlikely to attract the attention of Russia’s authorities."[2] Calvey is fluent in Russian language.[1]

Calvey was arrested on 14 February 2019, with three other Baring Vostok executives, on suspicion of allegedly embezzling 2.5 billion rubles (US$38 million) from the Russian Vostochny Bank.[1][3] On 21 February, Russian state prosecutors formally charged him with fraud.[4] The man "behind Calvey's arrest" was Russian business associate Artem Avetisyan, a Vostochny shareholder. As of February 2019, Calvey's Baring Vostok had a majority stake of 52.5% in Vostochny Bank.[1] Avetisyan is a close friend of the son of Nikolai Patrushev, former Director of the FSB and secretary of Putin's Security Council.[1] Calvey was suing Avetisyan in a separate court case in London, and winning, and Calvey maintains the charges against him were trumped up by Avetisyan who used his connections with Nikolai Patrushev to have Calvey arrested and thus unable to effectively defend himself in the London case; Avetisyan would also stand to gain 10s of millions of dollars.[1] On 22 February 2019, Radio Echo of Moscow interviewed BBC Russian Service correspondent Olga Shamina, who claimed that the case against Calvey is based on two documents described in a BBC Russian Service publication[lower-alpha 1] on its website. One is said to be a statement by Vostochny Bank minority shareholder Sherzod Yusupov, the other an assessment by lawyers in Luxembourg commissioned by Artem Avetisyan.[5] Calvey faces at least 10 years in jail.[1]

Calvey was held in Seaman's Silence Prison, the facility notorious for poor conditions and treatment — it is the same prison where lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was detained and died under mysterious circumstances.[1] Likewise, Calvey's case was assigned to Arthur Karpov, the same detective who prosecuted Magnitsky. Neither the United States Trump administration, nor the Department of Justice, have taken any action or protest beyond acknowledging the case exists.[1]

In April 2019, Calvey was released to a restricted form of house arrest, although a number of colleagues remain in prison. It is reported that Putin has personally taken the case "under his control", though Putin acknowledges "the law is the law" implying he is not in control.[6] House arrest was lifted in December 2020 and replaced with other restrictions.[7]

Notes
  1. https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-47317121

References
  1. Amy Knight (March 4, 2019). "The Price of Doing Business in Russia: Prison". New York Review of Books. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  2. Leonid Bershidsky (February 18, 2019). "Why Russia Can Afford to Jail U.S. Investors". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  3. "Russia charges US investor with fraud in high-profile case". BBC. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  4. "Russia charges top U.S. investor Michael Calvey with fraud". Reuters. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  5. Shamina, Olga (February 22, 2019). "РИКОШЕТ: Что есть в документах, которые легли в основу дела Майкла Калви. Материал русской службы BBC" [RIKOSHET: What is in the documents that formed the basis of the case of Michael Calvey. The material of the Russian service of the BBC]. Echo of Moscow (transcript) (in Russian). Interviewed by Irina Vorobyeva. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
  6. Max Seddon (June 3, 2019). "Kremlin says Michael Calvey may be released from house arrest". Financial Times. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  7. "Supreme Court releases Michael Calvey and all defendants in his case from house arrest". TASS. 2020-11-12.
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