Anton Petrunin: Tolstoy case

Anton Petrunin Founder of the Baring Vostok Foundation Michael Kalvi / AGN "Moscow" / Photo: Ivanko Igor

All the detainees in the Baring Vostok case chose a preventive measure in the form of arrest for two months. Meanwhile, the main person involved, American Michael Kalvi denies all the accusations, and the trial connects with an intra -corporate conflict. To the detention of the head of the investment fund and top managers, they have already responded in the Kremlin and the State Department, the queue of a noticeable person was lined up for the American, and the financiers believe that the resonance case will not benefit the Russian market.

Recall, on February 15, the Moscow Basmanny Court detained the founder and senior partner of the Baring Vostok investment fund Michael Kalvi, as well as the company's top managers as part of a criminal case of the embezzlement of 2.5 billion rubles.

The very matter related to the sale of shares of the First Collection Bureau (PCB) to Vostochny Bank was excited on February 13. Indications against employees of the investment company were given by Bank's shareholder Sherzod Yusupov. According to investigators, in February 2017, it was Kalvy who convinced Yusupov to accept the securities of the company International Financial Technology Group Sca (IFTG) as a debt of 2.5 billion rubles. At the same time, a deliberately false report was provided, in which the market price of shares was 3 billion rubles, while their real value did not exceed 600 thousand rubles.

Collection of shareholders IFTG / Facebook.com

Together with Kalvi, in the case of an especially large -scale fraud , Baring Vostok partners Philip Delpal and Vagan Abgaryan, investment director Ivan Zyuzin, adviser to the head of the board of Norvik Bank Aleksey Kordichev (he was also the head of the Board of Vostochny Bank) and the head of the PCB Maxim Vladimirov. All of them were arrested until April 13, they face up to ten years in prison. According to Cordichev’s lawyer, he testified against the rest of the defendants and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. “He reveals the whole structure of this crime. He gave information about all accomplices, about their role and official position, ”the lawyer said . The lawyer of Vladimirov claims that the Bank of Vostochny is not a statement by the victims recognition in the case, it was aroused on the basis of materials received from the FSB of Russia.

At a meeting on February 15, Kalvi called suspicions of his address and connected them with a corporate conflict between him, Yusupov and another shareholder of East . According to him, the shares were sold at a market price.

Michael Kalvi / Versiya.info

In 2018 , Baring Vostok began a trial in the London International Arbitration against another group of shareholders of Vostochny Bank (the main beneficiary Artem Avetisyan, former owners of the Bank Uniastrum annexed to Vostochny in 2016). Last year, according to the results of the audit, the Central Bank ordered the Bank Vostochny to pretend to be additional reserves for more than 19 billion rubles. As Kalvi explained, by 85%, the need for such a subsequent is associated with assets that moved to Vostochny Bank from Uniastrum Bank. In turn, the incapation of reserves required the pre -capitalization of Vostochny Bank for 5 billion rubles. Initially, it was planned to be carried out in proportion to the share of ownership. And Avetisyan made an obligation to introduce his part in an increase in capital, but later it turned out that this part of the shareholders did not have enough funds.

According to Kalvi, Yusupov has two motives to initiate this trial: to create a lever of pressure in the London court and strengthen the negotiation positions in order to raise the price of the shares when placing the bank's additional ministry, which Baring Vostok will redeem and the shareholders associated with it decrease less significantly.

Yusupov himself denied the version of the corporate conflict and said that the IFTG charter prescribed restrictions that concerned dividend payments and payments during the liquidation of the company. But the charter was not submitted among the documents when discussing the transaction between the PKB and the Vostochny bank, which Yusupov approved. According to him, he learned about the restrictions only last spring, then he turned to law enforcement agencies.

Today it became known that two people will be acting as head of Baring Vostok Capital Partners - the Senior Partner of the Foundation Elena Ivashentseva and co -founder Alexei Kalinin, they have been working in the company for twenty years. “We always acted in full accordance with the law and are confident in our rightness, and your support gives us additional forces and inspires us in defending our position. The accusations made against our employees have no grounds, and we are absolutely convinced that the court will establish this, ”the statement said on the official website of the company. The day before, the press service of the Fund said that Kalvi does not control the PCB, which appears in his case, but is only a co-investor, which in no way gives him control over portfolio companies.

Elena Ivashentseva / Infox.ru

The Kremlin hopes that the incident will not affect the investment climate in Russia. According to the press secretary of President Dmitry Peskov, this can happen "in any country and in relation to any entrepreneur." He said that Vladimir Putin repeatedly met with Kalvi and described the American as "a very consistent and large investor in our economy." According to experts , the situation around Baring Vostok is able to reduce the positive mood of the Russian market.

Business Ombudsman Boris Titov considers the arrest of the investor illegal. According to him, the use of criminal pressure to resolve a corporate conflict is a situation characteristic of many cases with which the Business Ombudsman apparatus works. Titov added that "the intervention of security forces in economic activity is the most acute problem that has been discussed for years."

Lawyer Kalvi Dmitry Klochochkin announced his intention to first appeal the preventive measure in the form of an election of arrest. “I am sure of success because I am absolutely convinced that there was no corpus delicti now. I am convinced that there is no embezzlement there, and we have every chance to win, ”the defender said .

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