MOSCOW, December 11 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court will proceed with a 2.5-billion-ruble (about $40 million) embezzlement case against Baring Vostok investment company's founder Michael Calvey and other defendants in mid-December, the court’s press service told RAPSI on Friday.

The preliminary hearing will be held behind closed doors on December 16.

The Supreme Court of Russia changed a restrictive measure of Calvey and other defendants. They were prohibited from leaving home from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and attend Vostochny bank and the First Collectors Bureau until January 12, 2021.

Other defendants whose restrictive measure was also changed are Baring Vostok partner for the financial industry sector Philippe Delpal, Baring Vostok investment director Ivan Zyuzin, partner Vagan Abgaryan, CEO of the First Collectors Bureau Maxim Vladimirov and former chairmen of the board of Vostochny bank Alexey Kordichev.

In early December, the Moscow City Court denied release of over 7.5 million rubles ($117,000) belonging to Calvey from attachment but overturned the seizure of his flat.

In mid-February 2019, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered detention of Calvey and five other defendants including Delpal, the company’s partners Vagan Abgaryan, Baring Vostok Investment Director Ivan Zyuzin, Maxim Vladimirov and ex- chairman of Vostochny bank board Alexey Kordichev.

On April 11, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court released Calvey from detention and put him under house arrest. Delpal’s measure of restrained was changed in October.

According to investigation, Calvey knowing about a 2.5-billion-ruble debt of the First Collector Bureau, a firm under his control, has organized the sale of its shares to Vostochny bank that has led to embezzlement.

The Investigative Committee claims that he committed a crime that could not be classified as business crime because he used a chain of sham companies settling the deal. Moreover, investigators say they have a PricewaterhouseCoopers’ audit report on the done deal estimating the sold shares at 600,000 rubles, which indicates an instance of fraud.

Calvey denies allegations insisting that the deal was fair as both companies agreed its terms and stood for it, including a person reporting an alleged crime to law enforcement bodies. He noted that a report has been filed with police by a member of Vostochny bank board of directors Sherzod Yusupov. According to Calvey, the real reason of his prosecution is a wide corporate dispute related to the control of the bank by two groups of shareholders: Baring Vostok and stockholders coming from Uniastrum bank, which was reorganized and joined to Vostochny in early 2017.

Baring Vostok company founded by Calvey in 1994 focuses on private equity investments in the CIS and Russia. The company has invested in shares of Yandex, Vkusvill, Tinkoff Bank and other major projects.