Baring Vostok Case Unlikely To Drastically Impact Investments Into Russia - Lombard Odier

Fakhir Rizvi Published March 14, 2019 | 04:15 PM

The fraud case against US citizen Michael Calvey, founder of investment company Baring Vostok, is unlikely to seriously affect the amount of foreign investments in Russia since it is already low, Arnaud Leclercq, a partner at Lombard Odier Group, told Sputnik on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th March, 2019) The fraud case against US citizen Michael Calvey, founder of investment company Baring Vostok, is unlikely to seriously affect the amount of foreign investments in Russia since it is already low, Arnaud Leclercq, a partner at Lombard Odier Group, told Sputnik on Thursday.

"Foreign direct investments have already significantly decreased, therefore the impact from the situation with the top managers of Baring Vostok on the volume of investments in Russia is unlikely to be any substantial, but it will not encourage investors to return," Leclercq said.

Calvey was detained in Moscow in February alongside five other individuals over suspected complicity in the theft of 2.5 billion rubles (over $38 million) from Russia's Vostochny Bank, which Calvey co-owns.

On February 16, Moscow's Basmanny Court ordered Calvey to be held in custody for two months. Calvey insists that he is not guilty and has not committed any crimes.

According to investigators, Calvey, Philippe Delpal, the company's industry partner for the financial industry sector, and other unidentified persons convinced the bank's shareholders to vote for signing an agreement on compensation. The accord made it so that 59.9 percent of the shares in International Financial Technology Group would be transferred to the bank so that the businessmen did not have to pay the 2.5 billion rubles they originally owed. The shares' value was put at 3 billion rubles despite the fact that their real market value was 600,000 rubles.