Anna Nemstova reported today in the Daily Beast that Russian authorities have arrested Michael John Calvey in Russia. Calvey is the founder of Baring Vostok, a private equity firm with $3.7 billion in capital invested mostly in Russia. Calvey speaks fluent Russian and was well-known in Russia as a “good American” who went out of his way to express sympathy with the Russian government. The authorities also arrested business partners of Calvey, accusing the group of embezzling $37 million from Russia’s Vostochny Bank, a bank partly owned by Baring Vostok.
RFE/RL’s Russian Service reported today that the case stems from a business dispute between Baring Vostok and Vostochny’s current management, which accuses Baring Vostok and former management of persuading shareholders to approve a stock sale at a price that was unrealistically below market. Former Vostochny bank CEO Aleksei Kordichev was also arrested.
Several big names in Russian finance are defending Calvey. RFL/RL writes:
German Gref, head of Sberbank, Russia’s biggest state bank, told reporters that Calvey was a “decent and honest man,” while Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said he would personally vouch for the American investor.
The case has the earmarks of an all-too-common business practice in Russia, where corrupt business executives use their connections with police and other state agencies to put their rivals out of business.
The Trump administration has not responded to Calvey’s arrest, and is not likely to do much about it in the future, as Trump thinks Putin is a powerful guy and is Trump’s mentor and supporter and Trump does not want to mess with him.