Moscow Court Again Postpones Preliminary Hearing in US Businessman Calvey's Case

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Meshchansky District Court in Moscow on Monday postponed the preliminary hearing in the case of US investor and founder of the Baring Vostok company, Michael Calvey, charged with embezzling billions of rubles, to Wednesday, the court's press secretary told Sputnik.

The upcoming hearing is due to consider the issue of extending the ban on certain actions for the defendants, a preventive measure which is due to expire next year. The court will also attend to other related issues.

"The preliminary hearing was postponed to 30 December due to the absence of one of the defendants", the press secretary said, adding that the hearing is due to be closed.

The hearing was initially scheduled for 16 December but was later postponed to 28 December.

Michael Calvey, the Baring Vostok investment company’s founder and member of the Vostochny Bank's board of directors

© Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov

/

Go to the mediabank

In February 2019, Calvey and his colleagues were indicted for the alleged embezzlement of 2.5 billion rubles (nearly $34 million) from Russia's Vostochny Bank by persuading the latter to accept 59.9% shares of the International Financial Technology Group company owned by Calvey instead of the repayment of a 2.5 billion-ruble debt. The defendants claimed that the shares were worth 3 billion rubles, but investigators found that they were worth 600,000 rubles at most.

The defendants have since denied all accusations.