Raid Summary
The American company Baring Vostok Capital Partners became a Russian raiding target in 2019 because of the sheer amount of capital it had raised from investors — a mouth-watering $4 billion.
The real motivation behind the trumped-up criminal charges that Russian authorities filed against company leaders was to seize the enterprise, then divvy up the spoils, Baring Vostok defenders say.
The arrest of founder Michael Calvey and other Baring Vostok executives in Moscow in February 2019 sent shock waves through the Russian and global private equity investor communities.
Prosecutors alleged that Calvey was part of a “criminal gang” that defrauded a bank with which Baring Vostok was doing business out of $37 million. They accused him of undervaluing shares transferred to a debt collector with ties to the bank. And they did not allow him out on bail — they jailed him.
Baring Vostok is one of the last Western private equity investors remaining in Russia.
For many years those behind illegal forced takeovers of companies in Russia would not go after foreign firms doing business in the country.
But that has changed in recent years as the pickings have slimmed and the thieves have become more brazen.
Raid Media Coverage
October 4, 2019
Financial Times
Russian court freezes assets of US investor Michael Calvey
March 4, 2019
The New York Review of Books
The Price of Doing Business in Russia: Prison
February 18, 2019
Reuters
Russia Charges Top U.S. Investor Michael Calvey with Fraud
February 18, 2019
Bloomberg
Why Russia Can Afford to Jail U.S. Investors
External Links
Official Baring Vostok Capital Partners Website