The Russian Supreme Court on Thursday released Michael Calvey, a US investor and founder of Baring Vostok fund, from home arrest.
The investor cannot leave his home at night and must appear before the court in a timely manner.
The Supreme Court has also decided to send Calvey's case for consideration to a Moscow court, according to a Sputnik correspondent.
The question of the ruling of jurisdiction arose, since based on the place of the crime, the case should be considered in the city of Blagoveshchensk, and, based on the location of all the evidence, the accused, and the defenders, in Moscow.
Both the defence and prosecutors asked to transfer the case to Moscow. According to the latter, a Blagoveshchensk court would not be able to objectively consider the case, as Calvey and other defendants would be able to influence the witnesses. Meanwhile, Calvey's lawyers said that there were over 50 witnesses in the case and about 30 lawyers, accused and complainants who needed to be transported from Moscow amid the pandemic. The court backed the defence's position.
Calvey and several other individuals were detained in February 2019 on charges of defrauding Vostochny Bank. According to the investigation, they offered to pay back a debt to the bank with a controlling stake of another company owned by Calvey. The defendants said the shares were worth 3 billion rubles ($38 million), but investigators found that they worth 600,000 rubles at most.
Each of the defendants has dismissed the charges. Moreover, an independent expert that they commissioned found that the shares were worth 3.8 billion rubles.
