MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian state prosecutor asked a court on Thursday to hand U.S. investor Michael Calvey a six-year suspended jail sentence, while the defendant requested that the court drop an embezzlement case and find him innocent, the RIA news agency reported.
Calvey, the founder of Russia-focused private equity group Baring Vostok was detained along with other executives in early 2019 on charges of embezzlement linked to mid-sized lender Vostochny. He and the executives deny the charges.
The detention of the Wisconsin-born investor rattled Russia’s business community and prompted several prominent officials and businessmen to voice concerns about the way the state deals with commercial disputes and executives caught up in them.
Calvey was subsequently freed from jail and put under house arrest, which was lifted last November.
The prosecutor also asked the court to hand French national Philippe Delpal, a partner at the fund, a five-year suspended sentence.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan)
