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Baring Vostok, whose U.S. founder is under
house arrest in Russia on embezzlement charges, has been locked
in a legal battle with businessman Artem Avetisyan's Finvision
over control of the bank. The case is being closely watched by
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A court in Russia's Far East ruled last week that Baring Vostok
must relinquish a 9.99% stake to Finvision after Avetisyan went
to court, claiming Finvision had an agreement with Baring Vostok
that it could exercise an option to increase its stake by 10%.
The fund's share in Vostochny Bank has now fallen to 41.6%,
while Finvision's share has risen to 42%, according to Reuters
calculations.
A spokesman for Baring Vostok said on Wednesday that the fund
did not plan to appeal the ruling and that it had already handed
over the stake to Finvision.
Baring Vostok was founded by prominent U.S. businessman Michael
Calvey, who with other fund executives, has been detained in
Russia since February pending a trial on embezzlement charges.
They all deny the charges and say the case is a way of
pressuring them in a dispute over control of a Russian bank.
The case against Calvey rattled Russia's business community and
in April he was freed from jail and placed under house arrest.
Putin said earlier this month that he was closely following the
embezzlement case against Calvey and that Russian law
enforcement agencies should work to establish whether he was
guilty or not.
(Reporting by Tatiana Voronova; writing by Tom Balmforth;
editing by Susan Fenton)
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