Top U.S. Investor in Russia, Michael Calvey, Fled Country Before Court Hearing

An American businessman convicted in Russia of a high-profile embezzlement case is no longer in the country, according to his lawyers.

Michael Calvey was sentenced in August 2021 to a five-and-a-half-year suspended sentence in a penal colony after being found guilty of embezzling around $34 million from Siberia’s Vostochny Bank. At a hearing to appeal his conviction in a Moscow court Friday, Calvey’s lawyer said his client was no longer Russia.

Attorney Timofey Gridnev said Calvey had planned “to attend the trial, but due to difficulties in obtaining a visa in the current circumstances, it’s difficult for him to come,” Russia’s RBC News reported. The Daily Beast has contacted Gridnev for comment.

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