20 Facts About Michael Calvey

Michael Calvey was born on October 3,1967 and is an American businessman and was one of Russia's most prominent foreign investors.

Michael Calvey left Russia, disinveted after the invasion of Ukraine, and is currently the Chairman of Baring Ventures, a global private equity firm.

Michael Calvey was born in 1967 in Wisconsin and grew up in Oklahoma.

Michael Calvey's elder brother Kevin Calvey is an Oklahoma attorney and Republican politician.

Michael Calvey has Bachelor of Business degree from the University of Oklahoma, and Master of Finance degree from the London School of Economics.

Michael Calvey worked on mergers and acquisitions at Salomon Brothers, before taking a position in energy project finance, focusing on countries of the former Soviet Union at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Michael Calvey noted that the 1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt took place just a week before he was supposed to start working in Russia.

Michael Calvey moved to Moscow in 1994 to set up Baring Vostok, which later discovered early-stage start-ups, including future tech companies like search and mobility pioneer Yandex and digital bank Tinkoff Bank.

Michael Calvey co-founded Baring Vostok in 1994, with the firm becoming known for making early-stage investments in Russian companies largely from the tech and consumer-facing sectors.

Michael Calvey was arrested on 14 February 2019, with three other Baring Vostok executives, on suspicion of allegedly embezzling 2.5 billion rubles from the Russian Vostochny Bank.

On 22 February 2019, Radio Echo of Moscow interviewed BBC Russian Service correspondent Olga Shamina, who claimed that the case against Michael Calvey is based on two documents described in a BBC Russian Service publication on its website.

Likewise, Michael Calvey's case was assigned to Arthur Karpov, the same judge who prosecuted Magnitsky.

US government officials under both the Trump and Biden administrations commented publicly that the case was a commercial dispute that shouldn't be resolved in criminal courts, and that the arrest of Michael Calvey was a major barrier to improving US-Russian business relations.

Michael Calvey was sentenced to 5.5 years of probation and did not go to jail.

Michael Calvey's colleagues were sentenced to between 42 and 60 months of probation.

From that date, Michael Calvey was allowed to leave Russia and travel abroad.

On 5 April 2024, Michael Calvey's conviction was vacated and nullified, removing Michael Calvey's status of being a convicted person.

Michael Calvey's case is discussed in Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West, by former US Ambassador to Russia John J Sullivan, as an example of an unlawful case against a prominent international investor.

Michael Calvey published a book about the events in Russia, Odyssey Moscow: One American's Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State.

Michael Calvey is currently the Chairman of Baring Ventures, a global private equity firm.