A Moscow court has commuted the suspended sentence of U.S investor Michael Calvey after he pleaded guilty to controversial fraud charges, the state news agency Interfax reported Thursday.

Calvey and his French business partner Philippe Delpal were accused of a $34 million embezzlement scheme related to loans issued by a bank owned by Calvey’s Baring Vostok fund in 2015.

The American investor's initial five-and-a-half-year sentence handed down in 2021 was reduced to four-and-a-half years in 2022.

A Moscow court of cassation on Thursday further commuted Calvey’s suspended sentence to 4 years and 4 months.

The court’s press service said it decided to reduce Calvey’s sentence by 60 days “taking into account the additionally established mitigating circumstances of a full confession of guilt and remorse for the offense.”

Calvey and Delpal left Russia in March after court-imposed travel restrictions were lifted.

It was not immediately clear whether Calvey entered the guilty plea in person or through a lawyer.

Calvey maintained his innocence throughout the trial and criticized the ruling as “deeply unfair.”

The charges were largely seen as having been fabricated to settle a corporate dispute.

Both Calvey and his legal team previously acknowledged that a suspended sentence was realistically the best outcome he could have hoped for in a Russian legal system, with conviction rates upwards of 99%.

The high-profile case rocked Russia’s business and investment world when Calvey was arrested in 2019.

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