Founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group Michael Calvey, who was detained on suspicion of fraud, sits inside a defendants' cage as he attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia February 15, 2019. (REUTERS)

MOSCOW, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian law enforcement officers detained U.S. citizen Michael Calvey, founder of a Russian investment firm, in Moscow on the suspicion of fraud, local media reported Friday.

Calvey, founder and a senior partner of the Baring Vostok private equity group, has been held awaiting a court decision, RIA Novosti news agency reported, quoting records of the Moscow Basmanny District Court.

The Russian Investigative Committee has asked the Basmanny Court to arrest Calvey, who is suspected of fraud on a large scale, TASS reported, quoting a spokesperson for the court.

Local media also reported that four other senior managers of Baring Vostok have been detained alongside Calvey.

"Two foreign citizens are being suspected in the case, as well as three Russian nationals. They committed fraud on a large scale, causing a loss of 2.5 billion rubles (some 37.5 million U.S. dollars)," RIA Novosti quoted an investigator as saying in the court.

Baring Vostok is a leading private equity group in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which were former Soviet republics.

Since 1994, the company has invested more than 28.8 billion U.S. dollars in Russia and other CIS countries, it said on its website.