Oligarch held over 'sex ring'

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Mikhail Prokhorov, 41, was arrested with 25 others soon after dawn on Tuesday in his four-star hotel in Courchevel in the French Alps.

Worth more than £3.5billion, Mr Prokhorov is ranked No 89 on Forbes magazine’s 2006 list of the world’s richest people. He has a home in London, and is a friend of Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea Football Club owner. Both businessmen have sizeable assets in Siberia, where they made their fortunes from the break-up of the old Soviet Union during the 1990s.

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At the time of his arrest he was with three young women, said police. Detectives backed by CRS riot police raided a number of hotels and private chalets in the resort, seizing items including cash. The biggest single bundle of money was worth £35,000.

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Mr Prokhorov owns a 54.8 per cent stake in Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel and platinum, and 51 per cent in Polyus Zoloto, Russiia’s number one gold mining company. Sergei Chernytsin, a spoke-sman for Norilsk Nickel, said last night that the company had received no information about Mr Prok-horov’s arrest. “We expect him back at work on Monday,” he said.

Telegraph.UK