A billionaire Russian businessman was in custody last night following a police raid on a suspected prostitution ring in one of Europe’s most fashionable ski resorts. | |  | Mikhail Prokhorov is known as Russia's most eligible bachelor
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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. Mr Prokhorov, the chief executive of the mining giant Norilsk Nickel, was preparing a lavish party to celebrate the start of the Russian Orthodox new year this weekend in the Alpine playground of Russia’s tycoons, which boasts its own airstrip for private jets. 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.
At least 50 armed police were involved in the raid. Those questioned include seven Russia women aged around 20 years, although younger girls were also apprehended. A spokesman for the prosecutors office in Lyon, where all those arrested were taken, said they would investigate whether any were under age. Fifteen were later released, while 11, including Mr Prok-horov, were still in custody last night. It was not clear if he will face any charges. Investigators suspect that many of the women may have been paid for sex in the form of expensive presents from luxury boutiques in the resort. France’s Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST), the country’s equivalent of MI5, has been investigating the resort’s alleged links with prostitution for at least a year. A spokesman for the Lyon prosecutor’s office said that Mr Prokhorov was expected to appear before a judge today. Prostitution is legal under French law, but profiting from the earnings of prostitutes, and prostitution involving minors, are illegal. Known by Moscow gossip columnists as “the most eligible bachelor in Russia”, Mr Prokhorov last year attended a new year party in Courchevel’s exclusive Les Caves nightclub with Mr Abramovich. 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. | 
