The trial of Russian businessman Dmitry Klyuev, accused by French prosecutors of laundering proceeds of the $230 million Magnitsky Affair fraud through luxury purchases in France, opened in Paris on Monday. 

Klyuev is being tried in absentia on aggravated money laundering charges, according to media reports. French prosecutors describe him as one of the main organizers of the fraud scheme, which siphoned funds from the Russian Treasury and later became globally known as the Magnitsky Affair after Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky exposed it and died in a Moscow prison in 2009.

According to the French indictment described by OCCRP, Klyuev allegedly funneled more than €2.1 million into the French luxury sector between April 2008 and October 2012. The spending included €668,517 at a Paris art and antiques gallery, €696,015 at two high-end French women’s fashion brands, €96,814 at a luxury jewelry store in Courchevel, and €127,182 for a Courchevel tour package that, according to invoice and bank records reviewed by OCCRP, covered Russian Senator Dmitry Saveliev and his guests.

Prosecutors allege the payments moved through accounts at FBME Bank held by two British Virgin Islands companies, Altem Invest Limited and Zibar Management Inc., which investigators say were controlled by Klyuev even though other individuals were listed as beneficial owners. Investigators traced transfers from Klyuev’s personal Swiss bank account into the same paper trail and identified outflows for personal expenses including tuition for his son’s boarding school in Switzerland, the news outlet said. 

The French case stems from a 2014 criminal complaint filed by Hermitage Capital Management, the investment firm targeted in the original tax fraud. Bill Browder, Hermitage’s founder and a leading advocate of Magnitsky sanctions legislation, told OCCRP the Paris proceedings showed that long-delayed accountability was beginning to catch up with one of the alleged central figures in the scheme

Read more at OCCRP