The co-owner of Russia's Summa investment and trading group, Ziyavudin Magomedov, and two business partners have been detained on suspicion of embezzling large sums of state money, the Russian interior ministry said on Saturday.
It said Magomedov was detained along with his business partner and brother, Magomed Magomedov, and Artur Maksidov, the head of a company in the Summa group that was involved in construction of a soccer World Cup venue in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
The ministry added it had conducted searches in 25 Russian regions, including Moscow, in connection with the case.
Summa told Reuters on Friday that Ziyavudin Magomedov had spoken to law enforcement, without providing further detail.
Moscow's Tverskoy District Court is expecting to receive documents regarding the case from the ministry later on Saturday, allowing it to set a hearing, spokeswoman Anastasia Dzyurko told Reuters.
Ziyavudin Magomedov last year was placed 63rd on the Forbes list of the richest businesspeople in Russia with $1.4 billion. In January, he was listed by the U.S. Treasury Department as one of 96 "oligarchs" close to President Vladimir Putin.
His Caspian Venture Capital fund has investments in ride-hailing service Uber; Diamond Foundry, a company that produces man-made diamonds; and Peek, an online leisure activities company.
Magomedov is co-executive chairman of Los Angeles-based tech firm Virgin Hyperloop One chaired by Richard Branson, one of several firms developing a futuristic transport system that involves propelling people at high speed through sealed tubes. He also co-owns the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port with Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and transportation group Fesco.
