A Russian billionaire was being held by French police tonight on suspicion of procuring prostitutes for his wealthy friends.

Mikhail Prokhorov, who has been dubbed Russia’s most eligible bachelor, was arrested for flying young women from Moscow into the Alpine resort of Courchevel to join his party for their holidays.

Mr Prokhorov was taken into custody at the Hotel Byblos by a team of 50 officers. He told police that he brought the women because he enjoyed the company of clever, beautiful and young female companions. Seven Russian women aged about 20 were released without charge.

Mr Prokhorov, 41, is chief executive of the mining giant Norilsk Nickel and is rated by Forbes magazine as the 89th richest man in the world.

He is a regular among the Russian millionaires who flock to Courchevel to celebrate the Orthodox New Year. Large numbers of young Russian women always arrive with them to share in the celebrations which culminate this year at the weekend.

A total of 26 people were arrested in the hotel raid on Tuesday. All have been released except seven Austrian travel agency employees, Mr Prokhorov and two executives from Norilsk Nickel. Xavier Richaud, the prosecutor of Lyons, who is heading the case, told The Times that a decision would be taken tomorrow on whether to charge Mr Prokhorov with procuring.

Eight Russian women were flown in to Courchevel last week and eight this week, Mr Richaud said. “According to Prokhorov, he likes the company of intelligent women. He met these women in restaurants or nightclubs in Russia and he brought them over, but neither he nor his friends had sexual relations with them.

“He has taken charge of all the expenses of these girls: he pays for the hotel, the restaurant, nights out, clothes. The question is whether they have to give something in return,” he added.

“Mr Prokhorov tells us ‘to stay young, you have to be surrounded with youth and beauty’.” It had been established, Mr Richaud said, that the women were not professional call girls, nor working for a prostitution agency.

In Moscow Norilsk Nickel said the company had no information on Mr Prokhorov’s whereabouts. “Our chief executive is on vacation. We expect him back on Monday,” a spokesman said. If there had been an arrest, it would have resulted from a misunderstanding, he added. “Our management are entirely law-abiding people.”

The arrest of the man who is the 8th richest Russian, according to Forbes’s list, is the latest incident involving the post-Soviet billionaires who have adopted France as their favourite playground. Two months ago, Suleyman Kerimov, one of the biggest shareholders in Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas group, was gravely injured when he crashed his Ferrari on the Promenade des Anglais in the Riviera capital of Nice.

An estimated 10,000 Russians have packed into Courchevel for the Orthodox Christmas and New Year for each of the past few years. Mr Prokhorov, who is estimated to be worth more than £3 billion, is famous among them for lavish parties at which guests, dropped off by armoured Humvees and Mercedes, enjoy jereboams of Cristal champagne, the rich Russians’ favourite.

The investigators said that their attention had been drawn to the large number of young women from Russia. Some Russians in France said that the French police were being meddlesome or naive in assuming that young women who flocked to rich men were automatically prostitutes.

“These are good-time girls who enjoy the good life,” a Russian expatriate in Paris said. “They are well taken care of and have the run of the boutiques in Courchevel. It’s been like that since the beginning of time.”

When told of Mr Prokhorov’s arrest, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French presidential hopeful, replied: “There’s a man who wants to please.”

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