YEKATERINBURG, June 27 – RAPSI. The Leninsky District Court in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg started hearing one of the two criminal cases against businessman Alexei Kalinichenko on Tuesday.

Investigators claim that Kalinichenko defrauded investors from several countries of up to 1 billion rubles ($30 million) using a Ponzi scheme.

He allegedly established investment companies and encouraged individuals to deposit their savings by promising high profits from operations on the interbank market.

Instead, Kalinichenko deposited the money in his own bank accounts with no intention of paying on the liabilities. According to investigators, he also laundered over 350 million rubles ($10.5 million). Kalinichenko allegedly defrauded investors from Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Belarus, Ukraine and Latvia. His case was divided into two parts in order to facilitate their review. One of the cases was referred to the court in May.

Kalinichenko fled to Italy where Interpol placed him under house arrest last June. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office extradition request was satisfied in early October 2009. However, Kalinichenko managed to flee to Morocco where he was caught again. He was finally brought to Moscow in mid-May.

Kalinichenko now faces up to 10 years in prison.