MOSCOW, October 18 (RAPSI) - A French court will consider on December 19 a request for extradition of Alexei Kuznetsov, the former finance minister of the Moscow Region suspected of major fraud, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office told RIA Novosti on Friday.

A hearing was postponed because the defense lawyers of Kuznetsov have not yet got acquainted with all materials submitted by Russian prosecutors.

The fugitive official was detained on July 5 in a hotel in Gassin, not far from Saint-Tropez, and placed in custody in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Region in southern France.

According to the investigators, from November 2005 to November 2008, a group organized by Kuznetsov deceived several housing and utility companies into selling it over 3.5 billion rubles ($109 million) worth of claims against the Moscow Region's municipal authorities. The group laundered and misappropriated the money. It also embezzled the property of the Mosobltransinvest company worth 7.2 billion rubles ($224 million).

Kuznetsov was placed on the federal and subsequently on the international wanted list in November 2012 on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and embezzlement. The investigators said the search for Kuznetsov gathered speed after Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin met with the French police chief in January 2013.