TRAGIC lawyer Stephen Curtis pocketed £18million for setting up a money laundering scheme for a Russian oligarch, a court was told.

Mr Curtis, who died in a helicopter crash in 2004 as he returned to his home, Pennsylvania Castle on Portland, made a name for himself running his own law firm in London specialising in commercial and property transactions.

But it was his introduction to the Russian tycoons which catapulted him into the world of billionaire businessmen, private jets, super yachts and the inevitable intrigue that accompanied the lifestyle and dealings of the super-rich.

But on Portland he settled into community life and he and his wife Sarah became staunch supporters of the island’s Rotary Club and opened Pennsylvania Castle for its annual plant sale and financed the annual firework display at Southwell Business Park.

Mr Curtis’s connections with the often murky world of Russian business dealings deepened when he was introduced to another oligarch, Boris Berezovsky.

The new accusations about Mr Curtis came out during the high profile court battle between Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, 65, and fellow oligarch and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, 44.

The £3.8billion dispute over oil and aluminium shares is one of the biggest cases to come before English courts.

The Russian tycoon Mr Berezovsky is accused of money laundering in relation to a £1.3billion payment that he received from his client Mr Abramovich ten years ago.

The court heard that Mr Berezovsky created a false paper trail with the help of an Arab ruler to move money out of Russia without it being flagged up by British banking controls.

However the QC for Mr Abramovich, Jonathan Sumption, claimed that the scheme was the brainchild of Stephen Curtis and that he “pocketed more than £18million for structuring the sham”.

Mr Sumption went on to state that Mr Curtis had invested the money from Mr Berezovsky’s share of Sibneft – one of Russia’s largest oil companies – to reassure British banks that the funds arriving into his bank were from a legitimate deal and not from political corruption.

That ensured that the money didn’t fall foul of anti-money laundering regulations.

Mr Berezovsky denied these accusations.

During the case the exiled oligarch has said that Roman Abramovich was a “gangster”.

He says the Russian billionaire businessman “betrayed” him and “intimidated” him into selling shares in Russian oil company Sibneft for a “mere 1.3billion” US dollars – £800million – “a fraction of their true worth”.

The hearing continues.