The British arm of a firm that has employed a string of former KGB spies received millions of pounds linked to the death of a prominent lawyer, court papers have revealed.

More than £6 million from funds at the centre of a giant fraud which was being investigated by Sergei Magnitsky has allegedly been traced to a UK bank account held by Renaissance Capital, which has offices in London.

Magnitsky, who was investigating on behalf of the British victims of the fraud, was found dead in a Russian prison, in what the UK government labelled an “atrocious murder”.

Now it has emerged that the US Department of Justice has traced proceeds of the fraud to a bank account in Bournemouth held by Renaissance Capital Investment Management Ltd.

Last night Dominic Raab, the former justice minister, called for UK authorities to investigate the case. He said: “No one wants the UK giving this kind of blood money the veneer of respectability.”