He is a baby-faced tycoon with a pop star wife and his own airport and football club.

On paper, millionaire Ilan Shor, still just 28, should not have much in common with sink schemes in Edinburgh or Inverness.

But the Israeli-born entrepreneur stands accused of using companies registered at modest addresses in Scotland to carry out a $1bn swindle in impoverished Moldova.

Mr Shor has denied having a role in a fraud that effectively emptied the three biggest banks in the former Soviet republic, Europe's poorest country.

The fraud late last year forced the tiny state in to bail-out worth an eighth of its Gross Domestic Product and sparked mass demonstrations.

An independent report by US investigations company Kroll, leaked by the speaker of the Moldovan parliament in early May, names Mr Shor as both the co-ordinator and beneficiary of the fraud, although it stresses he may not have been acting alone.

Kroll has uncovered complex scheme featuring numerous shell companies registered in Scotland.

It believes loans were used to defraud the three banks and that the missing money, all $1bn, is now owed to a firm called Fortuna LP that is registered at a flat in Pilton, north Edinburgh.

Fortuna's formal owners are in the offshore tax haven of Seychelles.

The company, and the other firms in the fraud, are limited partnerships.

This kind of business can legally have offshore corporate entities as shareholders and are not required to file public accounts.

This provoked calls from Labour for a major investigation in to whether the type of company was being abused to make Scotland the "UK's money-laundering capital".

The number of limited partnerships in Scotland has more than doubled from just over 6,000 to nearly 15,000 since 2009.

The country now has more of these firms than England and Wales put together.

So-called company formation agents advertise their ability to set up such firms in Scotland across the former Soviet Union.

The Moldovan bank fraud is not thought to be the first crime that links eastern European financial institutions and Scottish off-the-shelf limited partnerships.

Moldovan authorities are also investigating claims $20bn in dirty Russian money was laundered through their country in to the EU, using UK limited partnerships with Latvian bank accounts.

The Kroll investigation, meanwhile, named Scottish, Cypriot, Latvian and Russian nationals, including Mr Shor's wife, Sara.

Mrs Shor, who is a decade older than her husband, is better known by her stage name Jasmin.

She is a Russian pop star who collected a prestigious honour from President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin last month.

Kroll said that companies or persons connected with Mr Shor were associated with the collapse of all three banks, Unibank, Banca Sociala and Banca de Economii.

Mr Shor, speaking to the BBC, denied any connection with the first two institutions. He also denied any role in fraud at Banca de Economii, which he once chaired.

Scottish Labour Justice Spokesman Hugh Henry said: "The UK Government must consider whether the law covering limited partnerships needs to be tightened and whether it is being abused by criminals."

Mr Henry urged Scottish law enforcement bodies to investigate "whether there is industrial scale money-laundering going on".

Law enforcement sources stressed they remain vigilant over company formation agents - and that theyt don't believe Scotland has anything like money-laundering problems facing offshore jurisdictions, including British ones.

Police Scotland and HMRC last month raided five addresses in Edinburgh and Fife where some 1500 businesses were registered as part of a money-laundering investigation.

This is not believed to be related to the Moldovan bank fraud.

Asked about Mr Henry's fears Scotland was the UK's "money-laundering capital", Assistant Chief Constable Ruaraidh Nicolson, the officer responsible for the fight with organised crime, said: "We are committed to working with partners to ensure international money laundering cannot ever gain a significant foothold in Scotland."

Mr Henry is now expected to try and force a debate on the issue in Holyrood. While accepting company rules are reserved to Westminster he believes the SNP government in Edinburgh could lobby for reform.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "The Scottish government is committed to disrupting and dismantling serious organised crime, wherever it is found in Scotland.

"The regulation of company formation is a matter reserved to the UK government."