Learn French: Le suspect ment en dépit des soupçons. - The suspect lies in spite of the suspicions.

The expression is en dépit de (in spite of), which ends with the preposition de. When followed by the plural definite article les (the suspicions), de and les must contract into des. You will never see en dépit de les.

Could I use bien que instead of en dépit de to say the same thing?

Not directly before the noun. En dépit de (in spite of) is a preposition followed by a noun phrase (des soupçons). Bien que (although) is a conjunction that requires a full clause with a verb in the subjunctive, such as bien qu'il y ait des soupçons (even though there are suspicions).

How does en dépit de compare to malgré here?

They are synonymous and both take a noun, so you could absolutely say malgré les soupçons. The main difference is register: en dépit de is slightly more formal, while malgré is standard and very common in everyday spoken French.

What verb does ment come from?