Khakassia's police have opened a criminal investigation into a company accused of embezzling money meant for maintenance work at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant, where an accident killed 75 people in August.
The head and the chief accountant of the Gidroelectroremont company, a subcontractor of plant owner RusHydro, are accused of pocketing 24 million rubles ($800,000) allocated by RusHydro for plant repairs in 2007, police said in a statement.
The statement did not identify the two suspects. If charged and convicted of embezzlement, they face up to 10 years behind bars.
The parliamentary commission that investigated the disaster found that the neglected plant's equipment had caused the deadly accident.
(MT)