MOSCOW, January 17 (RAPSI) – A court in Russia’s Saratov Region has sentenced a former head and a former chief accountant of one of the local penal colonies to 4 and 3 years in custody respectively for embezzling over 18 million budget rubles ($300,000), the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

The sentence of the colony’s chief accountant is suspended until the convict’s child reaches the age of 14.

According to investigators, from July 2015 to February 2018, the defendants issued orders on payment of bonus worth over 18.6 million rubles to their subordinates. However, the employees did not receive the money. The colony’s officials embezzled the funds and spent them for their own purposes.