MOSCOW, May 7 (RAPSI) -Alexei Beltyukov, Senior Vice President of the Skolkovo Foundation, Russia’s high-tech development center, has been suspended from his post in connection with a funds misappropriation case against him, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

Beltyukov was recently suspended and his duties are currently being carried out by another employee, a Skolkovo Foundation spokesman was quoted as saying.

In April, Russian investigators opened a criminal case against Beltyukov based on suspicions that he may have misappropriated $750,000 to pay opposition-minded State Duma lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov between February 2011 and February 2012 for a series of lectures and research projects that are the subject of legal dispute.

On April 26, Skolkovo filed a lawsuit against Ponomaryov with the Gagarinsky District Court in Moscow. The foundation is seeking receipt of the amount paid to the lawmaker, along with damage if evidence is found that his services were inadequate.

An investigation was earlier launched against former senior Skolkovo manager Kirill Lugovtsev and the head of the foundations subsidiary Skolkovo Innovation Center Customs Finance Company (TFK Skolkovo) Vladimir Khokhlov over their alleged role in the embezzlement of 24 million rubles (about $760,000) from the federal budget.

The Skolkovo Foundation, set up in 2010 by then President Dmitry Medevedev, is the primary agency for the Skolkovo high-tech development hub, which includes a business center, a science and technology institute and a management school. The project is intended to showcase the drive to diversify and modernize the Russian economy. Renova Group president Viktor Vekselberg is one of the foundation's prime investors.