VLADIVOSTOK, May 5 (RAPSI) - A criminal case has been opened on abuse of power by the management of TMK (Pacific Bridge Building Company), a contractor in the Vostochny Cosmodrome project, RIA Novosti reports Tuesday, citing the Primorye Prosecutor’s Office.

“Unidentified individuals from TMK management have abused their authority. In 2012, a TMK official closed a lease agreement on a non-residential property in a hotel located in Ussuriisk with an individual entrepreneur. According to the agreement, the monthly rent was 10,000 rubles ($193), which obviously is not market value for similar properties,” the Prosecutor’s Office statement says.

As a result of the alleged inappropriate management of the property, TMK has lost over 4 million rubles ($77,440). An individual entrepreneur has been using the property for commercial purposes from July 2012 to present.

A criminal case was opened regarding abuse of power in violation of a company’s legal interests, a crime punishable by up to four years in prison.

Last February, the Primorye Territory Department of the Federal Service for Labour and Employment revealed a failure to distribute over 30.5 million rubles ($590,500) to 1,262 TMK employees working at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Also, in December 2014, the agency ordered the company pay over 61 million rubles ($1.1 mn) of the debt to its staff.

In April, Igor Nesterenko, General Director of Pacific Bridge Building Company, was charged with wage arrears and fraud.

Earlier, Dalspetsstroy, a construction company working on the Vostochny launch site in the Amur Region, terminated it's contract with TMK and filed a lawsuit to recover a debt.

The construction of the space center, due to become Russia's main launch site, began in 2012. The facility is planned to be completed by November 30, and the first manned mission is scheduled for 2018.