MOSCOW, September 26 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – Alexander Ostroverkh, defendant in criminal case over embezzlement at the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center has received a five-year suspended sentence, Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday.

Ostroverkh admitted his guilt in full and cooperated with investigators, so he was the first person sentenced in this case, the newspaper reported.

Vladimir Nesterov, former director general of the space center, has also been charged with embezzlement. Investigators believe that Nesterov created a criminal group to embezzle government funds at the center in 2007. It included Mikhail Yakushin, the center’s chief accountant, Dmitry Dyakonov, head of the Ekopravo economic and legal consultancy, and several other unidentified persons.

Their actions are alleged to have caused substantial material damage to the Khrunichev center.

The court approved an extension of the investigation until October 25.

The Basmanny court previously placed Yakushin and Dyakonov under house arrest, both of whom plead not guilty.

According to media reports, Dyakonov allegedly signed an audit and legal services agreement with Alexander Ostroverkh, deputy director general of the Khrunichev center, for a monthly fee of 22,000 euros plus 5 percent of the total amount of fee for the services Ekopravo supposedly provided to the space center from September 2007 to February 2014, including the center’s audits until 2011.

In all, Ekopravo has received 285 million rubles ($4.3 million) from the Khrunichev center. According to investigators, money was shared between Dyakonov, Ostroverkh and Nesterov.

The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is one of the country's leading space enterprises. Currently the research center’s main priority is construction of “Proton” and “Angara” space rockets. In 2014, it was revealed that enterprise faces financial troubles.