MOSCOW, May 12 (RAPSI) – A criminal case against Leonid Melamed, former chief of the Russian nanotechnology corporation Rusnano who stands charged with embezzlement, has reached the Cheremushkinsky District Court, the court’s database reads on Friday.

Melamed and organization’s former financial director Svyatoslav Ponurov are charged with embezzling 220 million rubles (about $3.8 million at the current exchange rate). They could face ten years in prison if convicted.

On Thursday morning, lawyer Ruslan Kozhura told RAPSI that Leonid Melamed, former chief of Rusnano, who stands charged with embezzlement, had been released from house arrest. Former financial director Svyatoslav Ponurov was released from detention. Moreover, prosecutors refused to approve indictment in the case, the attorney added.

The Prosecutor General’s Office announced later that “gross violations” of criminal procedure legislation’s provisions preventing the approval of indictment had been revealed.

Later in the evening, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika a ruling of his deputy Viktor Grin to send the case back to the Investigative Committee for additional investigation and forwarded it to court.

The Investigative Committee claims that between 2007 and 2009, Melamed along with ex- corporation managers Andrey Malyshev and Svyatoslav Ponurov illegally transferred over 220 million rubles ($2.9 million) from Rusnano to Alemar Co. controlled by Melamed. The defendants pled not guilty.

According to the information available, the case was opened after the check of the corporation’s finance indicators by the Audit Chamber. The defendants have been charged with large-scale embezzlement of public funds.