MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI) – A court in Russia’s Sochi will consider a case over embezzlement of nearly 3.5 billion rubles ($47.5 million) during the construction of apart hotels and a residential complex, the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

Defendants in the case are also charged with creating a criminal group and participation in it.

According to the statement, from June 2013 to August 2017, the accused persons under the guise of construction of two hotels and one residential complex in Sochi received funds from the shared-equity construction’s participants. In total they embezzled about 3.5 billion rubles from residents of Russia’s Moscow, Krasnodar Krai, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Bryansk, Vladimir and other regions.

The property of the defendants has been seized, the statement reads.