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The Amur’s Prosecutor Office has launched another three criminal cases against the regional Governor Leonid Korotkov adding them to the first case initiated for the governor’s abuse of power when Korotkov authorized an increase of the energy tariffs to support a local football team.

The first case against Korotkov was launched on Wednesday on abuse of power, after the inspection revealed that an additional fee was introduced into local energy tariffs as ‘expenses for charity’ to secure financing for the football club ‘Amur’. The fee brought in 41 million rubles ($1.6 million).

In the additional three cases filed on Friday, Korotkov is being charged with the misspending of funds, abuse of power and negligence a press statement from Amur prosecutor’s office reported.

The investigators revealed that in 2005 and 2006 Korotkov misspent 22 million rubles of the regional reserve fund by allotting finances not covered in the budget for the municipal counties, the statement said.

Korotkov also purchased road construction equipment from a local company worth 40 million rubles in violation of legislation. He abused power by not announcing a public tender for the purchase and by making the decision on his own.

Furthermore, in December 2006, Korotkov allotted 16 million rubles ($620,000) to the local Dambuki gold mine for debt repayment which resulted in an equivalent loss to the regional budget, the statement said. Korotkov is charged with negligence in this case.

All the cases against Korotkov have been compiled into one file, the statement reported.