MOSCOW, September 10 - RAPSI. Investigators examining cases of fraud committed in the preparations for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver have revealed that 20 million rubles ($632,000) were embezzled, Vladimir Markin, the Investigative Committee's official representative, told RIA Novosti on Monday.

The criminal cases, which were thought to have led to a total of 230 million rubles ($7.26 million) in losses, were initiated in 2010, although they were later closed due to lack of evidence, said Markin.

However, he added that they had discovered signs of new crimes regarding the embezzlement of over 20 million rubles ($631,620) in budget funds which had been earmarked for the Sports Training Center for Russia's National Teams.

Investigators believe that Dmitry Artyukhovsky, founder of the company Evroproyekt (Europroject) which organized sports events, together with company head Valery Uskov and also Artyom Yefimtsev and Andrei Kiselyov, representatives of other companies with whom they collaborated, decided ahead of December 2008 to group together to embezzle the funds.

"In 2009-2010 they made out that they were rendering visa services for Russian national team athletes and were providing information and technical support for sports events. Under this cover, they stole over 20 million rubles, submitting fake evidence of the work they carried out to the Organizational Center for Russia's National Teams, Markin said.

The individuals have been charged under the article for "large-scale fraud committed by a group of individuals" and have been released under their own recognizance, said Markin.