Military prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted three Navy officers on charges of receiving kickbacks from several defense contractors.

A Navy lieutenant commander working for the Defense Acquisition and Procurement Agency was arrested in December for receiving nearly 50 million won ($46,000) from two defense firms, which were bidding for projects funded by the state procurement agency, prosecutors said.

Another Navy lieutenant commander is suspected of receiving 20 million won in bribes from a construction firm, while a Navy commander is accused of receiving 5 million won from a separate construction company and handing over bribes to his subordinate in charge of the bid evaluation procedures, they said.

The two officers have been under arrest since January.

Military prosecutors did not disclose their identities.

In separate cases, military prosecutors called for the defense ministry to discipline two Air Force lieutenant colonels accused of handing over military information to defense contractors.

“The investigation revealed incumbent officers colluded with defense contractors to receive money and favors in return for furthering the interests of the defense firms,” the military prosecution said in a statement. “The military will strongly punish those involved in bribery and improve the system to prevent reoccurrences of such cases in the future.”

Earlier in the day, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced the results of a two-month-long investigation into 11 researchers at the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD), who are accused of buying shares of a defense contractor at much lower than market price after the company won a bid to develop a missile defense system in July 2011.

Some of the researchers even used names of their family members to buy stocks of the company in bulk, the state watchdog said.

The regulator urged the ADD chief to suspend the embroiled researchers from their duties and prepare measures to prevent such practices, officials said. (Yonhap News)