TALLAHASSEE -- (AP) -- A University of Florida professor and his wife have been arrested and accused of receiving fraudulent government contracts from NASA and other government agencies and moving the funds to their personal bank accounts, authorities said.

A federal grand jury charged Samim Anghaie, 60, and his wife Sousan, 55, both of Gainesville, in a 71-count indictment with multiple wire fraud and money-laundering counts, plus making false statements to the government in connection with $3.7 million in contracts.

They allegedly diverted the money to buy cars and homes. They were arrested Friday in Gainesville and released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.

Authorities said Samim Anghaie, an Iran native, was the director of UF's Innovation Nuclear Space Propulsion Institute. His wife was president of New Era Technology (NETECH), with which Samim Anghaie had served as director and vice president. The indictment alleges that NETECH submitted fraudulent proposals to NASA for research contracts. As a result, NETECH received several NASA contracts.

Investigators allege Anghaie and his wife diverted hundreds of thousand of dollars of government funds from their corporate bank account to personal accounts.

The indictment claims information submitted to NASA and the Air Force was not the work of NETECH, but from the lab at UF and a lab in Russia.