The Iowa attorney general's office filed first-degree theft charges against Wendy Runge, of St. Louis Park, Minn., and Matthias Saunders, of Minneapolis. Former film office manager Thomas Wheeler, of Indianola, faces a misdemeanor misconduct charge.

Runge is part owner of Polynation Pictures LLC and Saunders owns Maximum Productions LLC. They are accused of unlawfully inflating values on applications for tax credits totaling more than $10,000. Runge and Saunders also created The Scientist LL as an Iowa company to make a film that would use Iowa film tax credits.

The three companies are charged individually with first-degree theft.

Gov. Chet Culver fired Wheeler last September. He's accused of failing to verify eligibility of applicants for tax credits.

Wheeler's attorney, Gordon Fischer, said the state didn't have a valid case against Wheeler.

"The state has decided to pursue a novel theory of criminal liability, and it is our position their decision is a mistake, that is not supported by the facts or the law," Fischer said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Bill Roach, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said that summons for Runge, Saunders and their companies were pending.

Saunders told the AP on Monday night that he wasn't aware that charges had been filed against him.

An e-mail sent to Polynation Pictures and a telephone message left for a Wendy Runge in St. Louis Park were not immediately returned.

First-degree theft carries a possible punishment of 10 years in prison. Nonfelonious misconduct is punishable by up to a year in jail.

A statement by Culver's office said the charges confirmed the governor took the appropriate actions last fall when he suspended the tax credit program, noting allegations of improper spending and sloppy bookkeeping by the film office.

At the same time, Mike Tramontina, director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and a deputy director resigned. The department oversees the film office.

Culver later lifted the suspension for projects previously submitted by moviemakers after a judge ordered the state to issue $6.5 million in tax credit certificates to a film company affected by the shutdown.