LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced criminal charges yesterday against two men who allegedly ran a cadaver-trafficking scheme at the medical school of the University of California, Los Angeles, capping a three-year investigation that led to the temporary closure of the school’s body-donor program.

Henry Reid, 57, an embalmer who was director of the willed-body program between 1997 and 2004, was charged with conspiracy and grand theft for allegedly funneling donated bodies to a middleman, who then sold them to others for profit.

The middleman, Ernest Nelson, 49, was charged with conspiracy, grand theft, and tax evasion. He has acknowledged cutting up about 800 cadavers and selling them to large medical research companies, including Johnson & Johnson; Mr. Nelson has said the school authorized the sales, but UCLA officials have said he was acting on his own.

Messrs. Reid and Nelson were arrested yesterday by UCLA police and are being held in lieu of $1 million bail each. Neither man could be reached for comment. They could be formally arraigned in a downtown criminal courtroom as early as today.

Mr. Reid’s lawyer said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it.

Mr. Nelson’s civil lawyer, Thomas Brill, said he suspects the criminal charges were an attempt by UCLA to slow civil lawsuits filed against the university by families of those who donated their bodies.

“I’ve never seen any evidence that he’s involved in any criminal activity,” he said.

The willed-body investigation has been going on since March 2004, when UCLA placed two employees on leave for their alleged role in stealing body parts. Days later, UCLA suspended its program and did not reopen it for more than a year.

According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Reid sold human body parts to Mr. Nelson beginning in May 1999 and deposited at least $43,000 into his personal bank account. In addition, the complaint said, Mr. Reid received other cash payments from Mr. Nelson that were made to conceal their actions.

In turn, the complaint said, Mr. Nelson made more than $1 million by selling cadavers and body parts supplied by Mr. Reid to more than 20 medical, pharmaceutical, and hospital research companies.

According to the complaint, both men conspired to hide their actions by creating fake forms to make it look like Mr. Nelson properly received the bodies from the UCLA program. When the California Department of Health Services investigated the matter in January 2003, Mr. Nelson denied being involved, the complaint said.