diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 4aa9ed9..b01bb80 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ under the License.
   <properties>
     <mavenVersion>3.0</mavenVersion>
     <javaVersion>7</javaVersion>
+    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojo.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojo.java
index c093ec6..a925db5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojo.java
@@ -19,10 +19,11 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.Reader;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
@@ -122,7 +123,7 @@ private VerificationResult verify()
     {
         VerificationResult results = new VerificationResult();
 
-        try ( Reader reader = new FileReader( verificationFile ) )
+        try ( BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader( verificationFile.toPath(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8 ) )
         {
             VerificationsXpp3Reader xppReader = new VerificationsXpp3Reader();
             Verifications verifications = xppReader.read( reader );
@@ -176,7 +177,8 @@ private boolean verifyFileContent( org.apache.maven.plugins.verifier.model.File
 
         // Note: Very inefficient way as we load the whole file in memory. If you have a better
         // idea, please submit it!
-        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher( FileUtils.fileRead( new File( fileCheck.getLocation() ) ) );
+        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(
+                FileUtils.fileRead( new File( fileCheck.getLocation() ), StandardCharsets.UTF_8.toString() ) );
 
         if ( matcher.find() )
         {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojoTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojoTest.java
index 0129ee3..1c5569c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojoTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/verifier/VerifierMojoTest.java
@@ -216,4 +216,25 @@ public void print( VerificationResult result )
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testCheckKoi8FileForContent()
+            throws Exception
+    {
+        VerifierMojo mojo = new VerifierMojo();
+        File file = getResourceFile("/FileExistsIncorrectEncoding.xml");
+        mojo.setBaseDir( file.getParentFile() );
+        mojo.setVerificationFile( file );
+        mojo.setVerificationResultPrinter( new VerificationResultPrinter()
+        {
+            public void print( VerificationResult result )
+            {
+                assertEquals( 0, result.getExistenceFailures().size() );
+                assertEquals( 0, result.getNonExistenceFailures().size() );
+                assertEquals( 1, result.getContentFailures().size() );
+            }
+        } );
+
+        mojo.execute();
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/src/test/resources/FileExistsIncorrectEncoding.xml b/src/test/resources/FileExistsIncorrectEncoding.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9254c82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/resources/FileExistsIncorrectEncoding.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
+<verifications>
+    <files>
+        <file>
+            <location>textInKOI-8-encoding.txt</location>
+            <contains>кодировке</contains>
+        </file>
+    </files>
+</verifications>
diff --git a/src/test/resources/textInKOI-8-encoding.txt b/src/test/resources/textInKOI-8-encoding.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4a358a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/resources/textInKOI-8-encoding.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+óÏÏÂÝÅÎÉÅ × ËÏÄÉÒÏ×ËÅ ÎÅ UTF-8
\ No newline at end of file