Unable to save files from Space Empires V

I recently install Space Empires V via Steam on my Windows 7 x64 machine. It starts up and runs fine, but whenever I try to save a file, whether an empire file or a save game I get an unable to save file error followed by either a crash or a hang. It is currently installed in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEmpiresV\SE5. I did not see an option to install the application in user space when C:\Users\xyz\ when installing the game. I also experience the same behavior even after I ran Steam as Administrator. I have checked the Steam forums for the game and no one has reported this issue, and others reported being able to run the app on Windows 7 reasonably well.

Error 1 (always)

Error 2 (sometimes, other times a hang that requires me to kill the app.

My game folder:

 Directory of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEmpiresV\SE5

05/26/2014  08:05 PM              .
05/26/2014  08:05 PM              ..
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              Data
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              Docs
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              Empires
05/26/2014  05:30 PM              Fonts
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              GameTypes
05/26/2014  05:30 PM           129,953 history.txt
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              Music
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              Pictures
05/26/2014  05:31 PM             3,565 readme.txt
05/26/2014  05:32 PM              Scenarios
05/26/2014  05:32 PM         4,559,872 SE5.exe
05/26/2014  05:32 PM        22,515,422 SE5Manual.pdf
05/26/2014  05:32 PM             6,452 SFI License Agreement.txt
05/26/2014  05:32 PM              Sounds
05/26/2014  08:05 PM              Temp
05/26/2014  05:29 PM              Utilities
05/26/2014  05:32 PM            53,248 zlib.dll
               6 File(s)     27,268,512 bytes
              13 Dir(s)  327,785,889,792 bytes free