KIEV, May 22. /TASS/. Ukrainian special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case against the former president, Pyotr Poroshenko, and a number of other top officials over abuse of office.

"The decision has been made and information entered to the unified register of pre-trial investigations," the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office said on its Facebook page.

The affair concerns the appointment of officials in one of the leading electric power producers in Ukraine, Tsentrenergo.

"Officials and members of Tsentrenergo’s observer council and officials at Ukraine’s state property fund and bodies of state power used their position and status to distribute key positions in the Tsentrenergo management board and the observer council with the aim of embezzlement of funds of a company in which the state has the controlling stake. The plaintiff says the joint actions by this group of persons were coordinated by Ukrainian legislator Igor Kononenko and the former Ukrainian president," the prosecutor’s office said.

The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office suspects that the energy company was defrauded of $228 million. If found guilty, those responsible may face a prison term of five to eight years and stripped of the right to take certain jobs.

Earlier, the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case against Poroshenko over the Kerch Strait incident.