Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has launched criminal proceedings against the illegal seizure of property of state enterprise Chornomornaftogaz under signs of crime foreseen in part 3 of Article 206-2 (illegal seizure of property) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on its Web site on October 10.

During the check of the observation of Ukrainian laws in the operation of Chornomornaftogaz it was established that a group of persons in March 2014 illegally seized the property of the company worth almost UAH 15 billion using documents and stamps of the said company transferred it to the illegally created Crimean republican enterprise Chernomorneftegaz and caused a large damage to the state," reads the report.

Prosecutor General's Office added that officials of Crimean republican enterprise Chernomorneftegaz in the period of March-October 2014 extracted 600 million cubic meters of natural gas knowing about the fact that the enterprise does not have a permit to use the deposits and caused damage of UAH 240 million to the state.

The Prosecutor General's Office is also investigating into the crime under part 2 of Article 240 (non-observation of deposit protection or use) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.