Prosecutor General's Office in Kyiv has registered several criminal cases against the former deputy head of presidential administration, Andriy Portnov, and former Justice Minister Olena Lukash, reads a posting on the Web site of the Prosecutor General's Office issued on Wednesday.

The investigators established that in 2010, Portnov illegally headed the constitutional law department of Kyiv Shevchenko National University, never lecturing but receiving a wage.

In addition, Portnov as a representative of the higher educational institution, became a member of the Higher Council of Justice to illegally influence the court system of Ukraine.

Criminal proceedings have started against him under part 2 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (embezzlement of property of seizure of property via abuse of office) and part 1 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or office).

The Prosecutor General's Office is investigating cases against Lukash under part 1 of Article 367 (dereliction of duty), part 2 of Article 361 (illegal interference in the operation of electronic computers and communications networks) linked to the stoppage of operation of all state registers of the information network of the Justice Ministry.

"Lukash, as Justice Minister in October 2013, gave an order to acting director general of Information Center of the Justice Ministry to make illegal changes to software, which secured the functioning of the state registers. This resulted in failures of the operation of the registers," reads the report.