Ukrainian anti-corruption agency reveals details of large-scale corruption scheme in energy sector involving payoffs from Energoatom

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has disclosed details of a scheme in which officials and associated individuals systematically received unlawful gains from contractors of Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power company.

Source: NABU press service

Details: The investigation found that members of the criminal organisation had demanded payoffs of 10-15% of the value of contracts.

NABU said in its investigation report: "In effect, a system was created in which a strategic state company with revenues exceeding UAH 200 billion (approx. US$4.7 billion) was being managed not by its top executives, the supervisory board, or the state as the owner, but by an outsider who, without any official authority, assumed the role of a shadow manager."

Companies were effectively forced to pay a percentage so that payments for work they had completed would not be blocked or to retain their supplier status. Within the group, this practice became known as the "bar gate".

The investigators revealed that the scheme involved Ihor Myronyuk, a former deputy head of the State Property Fund who later became an adviser to the energy minister, and Dmytro Basov, a former law enforcement officer who held the position of Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security at Energoatom.

Using their connections in the ministry and at Energoatom, they controlled personnel appointments, procurement processes and cash flows.

Background:

• Ukrainska Pravda sources reported that on the morning of 10 November, NABU detectives conducted searches at the home of Tymur Mindich, a businessman and co-owner of Kvartal 95, the Ukrainian TV production company Volodymyr Zelenskyy founded before he became president.
• According to the same sources, Mindich left Ukraine just hours before the search began.
• NABU confirmed that, together with the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), it is conducting a large-scale operation to expose corruption in the energy sector.
• "Fifteen months of work and one thousand hours of audio recordings. The activities of a high-level criminal organisation have been documented," NABU stated.
• The investigators have uncovered an extensive corruption network influencing strategic state companies, including the state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom.
• NABU and SAPO have released part of the audio recordings from Operation Midas, their investigation into the large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector.

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