Mindich crossed border four hours before National Anti-Corruption Bureau searches in his apartments – photos
Tymur Mindich, businessman and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's close friend, crossed the border into Poland at 02:09 on 10 November – four and a half hours before searches were conducted in his apartments in a building on Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv.
Source: article by Mykhailo Tkach
Quote: "Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that evidence was found during searches at other participants' premises indicating that the people involved already knew on Friday that some operations were being planned for Monday: 'we need to clean up by Monday,' one participant in the scheme wrote to another.
Rulings related to investigative actions in Operation Midas began to be uploaded to the court registry also on Friday. Theoretically, the participants could have accessed this information through law enforcement officials under their control."
Details: At the time of the searches, Mindich was already abroad. He crossed the border at the Hrushiv crossing point heading to Poland at 02:09, four and a half hours before the searches began.
Quote: "Coincidentally, a video address by Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian President's Office, suddenly appeared on Friday (before the searches), in which he announced that the National Police had detained a businessman who allegedly demanded an improper benefit for a job in the President's Office on behalf of one of his relatives.
Sources in political circles told Ukrainska Pravda that this publication almost coincided with the time the President's Office received information that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) were planning operations, including against Yermak."
Details: According to Ukrainska Pravda sources among law enforcement, one of the participants in the case returned on Saturday from a two-week holiday in the Maldives.
This is the same individual who complained: "carrying US$1.6 million isn't exactly fun". Sources say this was the chief accountant of the criminal organisation, aka Roshyk. However, he was either not warned in time or not considered worth saving.
Sources in law enforcement claim that NABU and SAPO currently have information that some of the participants may have received information from SAPO Deputy Head Andrii Syniuk. At that time, however, Mindich's name was not in the electronic materials.
Following this leak, Mindich's chief financier Oleksandr Tsukerman, known as "Sugarman", fled the country.
Tsukerman flew with Mindich to Israel on 29 October to attend a friend's celebration. Mindich came back to Ukraine on 4 November, while Tsukerman remained in Israel.
Background: On 12 November, the Cabinet of Ministers led by Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko decided to submit a proposal to the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) to impose sanctions against Mindich and Tsukerman.
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