Ukraine's anti-corruption chief explains how Operation Midas unfolded

Semen Kryvonos, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), has said that Operation Midas – the investigation by NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) that uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme involving the embezzlement of funds in the energy sector and resulted in the release of audio recordings of the suspects' conversations – began more than two years ago when detectives started monitoring the activities of so-called back offices – places where contracts, influence on officials and the distribution of bribes would be discussed outside the official agencies.

Source: Kryvonos speaking to Ukrainska Pravda

Quote: "[Back offices] are organised premises where influence on state institutions is discussed, agreements are concluded, and then part of the bribes is brought for onward distribution and laundering."

Details: Kryvonos cited the example of Operation Clean City, in which individuals with no connection to Kyiv City Council effectively decided the fate of the capital's municipal property through their influence on councillors.

According to Kryvonos, the organisation that became the subject of the NABU investigation operated on a similar principle.

Law enforcement officers received operational information about a back office on Sophia Square where individuals who cannot be named for legal reasons used to meet. It was there, according to NABU, that money obtained from state-owned companies and budget programmes was laundered.

On receipt of this information, the operational search case codenamed Midas was launched. The operation, which went on for 15 months, established that there was not just one office, but a number of locations where the conspirators would meet.

"In fact, all the recordings that have been released during the court hearings were made at different premises. The suspects acted extremely cautiously, used counter-surveillance, and recorded our employees' movements," Kryvonos said.

He noted that members of the group used the Safe City system [a complex video surveillance system for residential buildings – ed.] to illegally track NABU vehicles.

Quote: "We found out that they had access to this system and help from certain representatives of law enforcement agencies. This still needs to be proven in the course of the investigation."

Details: Kryvonos noted that members of the group actively obstructed the detectives' attempts to expose them, changing their phones, meeting venues and communication methods to avoid surveillance.

"I don't want to go into detail so as not to give other perpetrators advice on how to counter an investigation," the NABU director concluded.

In response to a follow-up question about how the building at 9a Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv's government quarter had come to their attention, Kryvonos explained that detectives had discovered that the back office on Sophia Square was being operated under the control of one of the criminal organisation's ringleaders, who lived in that building.

Kryvonos said extensive work was done after this was discovered. NABU detective Ruslan Mahamedrasulov played a key role in this part of the operation. Kryvonos stressed that all actions were carried out solely on legal grounds and based on court decisions.

Quote: "We established that key decisions within the group would be agreed with the person who lived on Hrushevskoho Street. Phrases like 'We need to get his agreement on this' and 'He called and gave such-and-such an instruction' were often used at the back office. We understood that these participants were not acting independently."

More details: Kryvonos explained that the investigation needed to determine where these substantial sums of money were coming from, how they were getting to the offices, and where they were going next. For that reason, NABU and SAPO prosecutors began working together. He added that the effectiveness of the investigation was largely made possible by the close cooperation between the two bodies.

Background:

• On the morning of 10 November, it was revealed that detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) had conducted searches at the homes of Tymur Mindich and then Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko (who has been suspended as of 12 November). Ukrainska Pravda sources also reported that Mindich left Ukraine hours before the searches.
• That same day, NABU reported that they had exposed a large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector and released audio recordings.
• Ruslan Mahamedrasulov was the head of one of NABU's interregional detective departments and coordinated NABU's activities in the frontline Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in the city of Dnipro.
• The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) claimed that Mahamedrasulov "is in touch with representatives of the aggressor country and helps his businessman father conduct illegal trade with Russia".
• The NABU unit head was remanded in custody until 16 September 2025 on suspicion of abetting the aggressor state by the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv without the option of bail.
• Mahamedrasulov was one of the key NABU employees involved in documenting the activities of businessman Tymur Mindich, a co-owner of Kvartal 95 Studio, the Ukrainian production company Volodymyr Zelenskyy founded before he became president.
• According to UP sources in business circles, SAPO and NABU employees "managed to document Mindich in an apartment at the same address where Zelenskyy's birthday celebration took place five years ago".

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