Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Bureau completes investigation into high-profile Midas case
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have completed their pre-trial investigation into the Midas case, a large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector involving senior officials at Energoatom, a former deputy prime minister, a former energy minister and businessman Tymur Mindich.
Quote from NABU: "An investigation has found that members of the group systematically received illicit payments from contractors working with Energoatom and companies under the authority of the Ministry of Energy, amounting to 10-15% of the contract value.
A separate office within the criminal organisation was responsible for laundering the illegally obtained funds.
Investigators established that more than US$111 million and €12 million in cash from the energy sector had been accumulated and transferred to this office between 2020 and 2025."
Details: The authorities report that the suspects had established a corruption scheme to exert influence over strategically important state-owned companies, including Energoatom, obtain illicit payments and launder money.
The detectives also established that the criminal organisation had received funds from other sources.
Various financial instruments were used to launder the money, including cryptocurrency, securities and an overseas investment fund.
During the investigation, NABU and SAPO took steps to freeze the criminal organisation's assets both in Ukraine and abroad.
Efforts to trace and freeze the organisation's assets will continue.
Several other criminal proceedings have spun off from the main case, covering the payment and receipt of unlawful benefits in the energy sector and the laundering of money on behalf of other individuals.
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Background:
- On the morning of 10 November 2025, it emerged that NABU was conducting searches at properties linked to businessman Tymur Mindich and former justice minister Herman Halushchenko (who was suspended from his post on 12 November 2025). Ukrainska Pravda sources also reported that Mindich had fled abroad just hours before the searches.
- On the same day, NABU announced that it had uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme involving the embezzlement of funds in the energy sector and released audio recordings of conversations between individuals implicated in the case.
- On 11 November 2025, journalists identified all the individuals who had been served with a notice of suspicion by NABU in the large-scale corruption investigation involving Energoatom. According to the investigative journalism project Skhemy (Schemes), the suspects were Tymur Mindich [referred to as "Karlsson" in the audio recordings released by NABU – ed.], former adviser to the energy minister Ihor Myroniuk ("Rocket"), Energoatom's Executive Director for Security Dmytro Basov ("Tenor"), Oleksandr Tsukerman ("Sugarman"), Ihor Fursenko ("Rioshyk"), Lesia Ustymenko and Liudmyla Zorina. Five of the suspects were detained, while two – Mindich and Tsukerman – had left Ukraine.
- Basov, Myroniuk, Fursenko, Ustymenko and Zorina were placed under pre-trial restrictions with the option of bail. It later emerged that the High Anti-Corruption Court had received bail payments for Lesia Ustymenko and Liudmyla Zorina, employees of the back office involved in money laundering linked to Energoatom.
- On 13 November 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted a decision by the National Security and Defence Council to impose sanctions on businessman Tymur Mindich, a co-owner of the Kvartal 95 production studio and an associate of Zelenskyy, and businessman Oleksandr Tsukerman.
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