Operation “Midas”: NABU stated that participants in the scheme transferred money to the former Deputy Prime Minister

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) claims that those involved in the energy corruption case transferred funds to the former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.

Law enforcement officers do not specify the ministerʼs name, indicating only his code name (callsign) — "Che Guevara".

In total, the transfer of $1.2 million and almost €100 000 in cash was recorded.

The last amount — $500 000 — was already transferred to the wife of "Che Guevara" after he became a suspect in corruption crimes by NABU and SAPO, the agency reports.

The “Energoatom” case

On the morning of November 10, NABU reported a large-scale operation "Midas" to expose corruption in the energy sector.

According to the bureau, “Energoatom” counterparties were forced to pay kickbacks in order to avoid blocking payments for services provided and products delivered or being stripped of supplier status. This practice was called "barrier".

Five people were detained in this case, and seven were declared suspects. These are:

• a businessman — the head of a criminal organization, who appeared in NABU recordings as "Carlson";
• former advisor to the Minister of Energy — "Rocket";
• Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security of JSC NNEGC “Energoatom” — "Tenor";
• four "employees" of the back office for money laundering.

NABU does not name any of the defendants, but the MP from “Voice” Yaroslav Zheleznyak claims that "Carlson" is Tymur Mindich, who is called a friend of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and one of the co-owners of the company "Studio Kvartal-95".

According to Zheleznyak, "Rocket" is the former advisor to the Minister of Energy Ihor Myronyuk, and "Tenor" is the executive director for physical protection and security of “Energoatom” Dmytro Basov.

The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, a position held at the time by Herman Halushchenko, the current Minister of Justice of Ukraine. He was searched as part of the case.

According to NABU, in the case of corruption in the energy sector, the defendants legalized approximately $100 million through an office owned by the family of the former MP and current Senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach.

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