The State Border Service of Ukraine: Tymur Mindich left Ukraine legally. He is involved in the “Energoatom” corruption case

The State Border Service of Ukraine (SBSU) reported that it had conducted an internal investigation into the border crossing of businessman Tymur Mindich (known in the NABU recordings under the code name “Carlson”).

Ukrainska Pravda reported that Mindich left Ukraine a few hours before the NABU searches related to the “Energoatom” corruption case.

SBSU noted that the businessman had all the necessary documents to leave during martial law, so they issued it at one of the border checkpoints.

In response to a clarifying question from Babel, the spokesman for the State Border Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko noted that the reason Mindich had the right to leave was the presence of three children under the age of 18.

The State Border Service of Ukraine added that they did not receive any instructions from law enforcement officers regarding Mindich, in particular about his search or a ban on leaving Ukraine.

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/products delivered or losing their 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 records 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 adviser to the Minister of Energy Ihor Myronyuk, and "Tenor" is the executive director for physical protection and security of “Energoatom” Dmytro Basov, who has already been sent under arrest.

The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, the position held by Herman Halushchenko at the time. He was searched in the case, and on November 12, he was removed from his position as Minister of Justice.

NABU also claims that the participants in the scheme transferred money to the former Deputy Prime Minister. Presumably, this is Oleksiy Chernyshov. He has already been charged with illegal enrichment.

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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