Tymur Mindich was sent to custody in absentia

The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has imposed a preventive measure on businessman Tymur Mindich, who appears in the NABU case on corruption at “Energoatom”.

This is reported by Suspilne.

Arrest in absentia is necessary to put Mindich on the international wanted list.

Mindich was defended in court by a state attorney, but the suspect could not be reached. Due to the absentia trial, he was not granted bail.

The court ruled to switch to closed mode, explaining that certain information could harm the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation and state security.

Prosecutors explained that after the preventive measure is chosen, the case may be transferred to Interpol for the detention of Mindich, including when crossing the border. The participants in the process stated that his whereabouts are unknown.

Previously, journalists found out that Mindich used the services of a Lviv "VIP taxi" and left Ukraine a few hours before the NABU detectives searched his apartment.

Political crisis and corruption investigation in the energy sector

On November 10 and 11, NABU released four parts of the wiretap audio recordings and announced a large-scale "Midas" operation 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 and products supplied or losing their supplier status. This practice was called "barrier".

According to NABU, members of the organization systematically received 10-15% as a bribe from “Energoatom” counterparties. Using this scheme, they legalized approximately $100 million through an office owned by the family of former MP and current senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach.

Five people were detained in this case, and seven were declared suspects. Their names were later announced by the SAPO prosecutor at court hearings:

• businessman Tymur Mindich, who appeared in NABU records as "Carlson" and is considered the organizer of the scheme;
• former advisor to the Minister of Energy Ihor Myronyuk (“Rocket”);
• Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security of JSC NNEGC “Energoatom” Dmytro Basov (“Tenor”);
• four "employees" of the back office for money laundering: Oleksandr Zukerman ("Sugarman"), Ihor Fursenko ("Rioshyk"), Lesya Ustymenko and Lyudmila Zorina.

Myronyuk, Basov, Zorina, Fursenko, and Ustymenko have already been sent to custody, and sanctions have been imposed against Mindich and Zukerman. Subsequently, a total of 37 million hryvnias in bail was posted for Zorina and Ustymenko, and 95 million hryvnias for Fursenko.

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

The SAPO prosecutor claimed that one of the defendants in the case interviewed Svitlana Hrynchuk, who later replaced Halushchenko as Minister of Energy.

Hrynchuk and Halushchenko were dismissed from their posts as heads of the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Justice. In addition, Zelensky removed both ministers from the National Security and Defense Council.

NABU also claims that the participants in the scheme transferred money to former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was suspected of illegal enrichment and sent to custody for 2 months. The next day, journalists from Schemes, citing sources, reported that bail was paid for him — over 51.6 million hryvnias.

On November 11, the SAPO prosecutor stated that Tymur Mindich, who is considered the organizer of the scheme, tried to put pressure on Rustem Umerov when he was the Minister of Defense.

Umerov himself called this statement “baseless” and claimed that as Minister of Defense he regularly met with manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and weapons, including Mindich. At the meetings, they discussed the issue of bulletproof vests under a contract that was later terminated “due to the products not meeting the requirements”.

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