Deputy Prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO) Andriy Synyuk resigned at his own request.
He reported this to Babel.
Synyuk also said that an internal investigation is ongoing. At the same time, he denied that he was searched.
According to the former deputy, he decided to leave SAPO before the official investigation was completed in order to avoid speculation about his influence on the course and outcome of the case.
Later, SAPO confirmed that Deputy Prosecutor Andriy Synyuk resigned of his own free will on November 14. The prosecutorʼs office noted that the head of SAPO does not have the authority to unilaterally dismiss his deputies — only the Prosecutor General can do this.
At the same time, a pre-trial investigation into a possible leak of restricted information is ongoing at NABU. An internal investigation is also being conducted at SAPO itself.
In November, Babel suggested that Andriy Synyuk was the person involved in the NABUʼs “Midas” operation. However, prosecutors never named him, only specifying that since October 26, 2025, "one of the heads of the prosecutorʼs office" had been reporting on the facts of the pre-trial investigation in this case.
Later, Ukrainska Pravda published videos of Synyuk meeting with lawyer Oleksiy Meniv. And he visits the house where Mindich lives. Synyuk himself, in his comment to UP, noted that he did not know that Tymur Mindych had an apartment in this house.
According to him, his friend Meniv lives there. Synyuk says that Meniv himself contacted the UP journalist to provide a lease agreement, but he was ignored.
After the story was published, SAPO reported that its head, Oleksandr Klymenko, had launched an internal investigation related to a possible leak of information from the pre-trial investigation, but no names were named.
Political crisis and corruption investigation in the energy sector
On November 10 and 11, NABU released four parts of the wiretap audio recordings and reported 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 Dmitry 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 UAH 37 million in bail was paid for Zorina and Ustymenko.
The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, who at the time was Herman Halushchenko. He was searched in the case, and on November 12 he was removed from his post 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.
Both ministers have resigned, the government has already voted to dismiss Svitlana Hrynchuk and Herman Halushchenko from the posts of 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 a bail of over UAH 51.6 million was paid for him.
After these events, President Zelensky and Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced an audit of the largest state-owned companies and a large-scale "reset" in energy management.
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