The head of the Presidentʼs Office (OP) Andriy Yermak has submitted a resignation letter. Before that, NABU and SAPO conducted searches at his residence.
This was reported by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He also reported the reboot of the Office of the President. On November 29, Zelensky plans to hold consultations with candidates for the position of head of the Office of the President.
Yermak will also no longer participate in negotiations with the Americans — Zelensky had previously appointed him head of the Ukrainian delegation.
"I am grateful to Andriy for always presenting the Ukrainian position in the negotiation track exactly as it should be. It has always been a patriotic position. But I want there to be no rumors and speculation," Zelensky added.
Subsequently, a decree on the dismissal of the head of OP appeared on the presidentʼs website.
On the morning of November 28, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office came to search Andriy Yermakʼs home. He said he was cooperating with investigators.
Financial Times chief correspondent in Kyiv Christopher Miller, citing sources, wrote that the searches at Yermakʼs house were related to the “Midas” investigation, a corruption case at “Energoatom”.
Previously, the MP from “Voice” Yaroslav Zheleznyak claimed that Yermak appears on the "Mindich recordings" under the code name "Ali Baba".
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 recordings 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, Ustymenko have already been sent to custody, and sanctions have been imposed against Mindich and Zukerman. Subsequently, a total of 37 million hryvnias were paid as bail for Zorina and Ustymenko. Later, 95 million hryvnias were paid for Fursenko.
The NABU tapes 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.
Both ministers resigned, the government voted to dismiss Hrynchuk and 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 bail was paid for Chernyshov — over 51.6 million hryvnias.
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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