The Kyiv City Prosecutorʼs Office, together with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the city of Kyiv and the region, detained the former acting first vice president of “Energoatom” and the former deputy minister of energy.
This is stated in a statement by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
The detainee is accused of organizing manipulations during the conclusion of an insurance contract for nuclear damage. His name is not given, but it is likely Yuriy Sheyk.
According to the investigation, on August 1, 2022, the official concluded an agreement with the public joint-stock company (PJSC) "Prosto-Insurance" for 105.642 million hryvnias.
As it turned out, the company is almost 100% owned by the Cypriot LAVIDIA LIMITED. Two other secondary owners are PJSC "Life and Pension" and a citizen of Ukraine.
The Cypriot company is linked to an Armenian citizen who controlled part of the operations at the subsidiary R-Inter (formerly RESO-Inter), a financial group of the Russian holding company RESO.
In addition, PJSC "Life and Pension", which also appears in this scheme, has a Russian citizen among its shareholders — the president of the Russian company "RESO".
The official signed an additional agreement with “Prosto-Strakhuvania” on August 12 — he overstated the amount of the contract to 130.925 million hryvnias without legal grounds, referring to the alleged decision of the German reinsurer "Yasp".
He overstated the cost of services by 18.6 million hryvnias and withdrew this amount from a strategic enterprise. For this, he is being charged with misappropriation of property. The maximum penalty is 12 years in prison.
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 “Energoatomʼs” 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 recrdings 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.
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.”
On Monday, December 1, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) chose a preventive measure for businessman Tymur Mindich. Arrest in absentia is necessary to put Mindich on the international wanted list.
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