MP and head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech Yaroslav Yurchyshyn published on Facebook a list of journalists who were monitored by those involved in the “Midas” case. According to him, he received the list from NABU and is publishing it with their permission.
In the list:
- Maryna Ansiforova is a journalist at LIGA ZAKON. She previously worked at Bihus.Info, Ukrainska Pravda, and the corporate intelligence company COSA.
- Yuriy Butusov is the editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, currently a military man.
- Stanislav Rechinsky is the founder of the "ORD" website.
- Volodymyr Fedorin is the head of Forbes Ukraine.
- Olha Chaika is a former journalist for Forbes Ukraine, who, among other things, wrote about Ukrainian energy.
- Yuriy Nikolov is a co-founder of the "Our Money" project.
- Andriy Kulikov is the head of the "Commission on Journalistic Ethics".
- As well as the founder of "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia" Volodymyr Mostovy, who died in November 2023, and the co-founder of the "Our Money" project Oleksa Shalaisky, who died this October.
Yurchyshyn says that this leads to an article about interference in private life. But law enforcement officers cannot simply open a case based on his appeal — the victims must write a statement themselves.
The files that the Midas case participants collected on NABU detectives, journalists, and MPs were reported by the anti-corruption bureau on November 25. A total of 527 references are known, including: 15 NABU detectives, 16 MPs, 18 ministers and their deputies, 9 SBU employees, 10 journalists, and the former heads of “Ukrenergo” and “Natogaz”.
The “Midas” case
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 the 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, 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 UAH 95 million for Fursenko.
The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, who at the time was Herman Halushchenko. He was searched as part of the case.
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, and 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 two months. The next day, journalists from Schemes, citing sources, reported that a bail of over UAH 51.6 million was paid for him.
On December 1, the Supreme Court of Ukraine remanded in custody in absentia Tymur Mindich, who is considered one of the organizers of a corruption scheme in the energy sector.
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