NABU and SAPO have completed the investigation into the case of the former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and five other defendants. They are suspected of abuse of office and taking bribes.
NABU writes about this.
NABU is not naming names, but one of the suspects is believed to be Deputy Prime Minister for National Unity Oleksiy Chernyshov, who previously served as Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine.
According to the investigation, one of the capitalʼs developers wanted to illegally obtain a land plot in Kyiv for residential development. To do this, he turned to the leadership of the Ministry of Regional Development. The minister, the state secretary of the department, the advisor and the director of the state enterprise helped create a scheme for transferring the land to this state enterprise.
After that, the state-owned enterprise concluded investment agreements with the "right" construction company. Under the terms of the agreements, the developer was supposed to transfer a part of the apartments to the state — depending on the value of the land. But the land and buildings on it were valued almost five times cheaper than the market price. Because of this, the state could lose real estate worth more than a billion hryvnias.
The investigation also found that the developer "repaid" the minister and other participants in the scheme for their help with large discounts on apartments in already built residential complexes. A square meter cost them from UAH 1 000 to 8 000, while the market price was almost UAH 30 000.
The total amount of such benefits for the minister exceeded UAH 14.5 million. The scheme failed to be implemented — NABU and SAPO managed to seize this plot. The court seized most of the apartments obtained under this scheme.
Chernyshov is also suspected of abuse of office and taking bribes, building estates worth tens of millions of hryvnias in Kozyn, and in the “Energoatom” case.
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 UAH 37 million 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 bail was paid for him — over UAH 51.6 million.
On December 1, HACC sent Tymur Mindich into custody in absentia.
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