UP wrote about a possible case against the President’s friend and former business partner Tymur Mindich in the summer of 2025, when the authorities were trying to limit the independence of NABU and SAPO.
Journalists claimed that detectives had almost prepared a suspicion for him. The MP Oleksiy Honcharenko added that NABU could have wiretapped Mindich’s apartment, which is located in the house where the President used to live. For several months, various media outlets, Telegram channels, and bloggers wondered whether the “Mindich recordings” existed and — if so — what exactly they were about. NABU and SAPO did not provide any official confirmation of the existence of the recordings.
On November 10, 2025, anti-corruption authorities published two recordings (1 and 2) with a total duration of about an hour. It is unknown whether these are the same “Mindich recordings” that were talked about in the media.
The recordings fixed conversations between several people who call each other not by their names, but by code names (nicknames). Anti-corruption authorities claim that these are conversations between members of a “high-level criminal organization” that built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises, in particular “Energoatom”.
None of the individuals involved in NABU and SAPO are named by their real names, but they were identified by the MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, and later by the media. That’s who it is about:
“Rocket” is Ihor Myronyuk. He is a former advisor to the Minister of Energy. According to NABU, he is the “watcher” of “Energoatom”, who organized a scheme of kickbacks of 10% to 15% of the amount of contracts that the company concluded with suppliers. Myronyuk studied at a military institution with Andriy Derkach. Later — from 2002 to 2012 — he was his assistant. Derkach has now fled to Russia and is a senator from the Astrakhan region in the State Duma. In Ukraine, he is accused of high treason. Myroniuk was also deputy head of the State Property Fund.
“Tenor” is Dmytro Basov. He is a former law enforcement officer, served in the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office in 2014-2015. Basov was part of the group that investigated the Heavenly Hundred shootings and the economic crimes of fugitive ex-president Yanukovych. At the time of the recordings, he was the executive director for physical protection and security at “Energoatom”.
“Carlson” is Tymur Mindich. NABU calls him a businessman and the head of a criminal organization. In the past, Mindich was one of Ihor Kolomoiskyiʼs closest friends. Since 2013, he has been Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs partner in "Studio Kvartal-95". The media often associate Mindich with the authorities — in particular, with the former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, Minister of Justice Herman Halushchenko, and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk are called his people.
“Ryoshyk”. His real name is unknown. He is a "back office" employee who was involved in the legalization of funds received. NABU calls him the chief accountant of the criminal organization.
“Sugarman”. His real name is unknown. He helped launder money. Possibly, it may be businessman Mykhailo Zukerman. According to UP, he — along with Mindich — may become a subject of the FBIʼs money laundering investigation.
“Lyuda”. She is the Finance Director of “Energoatom”.
“Professor”. He is Herman Halushchenko. He is the head of the Ministry of Justice. He himself is not on the recordings, but there are mentions of him.
Basov and Myroniuk came up with a scheme under which “Energoatom” paid suppliers a “kickback” of 10-15% of the contract amount.
If the companies refused such conditions, they were threatened with stopping payments and subsequently being removed from the list of suppliers. “Rocket” and “Tenor” involved some heads of “Energoatom” structural divisions in the scheme (in particular the unidentified “Oleh”, who was a business partner and was supposed to negotiate “kickback” payments with suppliers).
Basov and Myroniuk transferred eight percent of the kickback to the acting chairman of the board of “Energoatom” (until August 2025, the acting chairman was Pavlo Kovtonyuk).
NABU claims that Basov and Myroniuk could appoint people to positions at “Energoatom”, and Basov could stop payments under contracts and slow down the conclusion of new ones, even against the instructions of the companyʼs head.
"Tenor" and "Rocket", i.e. Basov and Myroniuk.
In July 2025, Myroniuk and Basov discussed the construction of protective structures at power plants.
Basov talks about a company that is ready to install protection for NPP transformers for 4 billion [the currency is not specified, but, most likely, it is UAH].
But since they received only 90 [what exactly — thousands of USD or UAH — is not clear] from the previous contract for 3 billion with the same supplier, they decided to wait a month with the new contract for shelter.
In September 2025, Basov and Myroniuk discussed the construction of protective structures at the Khmelnytskyi NPP.
They doubt whether they should be built, but in the end, Basov says that the construction should still be completed.
“To be honest, I literally can’t understand whether it’s really worth burying so much money again? Is it necessary? Well, probably, it should be finished. At the same time, they give 0.10 [this is about 10% of the kickback], but it is enough those who want to withdraw this money for 0.15%. We can say it is about the Odesa resident, or Rostik... or it is possible (...unintelligible...) to work... [with it],” says Basov.
The second batch of recordings is dedicated to the legalization of illegally obtained money.
According to NABU, the criminals used a so-called “back office”. It is located in a building belonging to the family of Andriy Derkach.
Basov and Myroniuk discuss various schemes for legalizing money so that their financial trail is difficult to trace.
Myroniuk says that there should be a balance between “wanting” [of money] and “scary” [of going to prison]. Fear should win in this story. And the money should be legalized in such a way that it can be used, because otherwise it is not clear why they should take it at all. Myroniuk thinks that there should be a scheme under which neither the special services nor the organizations fighting money laundering would be able to find anything. Basov adds that “we are not doing anything essentially illegal here”.
The recordings contain conversations between “Sugarman”, who helped launder the money, and “Rioshyk”, whom NABU calls the organizationʼs chief accountant.
The money was laundered abroad, transferred to cryptocurrencies, then to cash, then converted to another currency. The geography was also wide — the recordings mention both Moscow and Atlanta in the USA. NABU adds that the money could have been laundered in Africa as well.
"Back office" — those who helped launder money. NABU calls them "Sugarman" and "Ryoshyk".
The money of several tens of thousands of euros were brought to Alex in Moscow by Big Boss.
It is not clear from the recordings who this is about. NABU does not specify this information.
The “back office” legalized money for others as well.
In total, about $100 million was laundered through it during the investigation. NABU fully documented the facts of legalization of more than $5 million in favour of the advisor to the Minister of Energy Myroniuk.
In February 2025, according to NABU, he transferred $250 000 “to the laundry”, in March 2025 — almost $840 000 and €100 000 through the “back office”, and in April 2025 already $3 million.
Mindich and Halushchenko are mentioned once in the recordingss.
On February 20, 2025, “Sugarman” says:
“In fact, Tymur [apparently Mindich] is in a relationship with Hera [apparently Herman Halushchenko], it surfaced quite recently.”
Halushchenko’s own voice is not heard on the already released tapes.
The recordings contain one quote from “Carlson” (i.e. Mindich), whom detectives call an influential businessman:
“Well, it’s going to be loud… I don’t want to arouse suspicion.”
According to NABU and SAPO, it was he who controlled the activities of the “back office”.
The Bureau announces that they will dedicate a separate section to “Carlson”.
Tymur Mindich fled Ukraine the night before the searches, and NABU promises new recordings specifically about him. Herman Halushchenko has not yet been heard on the recordings.
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