Zelenskyy's Former Chief of Staff named as suspect in major corruption probe
NABU and SAPO say the former presidential chief of staff was tied to a 460 million hryvnia laundering scheme through luxury construction projects.
- On Monday, Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies charged Andriy Yermak, former chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, with money laundering. Prosecutors allege he laundered $8.9 million through luxury real estate near Kyiv, though Yermak denies ownership.
- These charges stem from Operation Midas, an ongoing investigation into an alleged $100 million plot to skim funds from Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned energy company. Anti-corruption investigators spent 15 months wiretapping to uncover the scheme.
- Prosecutors also charged former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and businessman Timur Mindich in connection to the probe. The group allegedly laundered assets over four years through a cottage complex in Kozyn, a settlement of 3,500 people.
- Yermak appeared in court on Tuesday for a hearing on preventive measures following the notice of suspicion, Ukraine's equivalent of an indictment. The legal action follows intense public pressure on law enforcement to address high-level corruption.
- Battling corruption remains a priority as Ukraine seeks European Union membership. Transparency International recently gave the nation a score of 36 out of 100 on the Corruption Perceptions Index, underscoring systemic graft challenges.
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171 Articles
Key Zelenskyy aides under corruption cloud: What are they accused of?
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff and close aide, is now at the centre of the country’s biggest corruption investigation since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.Anticorruption authorities named him an official suspect on Monday in an alleged multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme linked to a luxury housing project outside the capital, Kyiv.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listYermak a…
Ukrainian anti-corruption probe raises question of top government accountability
The once second most powerful man in Ukraine, Andri Jermak, is increasingly in distress in the affair of bribes in the energy sector. Jermak is now officially regarded as a suspect. The investigation also indirectly burdened President Selensky.
According to the Telegraph, the corruption allegations against Andrey Yermak could cause serious political damage to the Ukrainian leadership.
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