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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Last year NABU and the SAP reported suspicions against a number of high-ranking officials and their accomplices who are involved in various episodes of the “Midas” case, which concerns corruption in the energy sector and money laundering. This year the anti-corruption agencies announced the exposure of new schemes as part of operations “Forrest Gump” and “Themis.” Altogether, bail totaling more than half a billion was posted for the “Midas” defendants.
The ZN.UA publication calculated the amounts of bail set for the defendants in all of these proceedings and how much has actually been paid so far.
For former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, who is suspected of coordinating a kickback scheme from Energoatom contractors, the court set bail at 150 million UAH instead of the 200 million sought by prosecutors — this amount was posted in June 2026.
For former Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, who, according to the investigation, was involved in legalizing funds through the Dynastiya cooperative, the court set bail at 140 million UAH (instead of 180 million UAH) — it was fully paid in May 2026, after which Yermak was released from pretrial detention.
For former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, linked to the same cooperative and to receiving cash through the “Mindich laundry,” the court set bail at 51,6 million UAH — the money was posted in November 2025.
Bail has also been paid for other figures in the “Mindich tapes”: for Ihor Fursenko — 95 million UAH, for Dmytro Basov — 40 million UAH, for Lesya Ustymenko and Lyudmyla Zorina — 25 and 12 million UAH respectively. At the same time, the bail of 85 million UAH for Ihor Myroniuk, whom the investigation calls the “watcher” in Energoatom, has not yet been paid, and he remains in custody.
In total, bail totaling just over 513 million UAH has been posted for the defendants who ended up in pretrial detention in the “Midas” case.
According to the outlet’s calculations, that sum could have bought about 25 thousand strike FPV drones — enough to equip an entire corps for several months of active combat. Alternatively, those funds would cover the cost of 340–390 new four-wheel-drive pickups for several brigades, or about 2 thousand dome-style electronic warfare kits to protect thousands of crews and firing positions from enemy drones.
In the newer cases — “Forrest Gump” and “Themis” — bail has not yet been posted.
For former MP Maksym Mykytas, who is suspected of forming a criminal group together with current MP Vadym Stolar, the court set bail at 30 million UAH instead of the 200 million sought. The head of Metrobud LLC, Valentyn Yelizarov, subordinate to Mykytas, was assigned bail of 20 million UAH (instead of 35 million UAH).
For former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra, who repeatedly appears on the recordings of these operations, the court set bail at 20 million UAH, while the prosecution insisted on 150 million UAH.
On 21 December investigative journalists from Ukrainska Pravda reported that they had found businessman Timur Mindich in Israel.
As reported, on 1 December 2025 the High Anti-Corruption Court imposed pretrial detention on businessman Timur Mindich, who is implicated in the NABU and SAP investigation into corruption at Energoatom, uncovered as part of operation “Midas.”
Reminder:
On 10 November 2025 NABU and the SAP carried out the large-scale operation “Midas” aimed at exposing high-level corruption in the energy sector. The criminal organization’s main activity was systematically obtaining illicit gains from contractors of NAEC Energoatom in the amount of 10% to 15% of contract values. NABU and the SAP released some of the audio recordings from the investigation. Among the case figures are a close friend of the president and well-known businessman Timur Mindich, former Energy Minister, now Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, a former adviser to the minister of energy, and others.
The anti-corruption agencies reported suspicions against seven people for participating in the large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector and detained five. Suspicions were filed against businessman and co-founder of Studio Kvartal-95 Timur Mindich (codenamed “Karlson” on the NABU tapes), former adviser to the Energy Minister Ihor Myroniuk (“Rocket”), Energoatom’s executive director for security Dmytro Basov (“Tenor”), and four other “workers” of the so-called “back office for money legalization”: among them Oleksandr Tsukerman (“Sugarman”), Ihor Fursenko (“Ryoshyk”), Lesya Ustymenko and Lyudmyla Zorina. Former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov (“Che Guevara”) also received a suspicion.
NABU detectives established that about 100 million dollars flowed through the office of the participants in the scheme for embezzlement in Ukraine’s energy sector.
On 22 November it became known that Ukraine had placed Timur Mindich and Oleksandr Tsukerman, figures in the “Midas operation,” on the wanted list; they are suspected of committing corruption crimes.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "За фігурантів «Міндічгейту» внесли застав на понад 513 млн грн грн: їх вистачило б на 25 тисяч FPV-дронів – ZN.UA – Центр журналістських розслідувань". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: DosieNews.Info.
