“Midas” worth 18 million: how Fedorov’s friend Artem Borodatyuk took control of the advertising budget for the scandalous “Sens Bank”

“Midas” worth 18 million: how Fedorov’s friend Artem Borodatyuk took control of the advertising budget for the scandalous “Sens Bank”

The resignation of Mykhailo Fedorov from the post of minister of defense provoked considerable outrage among a certain segment of society. Weekly rallies, people holding cardboard signs demanding his return to office, ultimately resulted in unclear statements from Fedorov himself about the need to hold elections during the war and then his departure with the announcement that he was becoming an advisor to the Italian minister of defense.

The cardboard rallies subsided, and social networks mentioned Mykhailo Fedorov less. But from the people who supported him on social media and who spread calls in the comments to bring him back to office, you can clearly identify his friends. Among them is a fairly well-known figure in advertising circles, DJs, and other fans of “match on a banana,” the owner of the agency Fractal, Artem Borodatyuk. It turned out that Borodatyuk and Fedorov may be not just friends but accomplices in schemes involving the notorious “Sens Bank.”

“Sens Bank” came into the public spotlight after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office published materials and audio recordings in the case codenamed “Midas.” The recordings, among other things, discussed appointing a state-controlled supervisory board to “Sens Bank,” and businessman Vasyl Veselyi was considered the so-called overseer.

In August of 2026, NABU and the SAP released new tapes related to finding solutions to problems of the figures in the “Midas” case. The new series was titled “Forrest Gump.” The materials revealed that the deputy head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, discussed with MP from the banned party OPZZh Vadym Stolar and former head of Ukrbud Maksym Mykytas a scheme to collect bail for ex-minister Herman Halushchenko, who was implicated in the “Midas” case. The money was brought in cash “by the bag” and processed through the controlled “Sens Bank.”

A nuance — among the documents published by law enforcement is a so-called crisis action plan intended to frame the work of the parliamentary temporary investigative commission auditing anti-corruption agencies in a favorable light. The plan envisioned involving political Telegram channels, leading media, experts, and even foreign platforms. Quite unexpectedly, this “talking points” document includes outlets conditionally close to Fedorov — Bihus.info and “Nashi Groshi.” It even lists Ukrainska Pravda and NV, which actively stand with anti-corruption activists.

Separately in the talking points is a section on using social networks — “messages for an international audience, think tanks, policy brief, dashboards, analytics for international partners.” All of this is precisely what Artem Borodatyuk’s agency Fractal does, which until August of 2025 was named Netpeak.

Fractal group essentially grew out of an SMM agency that handled advertising, online promotion, and increasing website traffic for companies. Until 2022, Borodatyuk’s firms also operated in the Russian Federation market.

Today Fractal has a wide range of businesses, such as website development, an IT hub that rents offices to startups, educational centers for programmers, non-governmental organizations, and a recruiting division. The latter notably handled personnel selection for the Ministry of Digital Transformation when it was headed by Fedorov.

While Mykhailo Fedorov worked at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, media outlets actively published materials hinting at his possible influence on legal and illegal businesses through the agency “PlayCity.” MP from the Tax Committee Danylo Hetmantsev also hinted at this.

In June of 2026, Hetmantsev declared from the parliamentary tribune: “The black gambling market led by Fedorov and his Bornyakovs resists as best it can. And, unfortunately, finds allies among deputies with low social responsibility. Thanks to these political mercenaries, it has not been possible to remove the notorious ‘PlayCity’ from their purview today. The alliance of ‘busifiers,’ ‘card players,’ and ‘fiery oppositionists’ worked. Of course, when 20 billion hryvnias of underpayments to the state budget are at stake, there is money for lobbying to preserve the existing dirty scheme. So, Fedorov with the Bornyakovs and ‘Sens Bank’ can breathe a little for now.”

In May of 2026, the publication Ekonomichna Pravda, analyzing the Mindich tapes in the “Midas” case, directly called “Sens Bank” a monopolist of the gambling business. “‘Sens Bank’ can take an ‘unofficial’ commission for servicing gambling companies. For example, the official commission rate for transactions is 1,7%, but the company pays the bank 2,2%. These 0,5% are allegedly paid out as ‘kickbacks’ to potential beneficiaries of the scheme,” the publication wrote.

In June of 2026, when the “Midas” case had already been discussed for almost a year, Netpik LLC, owned by Artem Borodatyuk, won a public tender for placing advertising materials in the network for “Sens Bank.” The contract amount was 18 million hryvnias. The official contract was signed in August of 2026 for a term of one year.

At the same time, after Fedorov’s dismissal from the Ministry of Defense, it became known that he was being summoned to a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada’s temporary investigative commission on the “Midas” case, which involves “Sens Bank.” The former minister did not appear at the meeting and went on an overseas business trip. According to MP Oleksii Honcharenko, the reason was a booking from the International Charitable Organization “Eastern Europe” that he received a few days after his dismissal.

Thus, if Fedorov really could have had some influence over “Sens Bank,” that would make him a de facto accomplice in the “Midas” case. At the same time, his friend Artem Borodatyuk, a month before Fedorov’s dismissal from the Ministry of Defense, received a state contract to advertise this very “toxic” bank in the amount of 18 million hryvnias.

In August of 2025 and in June of 2026, Netpik LLC won two public tenders to place advertising for Ukrgasbank. The contract amounts were 6,6 million and 3,5 million hryvnias, respectively.

It was previously reported that Ukrgasbank could also have been involved in shadow schemes of the gambling business. In March of 2023 it was fined 64,6 million hryvnias for violations in the area of financial monitoring. In its press release, Ukrgasbank essentially confirmed that the essence of the violations was related to the gambling business.

“As soon as Ukrgasbank learned about the systematic nature of such violations, it immediately blocked the terminals of companies violating rules in the gambling industry, and also initiated the process of terminating acquiring agreements with affiliated and associated participants, and reviewed and significantly strengthened its own internal control system for cashless payment operations,” the press release says.

It is also known that from July of 2023 to July of 2026, Andrii Svystun was a member of the supervisory board of the scandalous “Sens Bank.” Prior to that he was on the supervisory board of the aforementioned Ukrgasbank.

So Borodatyuk’s firm won state tenders for advertising banking structures with a “questionable track record” and, likely, ties to the gambling business totaling 28 million hryvnias in the last year.

And this despite the fact that, according to official data, Netpik LLC showed a loss of just over 91 million hryvnias for the 2025 year. In 2024, the company’s net profit was 2,1 million hryvnias.

Interestingly, in that same 2024 year an Audi SQ8 2023 model year was registered to Netpik LLC, and a brand-new LEXUS LM 350H was registered to the company created together with his brother and father — Promotion Development Group LLC.

Previously, Artem Borodatyuk’s official registered address was an apartment where his father and brother also lived. According to registers, in 2024 he changed his registration to an apartment in central Odesa, located 9 minutes’ walk from the Odesa Philharmonic.

Borodatyuk’s wife works in photography and most likely lives in Barcelona. This is evidenced by a corresponding caption on Instagram.

The ex-minister Fedorov is subscribed to both of them on social networks. Along with him are well-known Ukrainian singers, models, influencers, and bloggers, most of whom stood with cardboard signs supporting Fedorov.

The friendly relationship between Artem Borodatyuk and Mykhailo Fedorov is a private matter. What is of public importance, however, is what the ex-minister actually knew about the “Sens Bank” case. While his friend Borodatyuk won a million-hryvnia state tender from the budget to advertise that very bank.