Version 1: Thu, Dec 18, 2025
Image released by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on November 10, 2025 in connection with its probe of Energoatom - sott.net
Notice the labels include ‘ATLANTA’, ‘KAN CITY’, and ‘MINN’, that may refer to Federal Reserve Bank locations.
On Monday, November 10 Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) began searching the homes of several senior government officials and well known business people, including Timur Mindich, lon time friend and business associate of Prresident Zelensky.
A selection of quotes about the case. Added emphasis.
(A) Zelensky and NABU
Russia Today (RT 2025)
In July 2025, Zelensky moved to strip both NABU and SAP of their independence, pushing to place them under a loyal Prosecutor General. At that same moment - as is now known for certain - NABU was conducting secret surveillance against his longtime friend Timur Mindich.
Konstantin Skorkin on Carnegie (Skorkin 2025)
About six months ago, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted a large-scale operation against investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), an independent bureau established in 2015 on Western recommendations to combat corruption in the upper echelons of power without having to defer to traditional law enforcement agencies, which were often implicated in high-profile investigations.
The justification given for the SBU operation was that NABU investigators were collaborating with fugitive pro-Russian politicians and the Kremlin. “The anti-corruption infrastructure will work, only without Russian influence—it needs to be cleared of that,” Zelensky said at the time. Parliament swiftly voted to limit the powers of NABU and affiliated organizations. …
… Things did not go to plan, however. The EU’s reaction was extremely negative, and Kyiv and other major cities saw their first street protests—supported by local mayors—since the start of the full-scale war. The president’s team was forced to back down, but the damage was done.
Zelensky’s reputation in Europe suffered a major blow amid a wave of Western publications about Ukrainian corruption. Relations between the presidential administration and Zelensky’s Servant of the People party also deteriorated, with parliamentary deputies forced to vote for two contradictory resolutions. A significant part of Ukrainian society was unconvinced by the accusations that NABU detectives were working for Russia, and the whole episode was perceived as an attempt to protect the president’s inner circle from being investigated.
A photo of a golden toilet said to be from one of the bathrooms in the apartment of Zelenskyy’s former business partner Timur Mindich © Via Telegram/social media - Source: Financial Times
Comment: For citizens of countries that have helped Ukraine financially it may be of some consolation that the toilets are probably only gold-plated.
(B) The Graft Scheme
Russia Today (RT 2025)
The most detailed part of the scheme involves Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator. This company provides more than half of the country’s electricity - a lifeline during wartime blackouts. To shield the grid during the war, Ukrainian law introduced a special rule: courts are forbidden from enforcing debts against Energoatom until hostilities end. In practice, this meant that Energoatom paid contractors only after work was completed, but contractors could not sue the company to recover overdue payments, and therefore had no legal leverage if Energoatom simply refused to pay.
Mindich and his circle saw an opening - and turned it into a business.
According to prosecutors, Mindich (listed on recordings as “Karlson”) and his associates approached contractors with a simple proposition: Pay us 10-15% of your contract value - or you will not be paid at all.
If a company refused, its payments were blocked indefinitely. Some contractors were told outright that their firms would be destroyed, bankrupted, or stripped of their contracts. In several cases, threats escalated to warnings that company employees might be “mobilized” to the front.
Mindich and his team jokingly called the scheme “the shlagbaum” - the barrier. Pay, and the barrier lifts. Refuse, and your business collapses.
Tarik Cyril Amar on Russia Today (Amar 2025)
The gist of the mega-scandal is simple: a network of businessmen (really, gangsters) and politicians (really, gangsters) has used illegal control over Energoatom contracts to fleece anyone who wanted or had to do business with the strategically placed enterprise. As Ukrainian prosecutors have explained, the power of this Energoatom mafia permeated the company, ensuring “control over personnel decisions, procurement processes, and financial flows.” In fact, the management of a strategic enterprise … was carried out not by state officials, but by third parties who had no formal authority, [but] took on the role of ‘overseers’ or ‘shadow managers.’
None of this would have been possible without very close proximity to Zelensky and his fixer Andrey Yermak. The main capo of the Energoatom mafia was Timur Mindich (gangster nickname: “Karlson”), a close friend and media business partner of the ex-comedian president.
He was not just any friend: Mindich was the one who introduced Zelensky, then a mediocre - if profitably uninhibited - comedian and small-time businessman from the provinces to Igor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s richest and most sleazy oligarchs.
The officials who ran the Energoatom scheme collected kickbacks of 10–15 percent from the company’s contracts. The payoffs we know about total more than $100 million, making it the biggest corruption scandal ever discovered in Ukraine (which is no stranger to large-scale graft). Those responsible for fleecing Energoatom’s contractors exploited a wartime moratorium on debt collection against the state company, demanding bribes before paying for goods and services already delivered. This profiteering bankrupted several suppliers. It also guided decisions to build protective structures around Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, even as millions endured prolonged power outages. To ordinary Ukrainians, officials showed outrageous cynicism, treating these conditions as a “routine opportunity for gain.”
(C) Finally
This was not the first time: Zelensky and associates were listed on the Pandora Papers that came out in October 2021. Russia’s ‘special military operation’ started a few months later in February 2022 and very conveniently for the Ukrainian President the whole matter was forgotten.
One of the most vocal voices against Ukraine corruption is Andriy Derkach who fearing for his life left and is currently living in Russia. In 2024 he gave two interviews that are both available on the 21st Century Wire site with:
The Derkach family owns property in Kieb that was used by the Energoatom gang:
There’s even a Russian connection: the laundering scheme operated out of an office in downtown Kyiv owned by the family of Andriy Derkach, the former Verkhovna Rada member who fled to Russia in 2022 and later became a senator there. Additionally, Derkach’s former assistant, Igor Mironyuk, is a key suspect in NABU’s investigation.
Adding to the scandal’s toxicity is the involvement of people formerly associated with Andrei Derkach, the longtime head of Energoatom who defected to the Kremlin and is now a member of Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, the Federation Council. One of the defendants in the current scandal is Igor Mironyuk, a former aide to Derkach, and the “shadow office” at the heart of the corruption scheme was located in premises owned by Derkach’s family.
We are not going to speculate because this is a evolving story, only to comment that “All Is Fair in Love and War”.
In other news Zelensky chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned. Seems to me a desperate move to save a loosing game. Eventually we shall find exactly what happened, but in the mean time war and negotiations continue.
Notes and Resources
(Amar 2025) Ukraine corruption: Zelensky’s Western masters had better start looking for a new puppet https://www.sott.net/article/502948-Ukraine-corruption-Zelenskys-Western-masters-had-better-start-looking-for-a-new-puppet by Tarik Cyril Amar - RT - Fri, 14 Nov 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/z4NdB
(Derkach 2024a) Derkach Interview: New Documents Connect Biden Corruption and Burisma Scandal in Ukraine https://21stcenturywire.com/2024/01/17/derkach-interview-new-documents-connect-biden-corruption-and-burisma-scandal-ukraine/ Former Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach talks with Italian-American journalist Simona Mangiante - 21st Century Wire - Jan 17, 2024 - Archive https://archive.ph/SCRpp
(Derkach 2024b) EXCLUSIVE: The Roots of U.S. Corruption in Ukraine – Interview with Andriy Derkach https://21stcenturywire.com/2024/05/02/the-roots-of-u-s-corruption-in-ukraine-interview-with-andriy-derkach/ Former Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach talks with American independent journalist Patrick Henningsen - 21st Century Wire - May 2, 2024 - Archive https://archive.ph/qT81r
(Meduza 2025) Why hasn’t the biggest corruption scandal of Zelensky’s presidency forced him into political or diplomatic concessions? https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/11/26/why-hasn-t-the-biggest-corruption-scandal-of-zelensky-s-presidency-forced-him-into-political-or-diplomatic-concessions Meduza - November 26, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/3afED
(PRM 2025) Operation Midas: NABU issues suspicions to 7 people involved in corruption in the energy sector https://prm.ua/en/operation-midas-nabu-issues-suspicions-to-7-people-involved-in-corruption-in-the-energy-sector/ PRM - 11 November 2025 https://archive.ph/NiRdU
The organization laundered illegally obtained funds through an office in the center of Kyiv, which belonged to the family of former MP, now Senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach. About 100 million US dollars passed through the “laundry” , in particular through a network of foreign companies and cash withdrawals abroad.
(RT 2025a) Zelensky associate and justice minister raided by anti-graft agency https://www.sott.net/article/502881-Zelensky-associate-and-justice-minister-raided-by-anti-graft-agency RT - 10 Nov 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/1TF2Z
(RT2025b) Ukraine’s ‘EnergyGate’ scandal explained: Why it spells danger for Vladimir Zelensky https://www.sott.net/article/502979-Ukraines-EnergyGate-scandal-explained-Why-it-spells-danger-for-Vladimir-Zelensky RT - 12 Nov 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/zgk6n
(RT 2025c) The scandal Zelensky can’t escape: Inside Ukraine’s biggest corruption story https://www.sott.net/article/502981-The-scandal-Zelensky-cant-escape-Inside-Ukraines-biggest-corruption-story RT 14 Nov 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/pBz9P
(Skorkin 2025) The Corruption Scandal Engulfing Ukraine Won’t Die Down Anytime Soon: A corruption scandal unprecedented in scale is rocking President Zelensky’s inner circle https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/11/ukraine-corruption-scandal?lang=en By Konstantin Skorkin - Carnegie - November 18, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/bEorD
(UNN 2025) Money laundered through the office of the Derkach family in the center of Kyiv: NABU revealed new details of large-scale corruption in the energy sector https://unn.ua/en/news/money-laundered-through-the-office-of-the-derkach-family-in-the-center-of-kyiv-nabu-revealed-details-of-a-large-scale-corruption-scheme-in-the-energy-sector UN - November 10 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/4V7L8
According to the Bureau, the premises of the office that was engaged in money laundering belonged to the family of former MP and now Russian senator Andriy Derkach, whom NABU and SAP are prosecuting in another criminal case - treason.
(Voltaire Network 2025) Operation Midas exposes the corruption of the Ukrainian ruling class https://www.voltairenet.org/article223165.html Voltaire Network - Nov 14, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/5VhvG
Earlier posts:
- File: Corruption in Ukraine - 7e, Wed, Jun 19, 2024
- File: Panama, Paradise, Pandora - Fri, Apr 11, 2025
Started: Tue, November 25, 2025
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