Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau is examining the companies and individuals who posted multimillion-hryvnia bail for suspects in a kickback scheme at state nuclear operator Energoatom, amid indications some guarantors may be tied to the same “back office” accused of laundering government funds.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) is examining who paid tens of millions of hryvnias in bail for five suspects in “Operation Midas” – a sweeping corruption probe in the country’s energy sector.
Investigators want to know whether any of the money came from the same “back office” that allegedly laundered kickbacks and other illicit proceeds skimmed from state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom’s contracts.
Operation Midas is a 15-month-long probe into an alleged kickback network at state-owned Energoatom, where “shadow managers” and officials are accused of forcing suppliers to pay 10–15 percent bribes and laundering roughly $100 million through shell companies and cash “laundromats.”
In November, Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court jailed former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov with bail set at 51 million hryvnias (about $1.21 million), while Energoatom executive Dmytro Basov, ex–energy adviser Ihor Myroniuk, back-office accountant Ihor Fursenko, and alleged fixers Lesia Ustymenko and Lyudmyla Zorina also received multi-million-hryvnia bail.
Speaking on December 10 to a parliamentary commission, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos said the public had been “concerned” about the origins of the bail. From November 13 to 28, NABU sent a series of requests to the State Financial Monitoring Service, asking it to trace the source of the funds.
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