Ukraine Names Zelensky Ex-Chief of Staff as Suspect in Money Laundering Probe

Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies on Tuesday named Andriy Yermak, who served as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff until November, as a suspect in a money-laundering investigation involving roughly €9 million laundered through luxury residential construction near Kyiv.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said the scheme ran from 2021 to 2025 and is linked to a larger graft probe known as Operation Midas targeting Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Enerhoatom.

” Prosecutors also named former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and businessman Timur Mindich, a former associate of Zelenskyy, among those implicated. The agencies announced charges against six suspects in total. The laundering allegations center on an elite housing development in the village of Kozyn south of Kyiv.

Investigators say funds obtained through corruption at Enerhoatom, including kickbacks of 10-15 percent on contracts for building fortifications against Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, were funneled into the project. One house was reportedly intended for Yermak, according to a law enforcement source cited by The Independent.

“The prosecution will ask the court to impose a preventive measure (for Yermak) in the form of detention with the alternative of bail in the amount of UAH 180 million (around €3.5 million).”

Yermak’s lawyer Ihor Fomin called the case unfounded and said it had been provoked by public pressure. He told Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne there were no grounds for criminal allegations against his client. A court hearing on a request for Yermak’s pre-trial detention began Tuesday but was postponed to allow review of roughly 4,000 pages of case materials.

Midas was launched after 15 months of wiretapping that produced more than 1,000 hours of audio recordings and prompted over 70 raids. The probe centers on an alleged $100 million corruption scheme at Enerhoatom in which officials and company managers allegedly collected bribes from contractors during a period when Russian strikes left millions of Ukrainians without power.

Mindich, identified by investigators as an alleged ringleader, fled to Israel hours before raids in November 2025. Zelenskyy later imposed sanctions on him. Yermak resigned in November after searches linked to him in a related Enerhoatom corruption case, though he faced no charges at that time.

The current money-laundering case is described by prosecutors as connected to that earlier investigation. Other figures touched by the widening inquiry include former energy minister German Galushchenko, who was detained in February while attempting to leave the country, and Rustem Umerov, now head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

Umerov has been questioned as a witness and has denied wrongdoing in a separate defense-procurement matter involving bulletproof vests. Neither has been charged in the Kozyn real estate case.

A sitting president enjoys legal immunity from prosecution under Ukrainian law. Zelenskyy’s press officer Dmytro Lytvyn said the investigation was ongoing and it was too early to draw conclusions. The president made no direct public comment on the announcement but met the same day with Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, to discuss expanded cooperation on artificial intelligence for both military and civilian uses.

Public concern about corruption has risen. A poll conducted April 20-27 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 54 percent of respondents in government-controlled territory viewed government corruption as a bigger threat to Ukraine’s development than Russian military aggression, compared with 39 percent who cited Russia.

Trust in Zelenskyy stood at 58 percent, down four points from the previous month.

Ukraine has struggled with corruption since independence in 1991. Transparency International gave the country a score of 36 out of 100 on its 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. Despite creation of the anti-corruption agencies in 2015 and recent defense of their independence after street protests in July, implementation of broader reforms has been limited.

EU membership aspirations require concrete progress against graft. The latest case arrives as Ukraine continues fighting Russia, now in its fifth year. A three-day U.S.-brokered ceasefire ended Monday with both sides reporting renewed drone strikes.

Ukrainian officials offered to extend the pause while Moscow launched more than 200 drones overnight, killing at least one civilian. Yermak had been a central figure in peace negotiations with the United States and one of Zelenskyy’s most trusted advisers.

A final decision on formal charges against him could take months. The investigation remains active and touches multiple senior officials across energy, defense and presidential circles.