The plot thickens regarding the corruption scandal in Ukraine: Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk announced they will step down at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Their resignations are among the fallout of revelations by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) about a large-scale money laundering scheme in the energy and defense sectors. Both politicians have rejected the allegations against them.

NABU launched its investigation in the summer of 2024. In particular, it probed the business of the state-owned company Energoatom, which operates four nuclear power plants in Ukraine. The operation was given the code name “Midas,” after King Midas from the Greek myth, who turned everything he touched into gold.

Graft probe searches for evidence among dozens of top officials 

Oleksandr Abakumov, who leads the investigation team, said in a video on NABU's YouTube channel that around 70 searches were conducted among high-ranking officials on the morning of November 10. Thousands of hours of audio recordings were collected during the investigation, providing evidence against a high-ranking criminal group in the energy and defense sectors.

On Tuesday, NABU announced five suspects had been arrested. In total, seven people are suspected of being part of the criminal group.

Ukrainian Justice Minister German Galushchenko's home was among those searched. Galushchenko headed the Ministry of Energy before Svitlana Hrynychuk from April 2021 to July 2025. From 2020 to 2021, he was also vice president of Energoatom. The Ministry of Justice confirmed the investigations were part of criminal proceedings.

How did the corrupt system operate?

According to the investigation, members of the criminal group demanded bribes from the energy company's contractors. These amounted to 10 to 15% of the contract's total value. Otherwise, payments for services rendered or products delivered would likely be withheld and their supplier status revoked.

"In effect, a system was created in which a strategic company with a turnover of over 200 billion hryvnia [around €4 billion, $4.63 billion] was not managed by top managers, the supervisory board, or the state as owner, but by an outsider who assumed the role of shadow manager without authorization," said a NABU statement.

Wiretap transcripts reveal codenames

According to investigator Abakumov, the criminal group includes a former advisor to the energy minister, the managing director for protection and security at Energoatom, four back-office employees involved in anti-money laundering, and a businessman whom investigators believe to be the head of the criminal organization.

The NABU files and wiretap transcripts use code names instead of the suspects' real names: "Tenor" for the managing director of protection and security at Energoatom, "Rocket" for the former deputy head of the State Property Fund and advisor to the then Energy Minister Galushchenko, and "Karlson," for the man who allegedly led the gang. In a video podcast for the newspaper Ukrajinska Prawda, Abakumov said that it was not the investigators who invented the pseudonyms, but the members of the group themselves.

The group controlled personnel decisions, purchases, and cash flows with the help of their contacts in the ministry and within Energoatom, according to Abakumov.

Speculation rife about involvement of Zelenskyy's confident

According to NABU, "Karlson" controlled the so-called "laundromat," which channeled money obtained through criminal activities into the legal financial and economic system. Yaroslav Shelesnyak, a member of parliament from the "Holos" (Voice) faction, claims that "Karlson" heard in the NABU wiretap recordings is actually businessman Timur Mindich. According to Ukrainian media reports, Mindich's house was one of the targets of the NABU searches on November 10.

Mindich is considered President Zelenskyy's close associate and confidant. Among other roles, he is co-owner of the TV production company "Kvartal-95," which Zelenskyy helped set up. According to a source at news portal Ukrainska Pravda, Mindich left Ukraine a few hours before the search.

Millions of US dollars in bundles of cash

Abakumov told Ukrainska Pravda that investigators had filmed four former ministers in various situations. During the searches, NABU seized more than $4 million in marked bundles of cash in standard packaging from the US Federal Reserve Bank.

"This suggests that the money was transferred from the US to someone," said the head of the investigation. "That could be a bank in Europe or somewhere else in the world. Then it ended up in Ukraine in this form."

Energoatom's supervisory board said it takes the corruption allegations against employees very seriously and announced a special meeting to determine what action to take: "This includes launching an independent audit of the transactions in question and a comprehensive assessment of the company's internal procedures and control systems," it said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Energoatom said the corruption scandal would not affect the company's assets or its financial position, nor would it have any impact on production plans or the safety of its nuclear power plants. "Our main task remains the reliable, stable, and safe operation of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, which ensures the country's energy security," the company said.

What do Ukraine's leaders say about the corruption probe?

For his part, Zelenskyy demanded that the scandal be investigated and those responsible be held accountable: "Energoatom is Ukraine's largest energy supplier. Integrity within the company is a top priority. The energy sector and all other industries, everyone who was involved in such machinations, must be brought to justice. There must be verdicts," the president said in a video address on November 10.

Speaking to the broadcaster Suspilne, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko underscored her willingness to support the country's anti-corruption authorities in their investigations: "The fight against corruption is one of the government's top priorities. There must be convictions and mandatory penalties for all crimes," she said, adding that the government has suspended the powers of Energoatom's supervisory board and ordered an immediate audit of the company, particularly its purchases.

This article was originally published in Ukrainian.