Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Ukraine’s ‘Operation Midas’ Exposes Alleged $100 Million Energy Graft Tied to Zelensky Associate

The probe tests Ukraine's anti-corruption independence under EU scrutiny of governance in a strategic energy sector.

Overview

  • NABU and SAPO say a 15-month investigation uncovered a network that extorted Energoatom subcontractors, supported by thousands of hours of recordings and cash seizures.
  • Authorities conducted roughly 70 searches, detained five suspects and filed charges against seven individuals in the dismantled scheme.
  • Prosecutors named Tymur Mindich — a longtime associate of Volodymyr Zelensky and co-owner of Kvartal 95 — as the suspected organizer, and investigators say he left Ukraine shortly before raids.
  • Investigators searched the home of Justice Minister German Galushchenko, heightening political stakes in a sector critical to wartime power supply.
  • Zelensky urged full cooperation with anti-corruption bodies and called for sanctions, while European partners weigh the case’s implications for reforms ahead of an EU ministers’ gathering in Lviv on December 10.