After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s close associate, Timur Mindich, fled to Israel after allegedly masterminding a €100 million corruption scheme, it appears the Ukrainian public is turning on their leader — at least according to polls cited by a Ukrainian member of parliament.
“According to the polls I’ve seen, Zelensky’s popularity has fallen below 20 percent,” said Ukrainian parliament member Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
Zheleznyak’s comments came from a video on the Strana media outlet’s Telegram channel, cited by Hirado,
On Nov. 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which are independent of Zelensky’s office, announced an investigation into a major corruption case related to the energy sector, dubbed Operation Midas. The salacious details saw police raid 70 locations and recover stacks of cash, still with barcodes from U.S. banks, in Mindich’s apartment, along with a golden toilet.
The Golden toilet found in Mindich’s apartment.
The Times of Israel provides more details in the case.
Mindich has reportedly fled to Israel amid a probe of his growing influence within the country’s lucrative industries, and fears that his access was facilitated by his ties to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The two were once business partners, and Mindich’s influence had expanded since Zelensky was elected in 2019.
Mindich was a co-owner of Zelensky’s production company Kvartal 95, named for the comedy troupe that helped catapult the Ukrainian president to fame as a comedian before he entered politics. Zelensky transferred his stake in the company to his partners after he was elected.
Despite expanding his business portfolio since Zelensky’s election, Mindich maintained ties to the entertainment world. Until the corruption probe was exposed this week, he was a producer of the comedy show “Stadium Family” on YouTube. In light of the scandal and his tarnished reputation, the show’s owners shut it down this week.
He is also a relative of Leonid Mindich, who was arrested by Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs in June when he was trying to flee the country, according to local reports; he was charged with embezzling $16 million from an electric power company.
The corruption scandal has shocked the entire global community. Notably, key media outlets are hammering Zelensky with the story, with Fox News even featuring it as their number one news item.
Other outlets like the Financial Times are also hitting Zelensky hard. Even Ukrainian outlets, Ukrainska Pravda, have been running headlines like “How the president’s friends robbed the country in wartime,” which contain salacious details about just how deep Zelensky’s ties go with the corrupt cronies he has long worked with, and who helped fuel his rise to power.
As Ukrainska Pravda notes that another key target in the investigation is also in Israel.
Sources in law enforcement say NABU and SAPO have information that SAPO Deputy Head Andrii Syniuk may have leaked information to some of the participants in the scheme. At that time, however, Mindich’s name was not in the electronic materials.
Following this leak, Mindich’s chief financier Oleksandr Tsukerman, aka “Sugarman”, fled the country.
Tsukerman flew to Israel with Mindich on 29 October to attend a friend’s celebration.
Mindich returned to Ukraine on 4 November, while Tsukerman remained in Israel.
There are already rumors swirling that Zelensky himself may have known about the massive corruption scheme targeting his inner circle, which would explain why he tried to take over NABU earlier this year before he backed off due to international pressure.
NABU’s X account has posted the news: “#NABU and #SAP have sent to court the case of the former Deputy Minister of Energy, who is accused of receiving an undue benefit in the amount of 500 thousand USD for granting permission to export mining equipment from a frontline area.”
According to TASS, investigators searched the Energoatom company, as well as the apartments of oligarch and Zelensky associate Mindich and the currently suspended Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who had been serving as energy minister at the time of the events.
NABU also released recordings from the apartment of Mindich, known as the Ukrainian president’s “treasurer,” which revealed discussions about corrupt practices.
With the evidence, charges were brought against Mindich, Igor Mironyuk, former advisor to the Minister of Energy, Dmitry Basov, security director of Energoatom, as well as businessmen Alexander Zukerman and Igor Fursenko, and Lesya Ustymenko and Lyudmila Zorina.
The defendants also include former Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Chernyshov, who is considered a member of Zelensky’s inner circle.
Mindich fled the country a few hours before the house searches began, which means he was almost certainly tipped off by someone with close connections to the case.
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