Two key suspects in an energy-sector corruption scandal that has shaken wartime Ukraine and cut close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of a prominent lawmaker as someone who could advance their interests and protect cash flows, audiotape transcripts obtained by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, reveal.
The previously unpublished excerpts of conversations recorded as part of the investigation known as Operation Midas add to what’s known about the case, which has so far led to the flight of an old friend and associate of Zelenskyy’s, Tymur Mindich, and the resignation and arrest of his influential long-time chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who is now out on bail.
The scandal, also known as Mindichgate, centers on allegations that about $112 million was siphoned off from state nuclear power generator Energoatom through kickbacks from contractors. Some of it was intended for boosting defenses at vulnerable energy infrastructure against Russian air attacks. Prominent members of the political elite laundered more than $10 million through a project to build luxury homes near Kyiv.
Recorded conversations are part of the evidence in court cases related to the ongoing investigation led by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which also resulted last year in the replacement of Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, who had been energy minister until July 2025 and was arrested at the border while trying to leave Ukraine in February.
Investigators claim that Halushchenko was at the center of the alleged embezzlement scheme when he was energy minister and that Ihor Myronyuk, a lawyer and, according to law enforcement, adviser to Halushchenko at the time, handled the kickbacks, which were often delivered in cash to a network of “back-offices” used by the suspects in Kyiv.
In the audiotape transcript excerpts that Schemes obtained and verified with two independent sources, Myronyuk and another suspect — Dmytro Basov, a former acting security director at Energoatom — spoke of lawmaker Oleksiy Kucherenko as someone who could protect and advance their interests by influencing legislative initiatives.
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Kucherenko
Kucherenko, a lawmaker with the opposition Batkivshchyna party, is first deputy chairman of the energy committee in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, and in 2024-25 was chairman of a temporary investigative commission set up by parliament to look into allegations and evidence of corruption in the energy sector.
In a conversation intercepted by investigators on July 9, 2025, Myronyuk and Basov discussed the possibility of enlisting Kucherenko to help resolve a problem that was threatening the alleged kickback scheme: a government decision that June to cancel a moratorium under which Energoatom had the right to withhold payments to its contractors while Russia’s full-scale invasion was ongoing.
According to investigators, the suspects had taken advantage of that rule by demanding kickbacks in exchange for paying the contractors. In an expletive-laden exchange in an excerpt obtained by Schemes, Myronyuk is heard saying he will “talk to Kucherenko now” in the hope that the temporary investigative commission might manage to get the government decision revoked and reinstate the moratorium. Basov suggested he supported the idea, also mentioning Kucherenko.
Parallel Probes
At a court hearing in Basov’s case in November 2025, an anti-corruption prosecutor said Basov and Myronyuk had also discussed turning to two other lawmakers on the temporary investigative commission for the same purpose — Anna Skorokhod of the For The Future group and Serhiy Nahornyak of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party. Both told the BBC that they were not contacted by either man.
Ihor Myronyuk at a court hearing in Kyiv on November 12, 2025
Reached by Schemes, Kucherenko denied any involvement. He said that neither Myronyuk nor Basov had contacted him and that the issue of the moratorium on payments to Energoatom contractors “was never in the field of view” of the temporary investigative commission.
He said he did not know Basov but had seen Myronyuk several times at meetings with Halushchenko when the latter was energy minister, and that his relationship with Halushchenko was strictly professional.
Dmytro Basov at a court hearing in Kyiv on November 12, 2025
Neither Myronyuk nor Basov, who are in pretrial detention, has responded to questions sent by Schemes through their lawyers. Both have denied the accusations against them in the Midas case.
On October 30, 2025, shortly before the energy-sector scandal burst into view when NABU launched wide-scale raids and announced it had exposed tens of millions of dollars of alleged graft, the temporary investigative commission chaired by Kucherenko presented a 320-page report that made no allegation of corruption involving Energoatom.
Ukraine’s then-Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko speaks at a press conference with the EU energy commissioner in Kyiv on November 1, 2022.
Kucherenko has publicly criticized NABU’s investigation of the Midas case, which was conducted at roughly the same time as the temporary investigative commission was conducting its probe.
As the Midas case developed, with some suspects detained and some fleeing Ukraine, Kucherenko told the media outlet Obozrevatel in March that he believes the investigation was a politically motivated effort “to put pressure on the top leadership of the state.”
Real Estate Deal
Separately from the transcripts, Schemes has linked Kucherenko to a key figure in the Midas case — Oleksandr Tsukerman, a businessman and Mindich associate who has also fled Ukraine — through a real-estate transaction.
Tymur Mindich (l.) and Oleksandr Tsukerman
In 2016, Kucherenko sold a 374-square meter apartment in central Kyiv to Tsukerman’s wife, Olena, who had received her husband’s permission to buy it, according to a contract that Schemes obtained from sources with access to notarial databases. The apartment was owned by Kucherenko’s ex-wife as of the time of the deal, but Kucherenko indicated in a previous Facebook post that he lived there from at least 1995 until it was sold.
A building in central Kyiv houses an apartment sold by Kucherenko and, separately, a clinic investigators claim was part of a network of offices where Midas case suspects allegedly received cash kickbacks.
Real estate experts told Schemes the apartment appeared to have been sold at roughly half its market price. The building where it is located also hosts a medical clinic belonging to the Tsukerman family, which NABU claims was one of the locations where Midas case suspects had received cash kickbacks from contractors. The apartments and offices allegedly used for this purpose have been sealed amid the investigation.
Kucherenko told Schemes he does not know Oleksandr Tsukerman but had spoken to Olena Tsukerman “a couple of times” when he was selling her the apartment “through intermediaries.” Asked about the price it was sold for, he said he was “a poor salesman,” but later, in response to a written query from Schemes, said the decision on the sale price was made by his ex-wife.
Asked by Schemes whether he sees a conflict of interest in his role as a lawmaker, a deputy head of the Rada energy committee, his former position as chair of the temporary investigative commission on energy, and his acquaintance with some of the Midas suspects, Kucherenko responded with a series of expletives and disparaging remarks about the journalists and soon unilaterally ended the video interview.
Later, answering a written request from Schemes, he said he saw no conflict of interest.
