Photo: zn.ua
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday ordered former deputy prime minister Oleksii Chernyshov into custody with an option for bail set at 51.6 million hryvnias, as part of a high-profile corruption probe in the energy sector, the Anti-Corruption Action Center said.
Chernyshov was charged last week with illicit enrichment. Investigators say he frequented a Kyiv office allegedly used to launder criminal proceeds and controlled by businessman Timur Mindich, identified as the leader of the scheme.
According to NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, detectives documented three cash transfers to Chernyshov totaling more than USD 1.2 million and nearly EUR 100,000. The payments were allegedly delivered through his wife, Svitlana, who appears in covert recordings under the codename “Professor”. Meetings between Energoatom back-office staff and Chernyshov were code-named an “intellectual club”.
In June, the anti-corruption court had already imposed a 120-million-hryvnia bail on Chernyshov in a separate graft case involving the Ministry for Regional Development; he was released in early July. Later that month, sources told ZN.UA that NABU was also examining whether he had illegally placed personal security and domestic staff into positions at Naftogaz while heading the company.
