SSU opens treason case against Mindich, MP says

This was reported on Facebook by Member of Parliament Oleksii Honcharenko, citing the SSU’s response to his inquiry, according to Ukrinform.

“Immediately after the publication of Mindich’s recordings, I sent a request to the SSU asking them to check whether he had access to state secrets, whether he had connections with Russian intelligence, and what influence he had on President Zelensky, as well as on the former Minister of Defense and current Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov,” Honcharenko wrote.

According to him, the SSU responded that “a pre-trial investigation had been initiated regarding the mentioned individual and related persons under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (treason).”

As previously reported by Ukrinform, on November 10, NABU announced the special operation Midas aimed at uncovering corruption in the energy sector.

Investigators established that members of the criminal organization built a large-scale scheme to influence strategic state-owned enterprises, including Energoatom. NABU stated that five of the seven suspects were detained as part of the investigation.

Among the figures involved are a businessman considered by investigators to be the leader of the criminal organization, a former advisor to the Minister of Energy, and the Executive Director for Physical Security and Protection at Energoatom.

According to the investigative project Schemes, the suspects include businessman and co-founder of the Kvartal-95 studio Timur Mindich (codenamed Karlson in NABU recordings), former Energy Ministry advisor Ihor Mironyuk (Rocket), Energoatom Security Executive Director Dmytro Basov (Tenor), and four others involved in the back-office money-laundering operations: Oleksandr Tsukerman (Sugarman), Ihor Fursenko (Ryoshik), Lesia Ustymenko, and Liudmyla Zorina.

Five of the individuals on the list of suspects have been detained. Mindich and Tsukerman left Ukraine.

On November 13, President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted the NSDC decision to impose personal sanctions on Mindich and Tsukerman.

On November 14, 2025, the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) registered information in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations under signs of possible crimes under Part 3 of Article 368 (Receiving large-scale unlawful benefit or by prior collusion of a group, or related to extortion) and Part 3 of Article 365 (Exceeding power or authority by a law enforcement officer causing severe consequences) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

On November 25, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos reported during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy that authorities found a ticket showing Mindich had crossed the state border in an expedited manner.

According to the investigation, Mindich passed through border control fairly quickly at the Hrushiv checkpoint.

Authorities are identifying the individuals who facilitated this.

Photo: Facebook/Serhii Marchenko