Key Zelensky staff arrested over money laundering to bailout ex-minister

Officials allegedly forced a state-owned bank to suspend anti-fraud monitoring so millions in surety for detained energy minister German Galushchenko could be lodged Ukraine’s central bank has launched an anti-money laundering probe into several lenders who processed a bail payment for former Justice and Energy Minister German Galushchenko, amid fresh allegations of high-level corruption in Kiev.

Earlier this month, Western-backed anti-corruption agencies accused a group of officials, including a deputy head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, of laundering about $3.3 million in cash to secure Galushchenko’s release on bail.

Galushchenko, who was arrested and charged with money laundering and membership of a criminal organization after attempting to leave Ukraine, is also a suspect in a separate corruption case linked to Timur Mindich, self-exiled in Israel but known widely as ‘Zelensky’s bagman’.

Ukrainian state-owned Sense Bank temporarily disabled fraud detection systems at the same time that some $1.7 million in cash – intended for Galushchenko’s bail – was allegedly laundered and processed, records released by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) indicate.

Read more With Ukraine’s corruption, one thing is certain: You haven’t seen the worst yet Sense Bank is the former Ukrainian branch of Alfa Bank, which Kiev nationalized in 2023 under the guise of enforcing sanctions on Russia.

Ukraine’s central bank said Thursday that it is also investigating several other institutions linked to the bail payments.

Mindich’s man in the government Galushchenko was arrested in February and charged with large-scale money laundering in connection with an alleged criminal network operated by Mindich, who himself fled Ukraine to Israel after NABU accused him of extorting $100 million in kickbacks from state atomic energy company Energoatom .

Galushchenko was duly released on $3.3 million bail in late June, upon receipt of cash by the authorities reportedly from four dubious sources.

NABU surveillance audio files suggest that Zelensky’s deputy head of office, Irina Mudraya, and others, used influence at Sense Bank to convert bags of cash into bank transfers to the account of the High Anti-Corruption Court.

Investigators filmed the cash being delivered, according to the case materials.

Mudraya, who is accused of administering the scheme, was subsequently arrested and fired.

The delivery of four bags of cash filmed by NABU investigators.