Andriy Yermak, the influential former head of the Ukrainian president’s office, was placed in pre-trial detention on 14 May on money laundering charges, with Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court setting bail at 140 million hryvnia ($3.2m). The case is part of Ukraine’s wider fight against entrenched corruption, which has long undermined the country’s defense and its image among allies.
Since November 2025, law enforcement authorities have carried out a number of searches at Yermak’s home. The first took place on 28 November, just hours before he resigned from office. Until then, he had been regarded as the second most powerful man in Kyiv, with influence over Parliament, the government and many state institutions.
A Sprawling Corruption Case
On 11 May, investigators named Yermak as an official suspect in the sprawling Midas bribery case, which has rocked Ukraine for months. It is the harshest crackdown so far on insiders from the president’s inner circle.
Anti-corruption agencies also accuse Yermak of involvement in a criminal group that investigators say laundered about 460 million hryvnia ($10.5m) through a luxury residential project near Ukraine’s capital. The case is commonly referred to as Dynasty, although it also forms part of the wider Midas affair.
Yermak’s indictment also links another ally of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Oleksiy Chernyshov, to money laundering in Kyiv. The former deputy prime minister, who faces charges in a separate part of the case, also denies guilt, as does Yermak.
Some analysts believe that the charges against Yermak do not pose an immediate threat to Zelensky, as he cannot be prosecuted while in office. Semen Kryvonos, director of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, said on Wednesday that the president is not currently the subject of any investigation by the country’s anti-corruption authorities.
However, the scale of bribery in Ukraine and its links to Zelensky’s circle reduce his chances of post-war re-election to the presidency.
“All of this is the result of an unwillingness to rely on professionals and to widen the pool of candidates, which should be done, especially during wartime”, opposition MP Iryna Herashchenko of European Solidarity told Ukrainian television on 13 May.
The course of the investigation suggests that Yermak also played a role in a bribery scheme that diverted funds intended for defense systems designed to protect Ukraine’s vulnerable energy infrastructure from Russian air strikes.
After his resignation in November, Yermak declared that he had a clear conscience and was going to the front because he was a patriot. Critics at the time described the move as calculated, arguing that service at the front could have complicated any attempt to detain him had the court granted investigators’ request.
The Alleged Ringleader Flees
According to investigators, Timur Mindich was the head of the scheme and one of its main beneficiaries. A former business partner of Zelensky from his media days, he fled the country a few hours before investigators arrived at his home in November 2025.
As an Israeli passport holder, he, like Oleksandr Tsukerman, has been located in Israel by Ukrainian journalists. The country has still not extradited him to Kyiv despite an international arrest warrant and, based on past practice, is unlikely to do so.
According to a border guards’ report, Mindich left Ukraine legally because the border service had received “no instructions from any law enforcement agency” to stop him if he tried to leave the country.
One transcript of an alleged recording, released in late April and early May, captures a conversation between Mindich and an unidentified woman named Nataliya about the construction of four buildings for Mindich, Chernyshov and people identified only as Andriy and Vova.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities have not yet commented on the new batch of recordings. The presidential office did not respond to an earlier Reuters request for comment, and the president’s communications adviser later said it was too early to comment on Yermak’s case.
Fortune-Teller Claim in Court
The hearing on 12 May took an unusual turn when the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office claimed that Yermak had consulted a fortune-teller saved in his contacts as “Veronika Feng Shui Office” when discussing appointments to senior state posts.
According to SAPO prosecutor Valentyna Hrebeniuk, Yermak sent the woman the birth dates of possible candidates and sought her advice before some of them were appointed. The roles allegedly discussed included senior posts in the presidential office, the government and law enforcement.
Several of the people allegedly appointed in this way are still active members of the Security Service of Ukraine. Ukrainian journalist Mykhailo Tkach published part of the video footage from the trial in which the consultations were discussed.
Separate unconfirmed reports about alleged occult objects found during searches linked to Yermak have not been officially confirmed by law enforcement authorities.
Release on Bail Remains Possible
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court on Thursday ordered Yermak held in pre-trial detention on money laundering charges. He is expected to remain in custody for 60 days unless he posts bail of 140 million hryvnia ($3.2m).
“I do not have that kind of money, and my lawyer will now work with friends and acquaintances [to raise the money for bail]”, Yermak told reporters after the court’s decision.
A total of 45.5 million hryvnia ($1.0m) has so far been paid toward the bail, about a third of the required amount.