{"id":41979,"date":"2026-05-14T13:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41979\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:54:31","slug":"zelenskyys-former-top-aide-locked-up-on-corruption-charges-with-bail-set-at-3m-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41979\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy\u2019s former top aide locked up on corruption charges, with bail set at $3M \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have such funds. Now my lawyer will work with my friends for help [to collect the bail funds],\u201d Yermak <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukrinform.ua\/rubric-polytics\/4123155-ermak-pro-zastavu-u-140-miljoniv-u-mene-takih-kostiv-nemae.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told<\/a> Ukrainian journalists after the decision was announced Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think my attorney, the group of lawyers, will file an appeal. I have nothing to hide, I will continue fighting, and I will stay in Ukraine,\u201d Yermak added.<\/p>\n<p>In his role as Zelenskyy\u2019s powerful chief of staff, Yermak helped shape Ukraine\u2019s wartime diplomacy and was rarely absent from high-stakes meetings with world leaders, in summit venues from Washington to Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/former-zelenskyy-chief-staff-charged-with-corruption-andriy-yermak\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">charged<\/a> Yermak with corruption earlier this week. Investigators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/1273762418159050\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said<\/a> he was a member of an organized crime group, involved in laundering $10.4 million on a luxury construction project near Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p>The watchdogs did not name Yermak, but said the latest charges relate to the so-called Midas operation, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ukraine-corruption-scandal-explained-100m-plot-rocking-volodymyr-zelenskyy-energy-sector\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$100 million corruption scandal<\/a> at Ukraine\u2019s state energy company that blew a hole in Zelenskyy\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n<p>The probe has touched other Zelenskyy associates \u2014 entrepreneur Timur Mindich and Oleksiy Chernyshov, Ukraine\u2019s former deputy prime minister. Both were also charged with corruption but\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/uk\/mindic-nazvav-zvinuvacenna-proti-sebe-manipulaciami-up\/a-75284026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">denied<\/a>\u00a0the allegations last year. Mindich fled to Israel the day before he was supposed to be arrested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t have such funds. Now my lawyer will work with my friends for help [to collect the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25652,1215,345,1283,88,39,40,28,6207,2140,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-41979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-andriy-yermak","9":"tag-construction","10":"tag-corruption","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-energy","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-ukrainian-politics","17":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","18":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}