You’d think the fortune teller would have tipped him off. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who for years made key government appointments, drafted potential peace plans and held back-channel talks with both Washington and Moscow, was taken into pre-trial detention Thursday on money-laundering charges after a three-day hearing in Kyiv.
The 54-year-old lawyer and former film producer stands accused of being involved in laundering more than $10 million in embezzled funds through the construction of lavish private mansions in the village of Kozyn on the capital’s southern outskirts.
The court has set Yermak’s bail at $3.2 million, which he says he doesn’t have. He told reporters outside the court that his lawyer would work with his friends to scrape the funds together.
During the hearing, prosecutors also alleged that Yermak had kept a secret phone that he used to regularly contact a Kyiv-based astrologer known as “Veronika Feng Shui” – identified as 51-year-old Veronika Anikiyevich – to advise him on government appointments. Yermak allegedly shared candidates’ birth dates with the astrologer, who would in turn tell Ukraine’s second-most powerful man whose appointment the stars most favoured.
Yermak resigned last November after his offices were raided as part of a months-long investigation into a $100 million corruption scandal in the country’s energy sector.
The anti-corruption operation – dubbed “Midas” – accused Zelensky’s former business partner Tymur Mindich of leading a scheme to siphon off tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks from the country’s state-owned nuclear energy giant Energoatom.
The scandal, coming as Russia continued to hammer Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to starve the nation of heat and light, was met with public fury. An attempt by Zelensky last July to put Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies under the control of a presidential appointee was abandoned following rare wartime protests.
Mindich, who like Yermak maintains his innocence, reportedly fled to Israel last year ahead of a raid on his house. Former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and former energy minister German Galushchenko have both been detained in connection to the probe.
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Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPU) have said that Zelensky himself is not under suspicion.
But the mention of a “Vova” – a common diminutive of Volodymyr – in a leaked wiretap transcript of a conversation between Mindich and an unidentified woman about the Kozyn construction project has raised questions about just how deep into the president’s circle the corruption has spread. Sitting presidents are immune from prosecution by Ukrainian law enforcement – though they can be impeached if evidence of wrongdoing is found.
To better understand the significance of this sweeping investigation, FRANCE 24 spoke with Andrii Biletskyi, the administrative director of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’s Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre.
FRANCE 24: Just how significant is this latest development in the corruption investigation?
This is the continuation of the “Midas” operation that started last year, and which was one of the reasons why Yermak was fired from the presidential office. And we have different camps, to be honest, because some people were saying that Yermak was on these Midas recordings, and some people were saying to be careful, that he wasn’t there, it was impossible.
There are different views on this Midas operation, because some people are more sceptical about it – they are saying that this is just a political battle during the war. And some people see it as a positive thing, because it means nobody is untouchable and the anti-corruption authorities are doing their work.
Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensy’s former top aide arrested as corruption probe widens
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I think it’s a test not only for anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine, but also for the government and the country in general. Because the Ukrainian law enforcement system has never seen an official or ex-official of such a high level being prosecuted or being brought to criminal responsibility.
So, it’s really a test for anti-corruption authorities to finish this task, or at least to bring this case to court. And for the Ukrainian government, it’s a test whether to help Yermak to escape the responsibility – whether or not to interfere or to let the case go and be whatever it’s going to be.
But it’s really a dilemma for them, because the government needs to understand whether they want to lose their ex-friend, or current friend, Andriy Yermak, and just forget about him. It’s really a struggle for them.
But for Ukraine in general, this is a huge case, and we’ve never seen anything like it.
FRANCE 24: With several close allies of Zelensky under suspicion, what impact is this investigation likely to have on the president’s own support?
Politically speaking, if we’re talking about his personal ratings, he is going to be losing support. Not a lot, because he didn’t interfere, he didn’t comment on the situation, he didn’t protect his close ally, or ex-ally. So it’s a manageable situation.
On the other hand, people still rate him because he’s a war-time leader, and he is protecting us, he’s the higher commander-in-chief, right? So it’s bit into his ratings, but not as much as it could have, for example, in normal times. Because if not for the war, if we had seen such a scandal, it would have been political suicide for him, and we would just be waiting for the opposition to come to power.
FRANCE 24: As someone who’s worked for years in the fight against corruption, how do you see the importance of Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities being able to undertake an investigation of this magnitude?
For me personally, it’s a positive sign. We as Ukrainians, and my colleagues from the anti-corruption centre, we have to talk a lot about how Ukraine is not really corrupt – we have a lot of corruption cases not because we have a lot of corruption, but rather because we have this system in place which can expose this corruption, and which can bring people to responsibility. Because of the fact that we have an independent system, which is not interfered with by political actors, they can do their job properly in a normal way, and they can expose a lot of corruption.
Of course it is [easier] not seeing corruption and not caring about it. When we don’t have a lot of corruption scandals in the media, we don’t know about them, and we simply don’t care. We think of ourselves as good guys, and we think, okay, corruption is at a low level – if it’s not being exposed, we have no problem with that.
So it’s really positive. Probably you remember that last year in July, we had huge protests in Ukraine during wartime because the government tried to neglect the procedural independence of the anti-corruption authorities. And a lot of people, a lot of young people, actually came to protest against this decision – and they won, because the government rolled it back.
And it was important for people to see that they did the right thing, so that they could see that they fought for the independence of something valuable. And by this investigation, NABU and SAPO are showing those people that it was the right call.
FRANCE 24: One of the more unexpected details of this three-day hearing has been the allegation that Yermak ran potential government appointments past an astrologer. What kind of reaction has that sparked?
Of course it was quite a surprise to hear that the chief of staff, the head of the presidential office, was consulting an astrologer for governmental appointments. It was really a surprise – I mean, it was ridiculous to hear that he was sending the birthdates of potential candidates.
It not only affects the reputation of Andriy Yermak himself, because he was already seen as this “shadow cardinal” in the office of the president, but it also brings a shadow on the presidential office in general, and the governmental system in general.
Because people have to know whether all the appointments have been going this way or not. It’s also that a bad thing for the public service in general. It was really ridiculous to hear.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
