MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Participants in a large-scale corruption scheme led by businessman Timur Mindich will eventually turn Vladimir Zelensky in, former Ukrainian Prime Minister (2010-2014) Nikolay Azarov told TASS.

"There are extremely severe prison terms under US law for such cases, up to 150 years or more, since sentences can run consecutively. So if the FBI is involved, once all these Mindiches start talking, they are bound to turn Zelensky in," he said.

Azarov also described Zelensky’s statements about supposedly supporting the investigation as an attempt to save face. "He came out and said that we need to fight corruption, that he welcomes everything being done there. In other words, he tried to put up a bold front. But this is not about strangers, it’s about people in his closest circle! And you say you welcome it. You shouldn’t be welcoming it, you should have stopped this corrupt activity yourself. You didn’t stop it, and now you’re applauding the investigation. He tried to create the impression that he has nothing to do with it," the ex-premier said.

On November 6, the newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda reported that Mindich could become a target of an FBI investigation. The outlet’s sources said the probe may be linked to money laundering. A few days later, the businessman found himself in a major corruption scandal in Ukraine. According to Zerkalo Nedeli, on Wednesday, detectives of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) discussed the Mindich case in Kiev with an FBI representative. The report noted that the FBI official coordinates cooperation on all NABU investigations. The paper also reminded that an FBI representative has been permanently working at NABU under an interagency memorandum signed when the bureau was established, and even has an office in NABU’s building.

Mindich’s case

On November 10, NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced a large-scale operation dubbed Midas to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. Searches were conducted at the home of Timur Mindich, who is often referred to as Zelensky’s "wallet," as well as at the residence of Justice Minister German Galuschenko, who had previously served as Minister of Energy, and at the Energoatom company. The investigation found that participants in the scheme had laundered around $100 million. That same day, NABU began releasing the first excerpts of recordings made in Mindich’s apartment, in which various corruption schemes were discussed. In total, the agency has 1,000 hours of audio recordings.

On November 11, NABU filed the first charges against participants in the scheme, including Mindich, designated as the head of a criminal organization, and former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Minister for National Unity Aleksey Chernyshov, Zelensky’s close friend and godfather to his child. That same day, the Ukrainian government prematurely dismissed the supervisory board of Energoatom. On November 12, the Verkhovna Rada—Ukrainian parliament—received resignation letters from Galuschenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk. Mindich left Ukraine just before the searches and is currently in Israel.