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Fugitive Ukrainian businessman Mindich unlikely to return home — daily

The daily reported earlier that its journalists located the fugitive Ukrainian businessman in Israel and published a photo of him there

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Timur Mindich, a fugitive businessman and friend of Vladimir Zelensky, is not ready to leave Israel and return to his homeland, the Ukrainskaya Pravda daily reported on Tuesday.

The daily reported earlier that its journalists located the fugitive Ukrainian businessman in Israel and published a photo of him there. Newspaper journalist Mikhail Tkach later stated that Mindich’s accomplice Alexander Tsukerman is also currently staying in Israel.

"To sum it up, Mindich is not ready to return [to Ukraine and testify]. He will remain in Israel, like the other defendant in this case. It is very convenient with their Israeli citizenship," the daily quoted Tkach as saying after his meeting with Mindich.

On November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) carried out a large-scale operation to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. The investigation named Mindich as the key figure in the scheme.

The apartments of Mindich, Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who was later dismissed, and the premises of the Energoatom company were searched. According to the investigation, participants in the criminal scheme laundered at least $100 million. On the same day, NABU began publishing fragments of recordings of conversations in Mindich's apartment in which corruption schemes were discussed. There are about 1,000 hours of tapes in total.

On November 11, NABU filed the first charges, including against Mindich as the head of a criminal organization, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Minister of National Unity Alexey Chernyshov, Zelensky's friend. Mindich, described as Zelensky's "wallet," fled to Israel a few hours before the searches.

On November 17, reports emerged that head of Zelensky's office Andrey Yermak may appear on NABU records under the pseudonym Ali Baba. On the morning of November 28, Yermak’s apartment was searched, and by evening Zelensky was forced to dismiss him. Later, head of the NABU detective unit Alexander Abakumov said that the scale of Mindich's energy scheme astonished even the investigators.

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