Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) searched the home of Andrey Yermak, Vladimir Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Verkhovna Rada (parliament) member Yaroslav Zheleznyak said.
Money-laundering charges were brought against Yermak late on May 11.
TASS has gathered the key information about the case.
Charges
- NABU and Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) filed charges against Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s former chief of staff, the two agencies said on Telegram late on May 11.
- NABU and SAPO exposed a criminal group involved in laundering 460 mln hryvnias ($10.5 mln) related to the construction of luxury housing outside the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
- Charges against Yermak were brought under Article 209.3 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (legalization of corrupt assets by an organized group or on a very large scale).
- The charge carries a penalty of eight to 15 years in prison and confiscation of property.
- According to a video posted on NABU’s Telegram channel, a project to construct private residences was launched in 2020, dubbed Dynasty. Investigators believe that one of the people involved in the project, known under various pseudonyms, is Yermak.
- According to investigators, the project’s participants agreed to build four residences for themselves, while they used the Sunny Beach cooperative society and cash from criminal proceeds to cover up construction funding.
- Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court seized the land and property outside Kiev connected to the money-laundering case, the video added.
Searches
- NABU investigators conducted searches of Yermak’s home, Verkhovna Rada member Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram.
- According to the lawmaker, a court hearing on remand for Yermak will follow shortly.
Reaction
- Zelensky’s Advisor Dmitry Litvin noted that it was too early to draw conclusions as legal proceedings were still underway.
- Yermak refused to comment to the Ukrainian media on the charge brought against him.
- Pressure on Yermak will lead to direct access to information on the corruption activities of Zelensky himself, Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large tasked with overseeing the Kiev regime’s crimes, told TASS.
- The charges brought against Yermak will be impossible to keep from spreading outside the domestic landscape, potentially exposing Zelensky as a corrupt figure to the West, Miroshnik added.
'Mindich tapes'
- In November 2025, NABU and SAPO announced Operation Midas to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector, led by Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky’s.
- Mindich was charged in absentia by NABU, which also began publishing fragments of recordings of conversations in his apartment, in which corruption schemes were discussed. There are 1,000 hours of audio recordings in total.
- News came on November 17, 2025, that Yermak, who served as chief of staff at Zelensky’s office at the time, might feature on the files.
- Yermak’s office and residence were searched on the morning of November 28, 2025; Zelensky fired him the same evening.
- Ukrainian media outlets and lawmakers started to publish more fragments of the recordings in late April 2026.
- The recordings feature Mindich and Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, who was the country’s defense minister at the time, discussing multi-million dollar contracts, the funding of drone production by a company associated with Mindich, and candidates for Kiev’s ambassador to Washington.
- Other fragments have Mindich discussing the development of several luxury mansions, particularly for himself, "Vova" and "Andrey."
- The Vova and Andrey mentioned in the recordings are believed to be Zelensky and Yermak.
