The head of Ukraine's leading anti-corruption agency (NABU) says pressure on the investigation into the country's explosive graft scandal was being discussed in "high offices," as a major political crisis builds around President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The scandal has rocked the war-torn country and involved allegations that funds intended for boosting defenses at vulnerable energy infrastructure against Russian air attacks were siphoned off as kickbacks to political insiders.
Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) -- one of the agencies leading the investigation -- spoke with RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on November 18 and said the probe faces a series of political and bureaucratic hurdles, but that it will continue.
The scandal implicates people at the highest levels of Ukraine's government, centering around businessman Tymur Mindich, an old friend and former business partner of Zelenskyy himself.
The allegations have hit a nerve among Ukrainians who are exhausted after nearly four years of Russia's all-out invasion. Zelenskyy has urged "full cooperation" and vowed to overhaul the country's energy sector.
However, with eight people already named as suspects -- two of whom, including Mindich, have fled the country -- the key question now looming over the scandal is who exactly was the top figure in the scheme.
Following The Money
The focus is on the state-owned nuclear power operator, Energoatom, which has annual revenue of around $4.7 billion.
NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) allege that a "high-level criminal organization" embezzled $100 million from the energy sector. The suspects allegedly charged kickbacks of 10-15 percent from the company's private subcontractors in exchange for extending their contracts.
More than a week after the agencies' findings were made public, Kryvonos told RFE/RL that the corruption scheme involved "dozens of international jurisdictions" through which the embezzled funds were circulated before ending up in accounts or being converted into real estate.
The investigators are now tracking the movement of "laundered" money, according to Kryvonos. But complicating the matter, however, is the need to cooperate with Ukraine's Financial Monitoring Service, headed by Filip Pronin.
According to journalists and some lawmakers, Pronin is believed to be close to the president's office and is reportedly under scrutiny by anti-corruption authorities for the alleged embezzlement of funds intended for infrastructure defense in the Poltava region.
Kryvonos said it's crucial, at this stage, to get the Financial Monitoring Service on board for the investigation. But he criticized the agency's response so far -- calling its foot-dragging "suspicious."
"The head of this service -- and the service itself -- should have shown leadership from the very first day when we made these recordings public and detained these individuals," he said, adding that the scandal is bigger than just Energoatom.
"According to our preliminary assessment, many other areas are involved. They should have detected this already at the stage when the scheme, so to speak, existed -- identified it and blocked it."
When asked whether Pronin's agency was actively helping NABU and SAPO trace the funds allegedly laundered through Energoatom, Kryvonos says they "effectively received no relevant information in response" despite submitting "a number of inquiries...regarding defense procurements that may be connected to the [case]."
"Given our understanding of how this service can operate and identify relevant suspicious transactions, and interact with NABU, the complete lack of activity in this area seems very suspicious to us," he added.
Could Mindich Be Extradited?
Mindich, with the alleged code name Karlson, fled Ukraine for Poland on November 10.
A co-owner of the Kvartal 95 comedy troupe, Mindich was close to Zelenskyy, who also co-owned the business before he became president. Kvartal was an important vehicle for Zelenskyy to gain popularity as a comedian and actor before entering politics.
Mindich left the country using a luxury taxi service just hours before authorities carried out raids connected to the investigation, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service learned.
That prompted critics to say he must have been alerted ahead of time.
Kryvonos says he wouldn't rule out Mindich facing extradition from Israel, where he also holds citizenship -- in fact, NABU is "working in this direction."
"We are not going to sit idly by just because we might assume that some country won't extradite someone," he said.
"As a rule, suspects don't just sit in one place; they want to travel, visit European countries. Therefore, all measures must be taken to ensure this person is on the international wanted list, so the relevant law enforcement agencies and Interpol have the appropriate orientation to detain this person in the event of crossing and arriving in the territory of another country."
'Ali-Baba' And Pressure On Anti-Corruption Efforts
Over the summer, Zelenskyy sparked a public uproar when he backed a measure that would have sharply reduced the independence of NABU and SAPO.
The move came after Ukraine's domestic security agency (SBU) arrested two NABU officials over alleged ties to Russia and carried out dozens of searches targeting agency employees.
After rare wartime street protests and a wave of calls from European leaders, Zelenskyy backed down and restored the agencies' full independence.
Kryvonos said that if it weren't for the protests, the Energoatom case "wouldn't have happened. It would have been destroyed for sure."
SAPO head Oleksandr Klymenko alleged earlier this week that meetings in the Ukrainian government were held to influence NABU and SAPO investigators following the publication of evidence.
Separately, opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak claimed that the anti-corruption investigative records include a person with the code-name Ali Baba, who was influencing authorities to pressure the anti-corruption agencies.
Zheleznyak added he believed the Ali-Baba was Andriy Borysovych Yermak.
A close ally and Zelenskyy’s most influential aide -- who had previously participated in a number of international meetings, including with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio -- Yermak did not immediately respond to requests for comment from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.
Kryvonos neither confirmed nor denied Zheleznyak's statement but he said "there is indeed such a person" who "interferes in the activities of law enforcement agencies" without any right to do so.
He told RFE/RL that this person holds a "high office" -- but he refrained on commenting whether they are part of the president's closest circle.
"This information was obtained operationally, but I can say that this person has no legally defined authority to do such things," he said.
