Detained Ukrainian ex-minister accused of laundering $9m in kickbacks scandal

KYIV – Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency accused a former energy minister on Feb 16 of laundering millions of dollars of kickbacks in a corruption case that has shaken the wartime government, a day after he was detained trying to leave the country.

German Galushchenko, who served as energy minister from 2021 to 2025 and then briefly as justice minister

until he resigned

over the scandal in 2025, became one of the most senior officials detained in the “Midas” case, over an alleged US$100 million (S$126 million) kickback scheme at the state nuclear company.

The case has ensnared senior officials and members of Ukraine’s business elite, including a former close associate of President Volodymyr Zelensky from his pre-political media career, and caused concern among Kyiv’s Western allies.

Galushchenko “was exposed for money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation” by corruption investigation agency NABU and its prosecuting sister agency SAPO, according to a statement from NABU.

It said more than US$7 million (S$9 million) was transferred to foreign accounts, naming Galushchenko’s wife and four children as beneficiaries.

Some were spent on educating the children at elite schools in Switzerland and some placed in “a deposit, from which the family of the high-ranking official received additional income and spent it on their own needs”.

Galushchenko has denied wrongdoing.

NABU had said on Feb 15 that he was detained “while crossing the state border”, without specifying where the arrest took place.

Millions in payments

Prosecutors say participants in the Midas scheme squeezed nuclear company Energoatom’s contractors for bribes to complete projects, including structures to protect energy facilities from Russian air strikes.

They previously said the plot was organised by former Zelensky associate Timur Mindich, who fled to Israel before he could be arrested in November.

Mindich, who founded the TV studio behind the hit sitcom that brought Mr Zelensky fame as an actor before he entered politics, has denied wrongdoing.

A former deputy prime minister was arrested in November, and NABU has said other former senior officials are under investigation.

The case sparked a political scandal in 2025 that led to the ouster of Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Mr Andriy Yermak, and fuelled new public anger at lingering corruption as Ukraine fights Russia in its four-year war.

Mr Zelensky

tried to limit the independence

of the anti-corruption agencies in 2025 before reversing in the face of public protests and pressure from Western allies.

Energoatom chief executive Pavlo Kovtonenko said last week that the company has taken a number of steps to prevent the recurrence of corruption schemes in the future. REUTERS