Nikholov on energy sector corruption: dollars in U.S. bank packaging seized from suspects, heightening interest of U.S. investigators Source: https://censor.net/en/n3584303

censor.net ^ | 10.11.25 22:59 | Ольга Кошарна [Olga Kosharnaya]

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

Bundles of U.S. dollars in American bank packaging were seized from suspects in the energy-sector corruption schemes — a detail that could heighten U.S. investigators’ interest in the case.

Journalist Yurii Nikholov wrote, Censor.NET reports.

Cash in U.S. bank packaging seized from suspects "I still can’t grasp the scale of NABU’s hit on the corrupt. This isn’t a joke. The President’s partner from ‘Kvartal 95’ and the favorite energy minister from the circle of traitor Andrii Derkach, this isn’t some clownish jokes about ebonite sticks. I’ll publish a series of posts to break this down. The basic fact is this: Zelenskyy himself is not at risk.

Both NABU and the FBI said, their interest will be perfectly natural because Zelenskyy’s ‘nuclear grifters’ had bundles of dollars seized that were still in American bank packaging (you can see it in the largest photo on the screenshot).

They didn’t even bother to switch the cash into Ukrainian ‘wrappings’: straight off the plane from the U.S., packed for kickbacks. And that, so to speak, will sharpen the interest of investigators across the ocean," the journalist wrote.

At the same time, Nikholov added that "the Commander-in-Chief himself has nothing to worry about personally — only his ‘boyars’ may figure in the investigation."

"So the spin from Telegram trash heaps that this is ‘a blow to the President" is just that — spin.

---

TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: andriiderkach; derkach; nabu

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

Cash in U.S. bank packaging seized from suspects

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

ARTICLE

Zelenskyy reacts broadly to corruption in Ukraine’s energy sector: Convictions must follow
Ukrainska Pravda
By Tetyana Oliynyk
10 November, 20:26
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/11/10/8006716/

“President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he SUPPORTS THE ONGOING INVESTIGATION by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) into corruption in the energy sector. Although Zelenskyy did not name names, reports suggest that an associate of his may be involved in the case.
SOURCE: ZELENSKYY in his EVENING ADDRESS on 10 November
QUOTE: “Any effective action against corruption is very much needed. The inevitability of punishment is essential. Energoatom currently provides Ukraine with the largest share of power generation. Integrity within the company is a priority.

The energy sector and every branch, everyone who has constructed corrupt schemes, must face a clear procedural response. THERE MUST BE CONVICTIONS. And GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS MUST WORK TOGETHER WITH NABU and law enforcement bodies – and DO IT IN A WAY THAT DELIVERS REAL RESULTS.”

BACKGROUND:
• Ukrainska Pravda sources reported that on the morning of 10 November, NABU detectives conducted searches at the home of Tymur Mindich, a businessman and co-owner of Kvartal 95, the Ukrainian TV production company Volodymyr Zelenskyy founded before he became president.
• According to the same sources, Mindich left Ukraine hours before the search began.
• NABU confirmed that, together with SAPO, it is conducting a large-scale operation to
expose corruption in the energy sector.
• The investigators have uncovered an extensive corruption network influencing strategic state companies, including the state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom.
• NABU and SAPO have released part of the audio recordings from Operation Midas, their investigation into the large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector.
• Energoatom confirmed that on 10 November, investigative actions were being conducted at its headquarters by representatives of NABU and SAPO.

[blitz128]

Corruption is not unique to this area, look at our own congress for proof of that, but what is different is that how deeply ingrained in Russian and ex Soviet Union countries culture it is.

[Timber Rattler]

[Steven Tyler]

Where’s Hunter Bidon.....

[con-surf-ative]

Maybe say what country’s energy sector in your headline next time.

None of this is surprising.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

“Corruption is not unique to this area, look at our own congress for proof of that”

I totally agree.

Politics with unrestrained power fosters corruption: ethics is personal. Actually, powerful positions without accountability with lack of personal ethical responsibility occurs in any field.

All of us are to be morally responsibility. Accountability is different.

Yet, being held personally accountable truly does help us in our striving to be ethically responsible.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Vermont Lt]

Those wrappings are literally sent all over the world. While they mean the cash originated from the US, they can be found all over Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.

In terms of “proof” of anything….its pretty weak.

[zek157]

Note serial numbers would prove this most likely scenario sufficiently for even the most opaque mind.

[Vermont Lt]

The bar code would tell you where it originated.

The bag itself probably indicates where it originated.

But my point is that reserves are sent to banks all over the world. So Bank A in, say Switzerland, needs to up its cash reserves, so they need $100k in physical dollars. They reach out to the Fed and they are sent bags of currency.

If someone comes in an wants bags of $100k in currency, the bank would make that transaction. After that, the person holding the cash can load it onto a private jet and literally move it anywhere.

Another possible source is the printing offices of North Korea. They are notorious for printing counterfeit $100 bills.

The cash itself means nothing unless you can track the specific bar coded bags to a specific depositor. And we never tracked the bar codes when transferring bags of dollars (not THIS big, but $20s and $10s) to depositors. They were scanned out of the vault and put into the trucks.

[dforest]

Churchill my arse.

Z is a crook and people who were in on the corruption should all be sent to the meat grinder. Including American politicians and individuals who were in on the corruption.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/11/explosive-zelenskys-close-associate-timur-mindich-targeted-major/#comments

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "Z is a crook and people who were in on the corruption should all be sent to the meat grinder. Including American politicians and individuals who were in on the corruption."

Some additional links:

"NABU said it had documented the activities of a 'high-level criminal organization' allegedly led by a 'businessman well-known to the media.'

'Its members built a large-scale corruption network influencing strategic state enterprises, including Energoatom,' NABU said in a statement. The bureau alleged that participants received illicit kickbacks worth 10% to 15% of contract values from Energoatom’s contractors."

Source: NABU raids Ukraine's Justice Minister and Energoatom in corruption probe New Voice of Ukraine, via MSN, 10 November 2025. [ Ukrainian source ]

"This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, according to Censor.NET.

" 'Let me remind you that they were leading the 'financial part' at Tymur Mindich. And they are defendants in the FBI case) Mykhailo Tsukerman is a long-time childhood friend of Mindich’s relative, Leonid Mindich. Who also tried to flee in the summer, but the NABU managed to intercept him ).

" 'By the way, he was fleeing to the United States),' the parliamentarian noted."

Source: Tsukerman brothers, who were leading "financial part" at Mindich, urgently left Ukraine, - Zhelezniak Censor.net, 10 November 2025. [ Ukrainian source ]

"In July, Ukrainska Pravda, citing a source within Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, reported that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) were preparing to file charges against Mindich. This apparently spurred Zelenskyy to launch his short-lived attempt to curb NABU’s and SAPO’s independence.

"Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, chairman of Ukraine's parliamentary Freedom of Speech Committee, told NV that the impending charges against Mindich—proved to be 'the last straw' for Zelenskyy’s administration.

"Ukrainska Pravda also reported that NABU and SAPO wiretapped Mindich at a Kyiv address where Zelenskyy celebrated his birthday five years ago. Sources said the recordings might include conversations with the president, but no official confirmation has been released. It remains unclear whether the intercepted calls referred to corrupt activities."

Source: FBI probe targets Zelenskyy’s associate Mindich—report New Voice of Ukraine, via MSN, 6 November 2025. [ Ukrainian source ]

More later.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

Thank you :)

[Owen]

Entire story (including the part not included that past instances of this money flow, from the same people, was sent to Moscow for safekeeping, and there was wiretapping of discussions about real estate purchases in Hong Kong) looks bogus to me.

Overall, this sort of thing is done with bitcoin and ethereum nowadays. Cash gets converted to bitcoin as fast as possible. Yes, the transfer to Moscow is juicy, but why bother? It’s rather a lot harder to get anti-corruption photos for . . . whoever’s consumption (probably EU) if the assets were in BTC.

[Allegra]

Thank you.

This story is all over the place. I hope they’re able to uncover our own politicians’ involvement in this as well. There are several - a couple of Republicans too.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

Some additional links:

"The probe follows reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky's former business partner Timur Mindich was tipped off about possible searches and was able to leave the country beforehand.

"The leaks occurred in the past two weeks, a law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent."

Prosecutors probe possible leak as Zelensky ally reportedly flees prior to searches Kyiv Independent via Yahoo, 10 November 2025. [ Ukrainian source ]

"Earlier, a video was published on Zheleznyak’s YouTube channel, which talks about Mindich’s 'diamond business.' The deputy claims that Mindich owned companies that were engaged in the extraction and sale of laboratory diamonds in Ukraine and the Russian Federation during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. That is, according to him, it is actually about doing business with an aggressor country."

Law enforcement search residence of Mindich - media Interfax Ukraine, 10 November 2025. [ Ukrainian source ]

"Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have conducted searches at the home of Tymur Mindich, a businessman and co-owner of Kvartal 95, the Ukrainian production company Volodymyr Zelenskyy founded before he became president, on the morning of 10 November."

Anti-corruption agency conducts searches at home of Zelenskyy's former business partner – Ukrainska Pravda sources Ukrainska Pravda, 10 November 2025 [ Ukrainian source ]

"The year 2025 will go down in the modern history of Ukraine under the sign of 'Minditchgate' - a high-profile political scandal that revealed a whole web of business, power and corruption ties in the inner circle of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The central figure is Timur Mindich: co-founder of 'Quarter 95', a longtime friend and advisor to the head of state, curator of key state projects, potential corruptor, and the main 'invisible manager' of big politics for the past five years.

"Mindich is not an ordinary functionary, but a long-time 'liaison' between business and the president, a strategic advisor with access to the country's top officials. Founder and shareholder of the Kvartal 95 studio, in 2014-2024 he formed political, media and corporate schemes around studio projects, advertising tenders, state content and production business. In parliamentary circles, Mindich was suspected of lobbying oil and gas interests, participating in tenders of the Office of the President, and influencing the appointment of ministers and top management in a number of state-owned companies.

"In the spring of 2025, NABU entered the drone market: large-scale state procurement, multi-million contracts, 'oblenergo' and suspicions of overpricing of FPV drones. According to anti-corruption activists, Mindich distributed funds through controlled offshore companies, and his relative was detained at the border in the case of embezzlement of the budget on video surveillance systems and energy purchases.Journalists were the first to publish data on Mindich's direct contacts with drone manufacturers, energy company managers, and officials close to the Ministry of Defense."

"Minditchgate": a chronicle of the president's entourage, big drone money, and a crisis of confidence Newssky, Ukraine, 7 November 2025 [ Ukrainian source ]

[BroJoeK]

deforest: "Z is a crook and people who were in on the corruption should all be sent to the meat grinder.
Including American politicians and individuals who were in on the corruption."

A key point to understand here is that Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People political party ran for election in 2019 on an anti-corruption platform (among other promises).
Since election in 2019, we've seen a steady stream of reports from Ukraine on investigations, arrests & prosecutions of Ukrainians for corruption.
Such reports have helped to improve Ukraine's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) because they represent serious efforts to root out corruptions.

For a comparison, higher CPI scores are better, 100 is best:

1. 2015 USA scored 76
   2019 USA scored 69
   2024 USA scored 65 -- down by 11

2. 2015 Ukraine scored 27
   2019 Ukraine scored 30
   2024 Ukraine scored 35 -- up by 8

3. 2015 Russia scored 29
   2019 Russia scored 28
   2024 Russia scored 22 -- down by 7

This is a listing of some of Ukraine's major corruption cases, in date sequence:

Major Ukraine Corruption Cases since 2019 as of November 2025

Year	Case	Description	Estimated Amount	Remarks
2015–2016 charged in 2020	Kyiv Customs Officials	Bribery and smuggling ring exposed	~$1.3 million	source
2013–2016 arrested in 2023	Ihor Kolomoisky	Embezzlement from PrivatBank and oil firms	~$1.9 billion	Former Zelensky ally Kolomoisky jailed in Kyiv
2020 charged in 2025	State Food and Grain Corporation	Embezzlement and kickbacks on port contracts	~$4 million	source
2021	Odesa Port Authority	Fraud in grain exports and credit lines	~$57 million	source
2022	Defense Ministry Procurement	Inflated contracts for military gear	~$2.7 million	source
2023	Deputy Infrastructure Minister Vasyl Lozynsky	Arrested for accepting bribes on heating contracts	~$400,000	source
2024	Chernyshov & Kyiv Developer Ring	Land fraud and bribery involving Zelensky ally	~$10 million	Zelensky appointee
2025	Energoatom Kickback Scheme	Nuclear infrastructure contracts skimmed for bribes	~$100 million	Zelensky business partner

Bottom line: there's no doubt that corruption in Ukraine is a major problem, but unlike Russians and Americans, Ukrainians are seriously prosecuting their corrupt officials and business leaders.

[Moltke]

I take it that this is about corruption in Ukraine...but that article or whatever it is supposed to be is incoherent word salad.