Hungary’s Foreign Ministry calls on the EU to stop funding Ukraine due to corruption scandal in the energy sector
13 November 14:15
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has called on the European Union to cut off financial aid to Ukraine after the exposure of a corruption scheme at the Ministry of Energy and NNEGC Energoatom. He wrote about this on November 12 on Facebook.
He states that “corruption is rampant in Ukraine” and criticizes the lack of an accurate report on the spending of EU funds in recent years.
“And what does Brussels want? To send even more money to Ukraine, to President Zelensky, in whose inner circle a large corruption network has recently been discovered… It’s time to stop this madness, we need to stop sending money from European citizens to Ukraine!” the Hungarian foreign minister wrote.
He also assured that “Hungarians’ money will not get to Ukraine” as long as the Fidesz party, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, remains in power.
“Of course, in the case of a government that supports Brussels and is an ally of Ukraine, the situation would be different,” he wrote, probably alluding to Tisza’s party.
What is known about the Midas case
On the morning of November 10, NABU detectives conducted searches at the home of businessman Tymur Mindich, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio, who is said to be a close friend of President Zelensky. Investigative actions also took place at the home of the suspended Minister of Justice Herman Halushchenko.
However, Mindich, one of the main defendants in the case, left Ukraine a few hours before the searches. As part of the investigation, the NABU released excerpts of audio recordings about corruption in the energy sector.
According to the investigation, Energoatom operated a “barrier” scheme: contractors were forced to pay 10-15% of the contract amount as kickbacks. In case of refusal, they threatened to block payments or exclude them from the list of suppliers.
According to the NABU, the funds were legalized through a back office in the center of Kyiv, where about $100 million passed through. The office belonged to the family of former MP and current Russian Senator Andrii Derkach.
Five people have already been detained in the case, and a number of them have been notified of suspicion. The investigators include:
- Timur Mindich – businessman and co-founder of Kvartal 95;
- Ihor Myroniuk, former advisor to the Minister of Energy;
- Dmytro Basov, former executive director for security at Energoatom;
- Four employees of the “back office” for money laundering: Oleksandr Zukerman, Ihor Fursenko, Lesia Ustymenko, and Liudmyla Zorina.
The defendants used codenames: Mindich – “Carlson”, Myroniuk – “Rocket”, Basov – “Tenor”, Zuckerman – “Sugarman”, Fursenko – “Rashik”.
Also involved in the case are Herman Halushchenko (“Professor”) and former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov (“Che Guevara”), who have been notified of suspicion.
