Ukraine’s anti-corruption police accused an ex-energy minister yesterday of helping launder kickbacks and stashing millions offshore, a day after he was detained trying to leave the country in a case that has shaken Kyiv’s wartime government.
The arrest of German Galushchenko was the first major development for months in the “Midas” bribery case, which has loomed over Ukraine’s domestic politics since last year by reaching into President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s inner circle.
The case has ensnared senior figures including a personal business associate of Zelenskiy and led to the resignation of Zelenskiy’s powerful chief of staff and confidante.
In unveiling the accusations against Galushchenko, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency NABU said it was working with 15 foreign jurisdictions to expand its investigation.
Galushchenko, who served as energy minister from 2021-2025 and then briefly as justice minister until he resigned over the scandal last year, becomes one of the most senior officials detained in the case, which centres on an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at the state nuclear company.
Galushchenko has denied any wrongdoing. He did not respond to a message seeking comment and Reuters was unable to locate a lawyer representing him.
NABU said more than $7m had been transferred to foreign accounts that named Galushchenko’s wife and four children as beneficiaries, after it was laundered in a complex offshore scheme by co-conspirators.
Some was 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”.
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