This November, while Ukrainians face 12–16 hour blackouts and burn furniture for heat, NABU wiretaps expose Zelenskyy’s close associate Tymur Mindich, the 45-year-old Kvartal 95 co-founder, bargaining over 10–15% kickbacks on Western aid meant to shield the power grid. For four years, Americans watched billions of their tax dollars disappear into a war led by a former comedian, who ran on a Presidential campaign to stop corruption. “Democracy is at stake” became Washington’s incantation, these words somehow magically opened America’s treasury vault, switching off oversight, all while billions disappeared into offshore shells and oligarch extravagance. After fifteen months of secret surveillance, more than a thousand hours of wiretaps, and coordinated raids, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) exposed a ruthless money-laundering network inside President Zelenskyy’s inner circle.
On the morning of November 10, 2025, Operation Midas went into action, 200 NABU and SAPO detectives simultaneously raided more than 70 locations across Kyiv, striking at the heart of a high-level criminal network inside Ukraine’s energy and defense sectors that had allegedly embezzled tens of millions in U.S. and EU aid meant to protect wartime infrastructure. What they found turned the probe into national humiliation, a gleaming gold-plated toilet, gym bags overflowing with banded tens of millions in Federal Reserve $100 bills and shrink-wrapped €200 notes, every dollar traced straight back to protective shelters for Energoatom’s nuclear plants that were paid for but never built. The man who owned it all, Tymur Mindich, a longtime business partner to Zelenskyy, co-owner of the Kvartal 95 entertainment empire, and an Israeli citizen who conveniently fled after being tipped off hours earlier and fled to Israel on a private jet. By nightfall, shared photos of bags stuffed with shrink-wrapped $100 bills and a gold-plated toilet from Tymur Mindich’s apartment were exploding across every Ukrainian phones, side-by-side with NABU’s leaked wiretaps of Zelenskyy’s inner circle haggling over kickbacks while the country sat in darkness. That single leaked recording, became the moment millions of Ukrainians finally voiced what they’d long suspected in silence. At its filthy core, the entire scheme ran on one simple rule, 10–15 % kickbacks on every inflated contract, every dollar meant for nuclear shelters that were never built.
The scandal’s alleged mastermind, former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov (codenamed “Che Guevara” in the intercepts) a Zelenskyy loyalist since 2019 who served as Kyiv Oblast governor, Communities Minister, and Naftogaz CEO before his summer 2025 demotion was formally charged on November 11 with illicit enrichment exceeding $1.24 million USD and €100,000. NABU alleges he laundered kickbacks through a Kyiv “laundromat” office tied to pro-Russian ex-MP Andriy Derkach, using the funds for four luxury riverside mansions south of Kyiv (undeclared assets worth millions). A week later, on November 18, the High Anti-Corruption Court ordered his pretrial detention until January 16, 2026, with bail set at 51 million UAH (~$1.24 million); his accounts frozen, he remains in custody, denying the charges as “absurd” and out-of-context leaks. Critics note his wife’s codename, Professor, implicates her too, though she’s uncharged so far. On November 12, Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk, a 40-year-old economist and former Environment Minister (2024–2025) appointed to Energy in July amid wartime reshuffles, and Justice Minister Herman Galushchenko resigned after raids linked them to the kickback network. Hrynchuk, a relative political novice with no prior scandals, was accused of overlooking inflated Energoatom contracts that funneled 10–15% bribes to insiders.She has denied wrongdoing, calling speculation “inappropriate” before her formal dismissal by parliament on November 19. Galushchenko, 50, a power engineer who led Energy from 2021–2025, before shifting to Justice, allegedly installed allies at Energoatom to rig procurement, wiretaps capture him on calls with Mindich lobbying for favors, including pressure on ex-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Both deny involvement, but parliament sacked Galushchenko on November 19, fueling opposition cries of a Zelensky cabal. Zelenskyy responded swiftly but seen as pure theatre, stripping Tymur Mindich an Israeli-Ukrainian producer, Kvartal 95 co-founder (Zelenskyy’s pre-presidency comedy empire), imposing indefinite sanctions (asset freezes, travel bans, and 18 other restrictions via NSDC decree on November 13), and vowing energy-sector overhauls like procurement audits. Mindich, charged in absentia after fleeing, is accused of masterminding the $100M+ laundromat, with tapes showing him directing bribes and boasting of “controlling” ministers. Zelenskyy called it proof of his anti-corruption resolve, but moves are widely dismissed as damage control amid plunging approval ratings.
This isn’t Zelenskyy’s first ride on the rodeo of corruption. Back on October 3, 2021, just four months before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Pandora Papers exposed how the former actor turned anti-oligarch crusader, whose 2019 campaign ads skewered “politicians who hide money offshore,” quietly held a 25% stake in a British Virgin Islands shell company, Maltex Multicapital Corp. On the eve of the election, the former comedian transferred those shares to his chief of staff, Serhiy Shefir, while a dozen offshore entities tied to his Kvartal 95 circle, including ex-SBU head Ivan Bakanov, who continued owning luxury London flats worth millions. When the documents leaked, Zelenskyy’s administration brushed them off as outdated “safeguards” from the post-Maidan era, measures to shield against Yanukovych-era threats, insisting there was nothing improper.
Ukraine remains one of Europe’s most corrupt countries with a Transparency International CPI score ~36/100 as of 2024, critics argue Zelenskyy has not transformed the system as promised. The Golden Toilet scandal is an extension from the same exact plate of decay, this time, offshore money is now arriving in duffel bags of U.S. hundreds. The villain here is obvious, shiny, shameless, blatant, all captured in high definition. While Ukrainian families burn furniture to survive sixteen-hour blackouts, the presidential circle treated $175 billion in U.S. assistance and hundreds of billions more from Europe, as a private slush fund, shielded by martial law and the endless refrain that “democracy is at stake.” The golden toilet is a symbol, charity to foreign countries without accountability is not charity, it is theft. Congress must demand full audits, asset seizures, and repayment. The checkbook must close. America First, today, now, always.
