Position: Former Minister of Energy and Minister of Justice.
Sphere of corruption: energy.
Region of corruption activity: all of Ukraine.
Qualification: Part 2 of Article 255 (participation in a criminal organization), Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime).
Status: in pretrial detention center.
Case story: On November 10, 2025, the NABU announced the conduct of a large-scale operation "Midas" to expose corruption in the energy sector. More than 70 searches were carried out as part of it. According to the investigation, the organizers of the scheme received up to 15% of the value of contracts from Energoatom in the form of "kickbacks". They were paid by the company's counterparties, who were imposed on them by the participants in the scheme.
The NABU claims that the money was "laundered" in so-called back offices in the center of Kyiv. The premises belonged to the family of former People's Deputy and current Senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach. According to the investigation, in total, the suspects in the case managed to "launder" $100 million.
On November 10, NABU published recordings of conversations of the defendants with code names, and later it became known who they were. The main defendants in the case are businessmen - co-owner of "Quarter 95" Timur Mindich, who had the code name "Karlson", and Oleksandr Zukerman - "Sugarman". They left the country shortly before the searches. Subsequently, sanctions were imposed against them and they were put on the wanted list. The head of the NABU detective group Oleksandr Abakumov reported that four ministers of the Ukrainian government from different periods were recorded in the energy corruption case. One of them is the former Minister of Energy and Minister of Justice Herman Galushchenko. He was also searched.
On November 12, Prime Minister Yulia Svirydenko submitted to the Rada a resolution to dismiss him, as well as the head of the Ministry of Energy, Svitlana Grinchuk. On November 19, the parliament supported the resolutions to dismiss Galushchenko and Grinchuk.
Former Minister of Economy of Ukraine in 2019-2020 and President of the Kyiv School of Economics, Tymofiy Mylovanov, announced that he was leaving the Supervisory Board of Energoatom . Subsequently, Prime Minister Svyrydenko announced that the government was restarting Energoatom's activities. The first decision was to dissolve the company's Supervisory Board. A new composition should be elected by the end of the year. In February 2026, former Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko was served with suspicion in the Midas case. He is suspected of large-scale money laundering and was detained while trying to cross the border.
Galushchenko was, in particular, informed of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 255 (participation in a criminal organization), Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime). According to the investigation, in February 2021, on the island of Anguilla (a self-governing overseas territory of Great Britain), at the initiative of the participants in the criminal organization in the "Midas" case, a fund was registered that was supposed to attract about $100 million in "investments".
The fund was headed by a long-time acquaintance of the members of the criminal organization, a citizen of the Seychelles and Saint Kitts and Nevis, who professionally provided services for laundering proceeds of crime. It is reported that the fund's "investors" included Galushchenko's family.
In order to conceal his involvement in the Marshall Islands, two companies were created, integrated into the structure of a trust registered in St. Kitts and Nevis. The beneficiaries of the companies were the former wife and four children of the high-ranking official. These companies became "investors" of the fund (by purchasing its shares), and members of the criminal organization began to transfer funds to the fund's accounts opened in three Swiss banks in the interests of the suspect.
According to the investigation, during the period of Galushchenko's tenure in office, through his trusted person known as "Rocket" (former advisor to the Minister of Energy Ihor Myronyuk - ed.), the criminal organization received over $112 million in cash from illegal activities in the energy sector.
These funds were legalized through various financial instruments, including cryptocurrency and "investment" in the fund. It has now been established that over $7.4 million was transferred to the fund accounts managed by Galushchenko's family. Another over 1.3 million Swiss francs and 2.4 million euros were issued in cash and transferred directly to the ex-minister's family in Switzerland. Part of these funds were spent on paying for children's education in prestigious institutions in Switzerland and placed in the accounts of his ex-wife.
The rest was put into a deposit, from which the high-ranking official's family received additional income and spent it on their own needs. According to UP sources in political circles, on the night of February 15, NABU and SAPO detained Halushchenko while he was trying to cross the border.
The High Anti-Corruption Court has imposed a preventive measure on former Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko. He is suspected of involvement in a large-scale money laundering scheme through offshore companies.
The court sentenced Galushchenko to 60 days in custody. As an alternative, the court set bail at 200 million hryvnias.
Persons potentially involved in corruption schemes: The Supreme Court of Criminal Appeals has chosen preventive measures for other suspects in this case
Private entrepreneur Lesya Ustimenko was sentenced to 60 days in custody with the possibility of bail of 25 million hryvnias. She appears in the case as a back office employee. On November 13, Vangar LLC posted bail for her.
Ihor Myronyuk, whom NABU calls a former advisor to Galushchenko, although his lawyer denies this, was taken into custody until January 8, 2025, with the possibility of posting bail of 126 million hryvnias. In the "NABU tapes" he is identified as "Rocket". He filed an appeal, but on December 17, the appeals chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court
Energoatom's Executive Director for Security Igor Fursenko — detention until January 8 with the possibility of posting bail of 95 million hryvnias. Fursenko has the nickname "Ryoshik" on the "NABU tapes". He filed an appeal, but the court did not support it.
Energoatom's Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security, Dmytro Basov, was ordered to be held in custody for 60 days with the possibility of bail of 40 million hryvnias. He was released after posting bail.
On November 13, the Supreme Court of Ukraine chose a preventive measure for private entrepreneur Lyudmila Zorina in the form of detention for 60 days and 12 million hryvnias of bail, which has already been paid for her.
The court ordered the former Minister of National Unity, Oleksiy Chernyshov, who, according to the investigation, appears in the case as "Che Guevara", to be held in custody until January 16, 2026, with the possibility of bail of 51 million hryvnias. This amount has already been paid for him and he has been released from pre-trial detention. In addition, he appears in a case of corruption in the construction sector with the participation of top officials.
On December 1, Mindich was sentenced in absentia to detention as a preventive measure. The investigation considers him to be the leader of a group that received and laundered money from corruption schemes in the energy sector.
In March 2026, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that it had sent a request to Israel for the extradition of the Midas case defendants, Timur Mindich and Oleksandr Zukerman.
Assets: Justice Minister Herman Galushchenko, who was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada in the wake of a corruption scandal in the energy sector, filed a declaration for 2025 (the declaration period covered January-mid-November). The newly published declaration is almost the same as last year's: Galushchenko owns an apartment with an area of 45.5 sq. m in Kyiv, a residential building with an area of 320 "squares" and three land plots with a total area of 0.49 hectares in the village of Velyka Soltanivka in the Kyiv region.
At the same time, the ex-minister did not reflect in the declaration the estate of 647 sq. m on Dobrovolchyh Batalyoniv Street in Kyiv, where he lived for some time. His stay in the specified house was repeatedly recorded by NABU officers who conducted operational surveillance as part of Operation Midas. In less than a year, Galushchenko received 1.97 million UAH of income. This is his salary as Minister of Energy and Justice. In addition, the ex-minister keeps 6.1 million UAH, $61.3 thousand and 3 thousand euros in bank accounts. In cash – $106 thousand and 400 thousand UAH.
If we compare it with the declaration for 2024, during 2025, Galushchenko significantly increased his savings in bank accounts in hryvnias - plus UAH 1.1 million.
Persons who should have reacted: in the case of Galushchenko, law enforcement officers reacted in a timely manner.
Scandals: Justice Minister Herman Galushchenko secretly lived for some time in a luxurious house that previously belonged to the former Minister of Internal Affairs under Viktor Yanukovych, Vitaliy Zakharchenko. This was reported on Telegram by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of parliament from Holos.
Another funny story was found. NABU searches of Energy Minister Galushchenko led to a very interesting place: a house in Tsarskoye Selo, from which he suddenly left in October, but for some reason decided to spend the night there the night before the searches. And in the morning Grinchuk (the Minister of Energy) was still seen there. This is the mansion of Vitaliy Zakharchenko, a fugitive minister from the Yanukovych era
The MP added that the house of ex-minister Zakharchenko was arrested back in 2021 and is officially being handled by ARMA. "Moreover, the arrest prohibits the use of the property. However, the house has been without a manager for four years, and ARMA announced the first competition only in September and October 2025, and it failed - there was no one willing to
The deputy also voiced versions of how Galushchenko and Hrynchuk could have ended up in this house.
The first is conspiracy theory. Zakharchenko or the nominal owner of the house asked Galushchenko to look after this house. The second is that ARMA specifically allows officials to live in the best houses and apartments that have been arrested, and therefore did not look for a manager for this house. And option number three is another "back office"
Sources:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2026/02/16/8021215/
https://public.nazk.gov.ua/documents/f88909db-f368-4265-a0b8-c0269f83cccb