Andriy Yermak, the once all-powerful former head of Ukraine’s presidential office and a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been released from custody after bail of 140 million hryvnia (€2.7 million) was posted in a money-laundering investigation.
The High Anti-Corruption Court press service confirmed the release on May 18, according to Ukrainian news agencies. Yermak walked free just four days after a judge ordered him held in pre-trial detention for up to 60 days unless the sum was paid.
Yermak must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, surrender his passports, report to investigators when summoned and not leave Kyiv without authorisation. He is also barred from contacting other suspects in the case.
Yermak, who resigned in late 2025 as the corruption scandal known as the “Midas” case engulfed Zelensky’s inner circle, is suspected of belonging to an organised group that laundered up to €8.9 million in bribe money from the energy sector through the construction of luxury housing outside Kyiv.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said five of seven suspects had been detained. The two still at large include Timur Mindich, named as the ringleader of the “Midas” case and co-owner of Kvartal 95, the production company Mindich founded with Zelensky during the president’s earlier career as a comedian.
According to investigators, Mindich ran a network that collected roughly €90 million in kickbacks from contractors of Energoatom, the State operator of Ukraine’s nuclear plants. The scheme allegedly relied on the backing of senior figures then serving in Zelensky’s government, among them the energy and justice ministers, Svitlana Grinchuk and Herman Galushchenko.
Yermak has denied wrongdoing and said his legal team would appeal the detention ruling. The full text of the court’s decision was due to be published on May 18.
The affair has become one of the gravest tests of Zelensky’s wartime administration as Kyiv continues to fight Russia and pursues European Union membership. The EU ambassador to Ukraine has said the case demonstrates the resilience of the country’s anti-corruption institutions, a body of work Brussels has repeatedly pressed Kyiv to protect as a condition of closer ties.
NABU issued its formal notice of suspicion against Yermak on May 11. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison.
