Director of the State Bureau of Investigation Sukhachev appears on Mindich’s tapes as “Lesha” – VSK meeting

Following the release of Operation Midas’s materials on corruption in the energy sector, the State Bureau of Investigation questioned its deputy director, Alexander Udovichenko, but not the head of the SBI, Alexei Sukhachev.

This was stated by the head of the Main Investigative Department of the State Bureau of Investigation, Dmitry Merkovets, during a meeting of the temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

NABU passed on relevant information obtained as part of Operation Midas to the State Bureau of Investigation. Initially, when asked by Anastasia Radina whether the State Bureau of Investigation had questioned Udovichenko and Sukhachov, Merkovets answered “yes.” But then he added that only Udovichenko had been questioned.

“We interrogated the said individual… I’m speaking now about Udovichenko’s interrogation. We interrogated him because we received information from the NABU, which listed his name,” Merkovets stated.

After numerous clarifications about whether Sukhachev had been questioned, he replied that the director of the State Bureau of Investigation had not been questioned. He claimed that “there was no information we needed to obtain further” from Sukhachev. Meanwhile, Radina noted that the NABU materials “include the entire leadership of the State Bureau of Investigation, as those cited by the defendants in the case in conversations about attempts to ‘solve’, ‘frame’, or ‘conduct searches to clarify relationships.’” She also stated that there is reason to believe that Sukhachev appears on the “Midas tapes” as “Lesha.”

“His name is not mentioned in the information we received from our NABU colleagues,” Merkovets responded, then added that “the notes indicate that he is the one in question.”

But the DBI representative eventually began making excuses, claiming that “the name Alexey is very common in Ukraine.” Therefore, they allegedly continue to investigate the identity of “Lesha” in the NABU recordings.

NABU and SAPO uncovered a large-scale high-level corruption scheme involving influence over strategic public sector enterprises, specifically Energoatom. Its organizers received 10-15% of the company’s contract value in bribes, with kickbacks paid by contractors imposed on them by the scheme’s participants. Overall, the defendants managed to launder $100 million, legalizing it through a separate office in central Kyiv owned by the family of former MP Andriy Derkach. It was Timur “Karlson” Mindich who oversaw the money laundering.

As a reminder, the NABU and SAP are conducting a large-scale operation, “Operation Midas,” to expose corruption in the energy sector . According to investigators, the activities of a high-level criminal organization controlling financial flows and personnel decisions in state energy structures have been established.

Incidentally, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office have issued notices of suspicion to seven individuals involved in a large-scale corruption scheme at JSC NNEGC Energoatom .

As is known, journalists from “Schemes” have identified the names of individuals who were notified of suspicion by NABU detectives as part of an investigation into corruption in the energy sector. Timur Mindich is among those involved.

Earlier, Zelenskyy imposed National Security and Defense Council sanctions against Kvartal-95 co-owner Timur Mindich and businessman Alexander Tsukerman , who are linked to a corruption case in the energy sector.

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