Former Zelenskyy Chief of Staff Detained in Ukraine Corruption Case

A court in Kyiv detained Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, on corruption charges on May 14, setting bail at 140 million hryvnias ($3.2 million).

Yermak, who was the country’s lead negotiator in talks with the United States, resigned in November 2025 amid a corruption scandal that engulfed Zelenskyy’s administration.

In a May 11 post on X, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said it and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) had exposed an organized group that was laundering money through a 460-million-hryvnia ($10.5 million) luxury real estate project near Kyiv.

On May 14, the court ruled that Yermak should be placed into pre-trial detention unless he posts bail.

“I told you, I don’t have that kind of money,” Yermak told the court, Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian service reported via Telegram.

“I deny any accusations. … I remain in Ukraine,” he told journalists after the hearing.

Yermak said that he has “nothing to hide” and that his lawyers plan to appeal the ruling, while also expressing hope that some of his acquaintances would be able to help him with bail, but he didn’t specify who exactly.

The Epoch Times reached out to his lawyer for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

A later post by the same outlet on Telegram reported that various individuals had begun donating bail money, including one contribution of 666 hryvnias ($15).

On Nov. 13, 2025, Ukraine announced an anti-corruption audit of all state-owned companies amid an investigation into an alleged graft scheme involving the nation’s primary nuclear energy producer, Energoatom.

Yermak confirmed on Nov. 28, 2025, that his property was being searched and said he was fully cooperating with the authorities.

There is no suggestion that Zelenskyy is under any suspicion as part of the investigation.

Zelenskyy has not made a public comment, but his press officer, Dmytro Lytvyn, said, “The investigation is ongoing; it’s early to draw conclusions.”

A video released by NABU goes into detail about the allegations over a luxury real estate development called Dynasty, located in Kozyn, just south of Kyiv. Work on it began in June 2021.

“After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, construction of the Dynasty residences did not stop,” the NABU official said.

Ukraine has a long history of corruption. In 2013, a senior police officer was jailed for life for the murder in September 2000 of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze—who was investigating high-level graft—on the orders of high-level politicians.

Endemic corruption is one of the biggest obstacles to Ukraine’s admission to the European Union. On Dec. 11, 2025, the EU and Kyiv announced a plan to tackle graft and bolster the country’s democratic institutions.

The proposal would strengthen the independence of NABU and SAPO and protect their jurisdiction “from circumvention and undue influence through clear delineation of investigative jurisdiction among pre-trial investigation bodies and robust rules on prevention and settlement of conflicts of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings,” the plan said.

It would also extend the two agencies’ jurisdiction to “cover all high-risk positions,” it said.

Chris Summers and Reuters contributed to this report.