A former high-ranking aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Andriy Yermak, appeared in court on Tuesday as prosecutors sought his arrest on charges of involvement in a multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme. Prosecutors allege that Yermak funneled approximately 460 million Ukrainian hryvnias ($10.5 million) into the upscale Dynasty housing complex in Kozyn, near Kyiv.

Investigators suspect the funds may have originated from corruption at Energoatom, Ukraine's state nuclear energy company. The prosecution has requested that Yermak be remanded in custody with bail set at 180 million hryvnias ($4 million). Yermak denied the allegations, stating, 'I own only one apartment and one car.'

The case is part of a broader anti-corruption operation, dubbed 'Midas,' led by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). The operation was unveiled last November when Timur Mindich, a former business associate of Zelenskyy, was accused of orchestrating a $100 million kickback scheme at Energoatom. Mindich has fled to Israel and denies the allegations.

Yermak, a former film producer who helped engineer Zelenskyy's rise from playing a fictional president on TV to leading a country at war, resigned as chief of staff in November after investigators raided his home as part of the Energoatom probe. NABU chief Semen Kryvonos confirmed that Zelenskyy himself is not under investigation.

The Ukrainian government last year attempted to strip the independence of NABU and SAPO, triggering rare wartime protests and forcing Zelenskyy to backtrack after criticism from the European Union. Some lawmakers see the case against Yermak as a positive sign of Ukraine's anti-corruption drive. A recent poll found that 54% of Ukrainians consider corruption a greater threat to the country's development than Russia's war.

Source: www.aljazeera.com