A state-owned bank that formerly belonged to a Russian oligarch is at the center of a spiraling corruption scandal implicating several people close to President Volodymyr Zelensky.In transcripts of recorded conversations published by Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda in the first weeks of May, two businessmen with ties to close friends of Zelensky discuss potential candidates for the board of Sense Bank — appearing to exert influence over a process that should be free of outside interference.Sense Bank, formerly known as Alfa Bank Ukraine, was owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's ABH Holdings until it was nationalized in 2023 as part of a drive to eliminate Moscow's footprint in Ukraine's economy amid Russia's full-scale invasion.Ukraine’s state-owned companies have long been battlegrounds for political influence and self-dealing. While many questions remain around what the conversations reveal, they suggest that state enterprises are still vulnerable to informal political networks — and raise questions about the extent of Ukraine's largest corruption scandal since the full-scale invasion.As a state-owned bank, Ukrainian law requires the appointment of a nine-person supervisory board — including six members selected in a supposedly competitive and independent process. The other three are appointed directly by the state.In the alleged recordings, Vasyl Veselyi, who previously consulted Sense Bank's supervisory board, and Oleksandr Tsukerman, a businessman who does not hold public office, name six candidates for the independent supervisory board of Sense Bank — 40 days before Ukraine's government voted to confirm the very same six people for the position.