First published in Deník N.
The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine ordered on 14 May that Andriy Yermak, until last November the head of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, be remanded in custody. However, it allowed him to secure his release on bail. Yermak claimed he did not have that much money. And he was relying on friends. Perhaps even on the mysterious fortune‑teller Veronika?
Andriy Yermak was arrested on 14 May in the courtroom. He listened to the court’s decision to place him in custody in silence, standing with his hands behind his back. Until recently one of the most powerful men in Ukraine, he is suspected, among other things, of money laundering and of being a member of an organised criminal group. He faces up to twelve years in prison.
Already on 11 May the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sap) informed Yermak that he was a suspect in a major corruption case. With money obtained through criminal means, primarily corruption, he and several influential politicians and businessmen allegedly wanted to build luxury villas near Kyiv.
This was probably one of the reasons why the judge set Yermak’s bail so high – 140 million hryvnias (€2.7m).
