Top bank official suspended over Ukraine's biggest corruption scandal
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A top official of the bank at the center of Ukraine's largest corruption scandal temporarily suspended himself from his duties on May 6.
The decision by Mykola Hladyshchenko, head of state-owned Sense Bank's supervisory board, follows the publication of alleged transcripts of audio tapes implicating the bank in the corruption scandal last week. The bank could not comment on the tapes by the time of publication.
The tapes were allegedly recorded by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) in a $100 million corruption scheme centered around the state nuclear monopoly Energoatom. The Energoatom probe, launched last year, is the biggest corruption investigation of President Volodymyr Zelensky's tenure.
Nine suspects have been charged in the case. These include Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, and former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko. Mindich fled to Israel in November.
Zelensky's former Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak and Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and former defense minister, are under investigation in the case but have not been charged yet.
Hladyshchenko, head of Sense Bank's supervisory board, said that he felt "responsibility for the future of the state-owned bank and the need to ensure its stable operation, especially in the context of preparations for its future privatization," as cited by the bank.
"For that reason, given the public attention surrounding the situation, I have decided to temporarily step aside from performing my duties as chairman of the supervisory board of Sense Bank for the period necessary to clarify all the circumstances," he added.
At the same time, the National Bank of Ukraine said on May 6 that it had "initiated a review of the business reputation of the bank’s executives" due to alleged violations found at Sense Bank. The central bank has also started a probe into whether Oleksiy Stupak, CEO of Sense Bank, complies with qualification requirements.
Both Stupak and Hladyshchenko spoke on May 5 at a parliamentary investigative commission that is looking into the Energoatom corruption scandal. Stupak joined the bank's management team in 2019 and became CEO in 2024.
The National Bank said that it had identified signs of "the possible existence in the past of a hidden parallel management structure at the bank involving representatives of its former sanctioned owners" — an apparent reference to ABH Holdings, a group controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.
Sense Bank, formerly known as Alfa Bank Ukraine, was owned by Fridman's ABH Holdings until it was nationalized by the Ukrainian government in 2023 amid Russia's full-scale invasion.
"The period (from 2012 to 2022 at the bank) was characterized, among other things, by the practice of maintaining dual records of decisions made by the bank’s collegial bodies through the use of concealed protocols; the parallel existence of hidden internal documents, (hidden) supervisory board committees, unofficial governing bodies with their own budgets, and 'shadow managers' of the bank; as well as covert decision-making regarding transactions with suspicious parties aimed at improving the bank’s performance indicators," the National Bank said.
The tapes published last week appear to confirm previous Ukrainska Pravda reports that Vasyl Vesely, an aide to Sense Bank's supervisory board, was a protégé of Yermak and had a lot of influence over the bank. According to Ukrainska Pravda, Mindich also allegedly influenced Sense Bank.
Vesely previously denied the allegations.
Vesely and Oleksandr Tsukerman, a suspect in the case, mention talking to "Khirurg" (Surgeon) in the alleged tapes several times while discussing Sense Bank. Vesely also says that Khirurg "needs him."
Oleksandr Abakumov, the detective in charge of the Energoatom case, said in March that Yermak is referred to in the NABU recordings as "Khirurg."
While discussing the appointment of Sense Bank's supervisory board, Tsukerman says that Oleh Mistyuk, who was later appointed as a board member, "works with" Khirurg.
Tsukerman and Vesely appear to have great influence over the board's appointment. The people whom they promoted in the tapes were later appointed to the board.
