How leaked conversations suggest backroom influence at a Ukrainian bank

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.

The pair also uses language indicative of control over the process, such as "our quota" and "our members," according to the transcripts of recordings, which are read out by Ukrainska Pravda reporter Mykhailo Tkach in two videos published on YouTube.

The two appear to be coordinating with codenamed individuals, widely assumed to refer to Zelensky's former chief of staff, Andriy Yermak — whose codename was "Surgeon," and close friend and former business partner, Timur Mindich, codenamed "Carlson."

Both Mindich and Tsukerman fled Ukraine, and are wanted in connection with a $100 million corruption scheme centered around the state nuclear monopoly Energoatom.

In a different conversation released by UP, Mindich and Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's defense minister at the time and now chief negotiator in negotiations with Russia, appear to raise the topic of Sense Bank and discuss calling Andriy Pyshnyy, the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.

Ukrainska Pravda first reported last year the existence of a trove of wiretapped conversations held by Ukraine's law enforcement services, recorded as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption in Ukraine's nuclear sector, codenamed Operation Midas.

The operation has since led to both Yermak and Mindich being charged with money laundering and embezzlement, respectively. Yermak this week was arrested in Kyiv and is now in pre-trial detention.

The recent release of the transcripts from Ukrainska Pravda is raising new questions around the extent of corruption in Ukraine during wartime, and how far the fish rots.

The tapes: chronology and impact

After Alfa was nationalized in 2023, an interim board was selected to supervise Sense Bank, pending the official process to select six independent members to the board.

In 2025, an initial pool of at least 18 candidates was selected. A state competition commission, consisting of five representatives from different branches of government — including the President's Office and the Ukrainian parliament — then worked to whittle down the list to six board members.

The final selection was confirmed on June 18 by Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers, which approved the appointment of Piotr Nowak, Jerzy Shuhaev, Eva de Falk, Oleksandr Shchur, Mykola Hladyshenko, and Oleh Mistiuk.

But Tsukerman and Veselyi's conversation is timestamped May 9, according to Ukrainska Pravda — forty days before the final list was approved and made public.

"I think that in five minutes we’ll have the final list: Novak, Shuhaev, Eva (De Falk), Shchurov, Hladyshenko, and Mistiuk," Veselyi says, according to Ukrainska Pravda, on May 9.

The pair repeatedly uses language indicative of influence over the process, or at least a desire to control the process.

In a different conversation released by Ukrainska Pravda, Tsukerman says that "we have the majority" if they can agree on two or three members of the supervisory board being "ours."

Five votes are required to have a majority for board decisions.

Following the release of the tapes, the head of Sense Bank's supervisory board, Mykola Hladyshenko, resigned on May 6.

Hladyshchenko 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," in a statement.

"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.

Later on in the tapes, Veselyi and Tsukerman appear to discuss taking control of a large chemical enterprise, Karpatnaftokhim.

Yet in comments to Ukrainska Pravda in December 2024, Veselyi denied any connection to the company. He also denied having ties to Andriy Yermak and claimed to only have a role as an advisor at Sense Bank, now in doubt after the publication of these tapes.