The impact could not have been predicted, but all the elements of a major political scandal were present: Monday, November 10, as power outage replacement generators rumbled through the streets of Kyiv, investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) announced that they had carried out dozens of searches as part of a major investigation into the criminal system that corrupted the country’s energy sector.
The suspects, who were not named by NABU, are accused of extorting funds from a subcontractor to the state nuclear company, Energoatom. The announcement comes at a more difficult time, when parts of society are suffering from prolonged power outages due to Russian bombing of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
On social networks, NABU investigators supplemented their disclosures with photos showing wads of cash and audio recordings of telephone intercepts. It took more than fifteen months of investigation and 1,000 hours of listening to reach the results of the so-called “Midas” operation., according to the agency, which works closely with the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine (SAPO).
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