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Former Zelenskyy associate accused in $100 million embezzlement scheme

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Former Zelenskyy associate accused in 0 million embezzlement scheme

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A former associate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been accused of being the mastermind behind a $100 million embezzlement scheme.

Tymur Mindich, who was once Zelenskyy’s business partner, was identified by Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs as being the orchestrator of a scheme involving top officials and Ukraine’s state nuclear power company. Prior to the scandal, some feared Mindich’s growing influence over Ukraine’s lucrative industries that he had access to because of his ties to Zelenskyy.

Mindich allegedly exerted control over loyalists who then pressured contractors for Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company, demanding kickbacks to bypass bureaucratic obstacles. The requested kickbacks were reportedly as high as 15%.

Despite his history with Mindich, Zelenskyy was not implicated in the investigation. The Ukrainian president also issued sanctions against his former business partner once the anti-corruption findings were revealed.

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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STAYS SILENT AS MASSIVE UKRAINE CORRUPTION SCANDAL ROCKS ZELENSKYY’S INNER CIRCLE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participates in a briefing at the Office of the President following a staff meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 7, 2025. (Pavlo Bahmut/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

On Nov. 11, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said that a group of individuals, including Mindich, “set up a major corruption scheme to control key state-owned enterprises,” including the country’s state-owned nuclear agency, the Kyiv Independent reported. The Ukrainian news outlet said that sources confirmed law enforcement searched properties tied to Mindich on Nov. 10, but he was tipped off and fled.

Mindich remains at large, with Politico reporting that he fled to Israel as the scheme unraveled and law enforcement zeroed in on him.

“Any effective actions against corruption are very needed. The inevitability of punishment is necessary,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address, according to the Kyiv Independent.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a Coalition of the Willing meeting in London on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

TOP UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS IN ZELENSKYY GOVERNMENT SUBMIT RESIGNATIONS AMID $100 MILLION CORRUPTION SCANDAL

The NABU’s 15-month investigation allegedly involved 1,000 hours of wiretapping and resulted in 70 raids, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the agency.

“What we were hearing only as rumors now has some evidence,” activist Tetiana Shevchuk of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center told The Associated Press. “For a long time we have heard that Tymur Mindich is a shadow controller of the energy sector.”

In addition to Mindrich, Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, who was Energy Minister from 2021 to 2025, was also raided, according to the Kyiv Independent, which cited sources.

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Flamingo missiles are seen at Fire Point’s secret factory in Ukraine on Aug. 18, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky, File/AP Photo)

Mindich was co-owner of Zelenskyy’s production company Kvartal 95, something that Shevchuk believes pushed him toward politics. The activist told the AP that Mindich “would have never been in politics, never been in a position of power or business without his connection to Zelenskyy, and this magnitude is worse because it’s happening during war time, and it is related to energy infrastructure at a time when Ukrainians don’t have electricity in their homes.”

This isn’t the only NABU investigation centered on Mindich. The anti-corruption agency is allegedly working on a probe into the former Zelenskyy associate’s dealings with Ukraine’s top drone manufacturer, Fire Point. However, NABU has yet to release its findings in that investigation.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Zelenskyy’s office for comment.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

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Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

new video loaded: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

Prosecutors in Switzerland ordered Jacques Moretti to be detained after investigators questioned him and his wife, Jessica Moretti. Officials are looking into whether negligence played a role in last week’s deadly fire at their bar, Le Constellation.

By Meg Felling

January 9, 2026

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Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’

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Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’

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Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.

Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”

“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.

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TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’

Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.

“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”

Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.

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“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.” 

Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro. 

Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.

A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND

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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.

That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.

“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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What Canada, accustomed to extreme winters, can teach Europe

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Euronews spoke to Patrick de Bellefeuille, a prominent Canadian weather presenter and climate specialist, on how Europe could benefit from Canada’s long experience with snowstorms. He has been forecasting for MétéoMédia, Canada’s top French-language weather network, since 1988.

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