New "Mindich tapes": how Yermak’s "overseer" Vasyl Veselyi and his brother gained control of Karpatnaftokhim
In the "Mindich tapes," businessman Vasyl Veselyi, whom the media call the President’s Office "overseer" at Sense Bank, discusses with Oleksandr Tsukerman, a figure in "Mindichgate," how to gain control of Karpatnaftokhim, Ukraine’s largest petrochemical enterprise.
This is stated in an investigation by Ukrainska Pravda, Censor.NET reports.
What is known?
In late 2024, Ukrainska Pravda published an investigation describing how the President’s Office allegedly organized the lifting of the seizure, imposed over links to Russians, from Karpatnaftokhim in exchange for an allegedly free stake in the enterprise, with the share later to be re-registered to a front person.
The court seized the company’s corporate rights and real estate. This seized asset was then supposed to be transferred to ARMA, after which the state was expected to earn money once the investigation was completed and the property was either sold to new owners or nationalized after confiscation.
However, ARMA later said it could not find a new manager because of mistakes made by law enforcement officers. In 14 months, the state never managed to transfer Karpatnaftokhim into management, and in 2023, the court canceled the seizure of the enterprise altogether.
- Six months later, Andrii Veselyi, the brother of Vasyl Veselyi, who may be a front man for former head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak, became a co-owner of the company.
Discussion of the enterprise in the "Mindich" recordings
In a conversation on 9 May 2025, Vasyl Veselyi and Oleksandr Tsukerman discuss Karpatnaftokhim.
"Now I need Karpatnaftokhim, look. Shura, I want lawyers to challenge me on Karpaty. To challenge me. What I will tell them, how I see all of this," Vasyl Veselyi says.
"I am telling you seriously, now is the time to f### the two of them up so badly that, f### it. And I know the mechanism for how to do it. And they will come back to me again. We will return to the 7.5 million that were on the company. We will return to everything. Because everything they promised me has not been done at this point!" he continues.
In the conversation, Veselyi also mentions what is likely Arthur Hrantz, a co-owner of Karpatnaftokhim.
From the context, it appears that other co-owners of the enterprise are resisting Veselyi, while Veselyi is discussing an action plan with Tsukerman to gain control of the enterprise.
"The entire price of the plant, according to the expert opinion prepared here, is three million. We ordered it, the participants ordered it. So it costs more because minus 30 million in loans, martial law, and they took that into account. Our expert assessment included the Cypriot company to which... Which... To which the plant owes $840 million," Veselyi says.
"Then let them go and withdraw the money. F###, we don’t give a f### how. We just need to exit beautifully, f###. So let them all f### around together, f###. (inaudible). No, then catch up with them, f###, and force them to do what needs to be done. And it works," Veselyi says.
- Vasyl Veselyi, a businessman unknown to the public, appears within a short period of time to begin controlling state-owned Sense Bank while citing Andrii Yermak, while his brother, an individual entrepreneur from Drohobych who deals in paving slabs, becomes a co-owner of the country’s largest petrochemical enterprise, Ukrainska Pravda’s report says.
