From life of one "Roshyk" or how Mindich’s cash-out operator started dealing with Fire Point rockets
Over the past week, Ukrainians have learned a great deal more about how state corruption operates, as little-known advisers demanded kickbacks from Energoatom contractors and then channelled the money to enrich people in the president’s inner circle.
Perhaps the most remarkable court hearing, however, was held in the case of Ihor Fursenko, the man known as "Roshyk", who was responsible for transferring the money from those extorting the money to high-ranking officials. It is Roshyk who features in that well-known NABU photo where he is walking with huge bags of cash.
Ihor Fursenko is registered as an individual entrepreneur, with his main line of business listed as consultancy on informatization issues. Other subscribers have saved his number as "Ihor, employee of Mykhailo Tsukerman".
According to an investigation by Hromadske journalists, the wife of suspect Ihor Fursenko, Oleksandra Fursenko, bought a 267-square-metre apartment in Kyiv in 2024 for 400,000 US dollars, which is below the market price. Six months before he was served with a notice of suspicion, in April this year, Fursenko himself purchased a new car – a 2023 Porsche Macan.
Thus, according to the investigators, in early 2025, businessman Tymur Mindich created a "stable hierarchical association of individuals – a criminal organization".
"To achieve this goal, Mindich brought in Oleksandr Davydovych Tsukerman as a co-organiser. Tsukerman’s involvement was conditioned by the relationship of trust between them and by the latter’s experience in the banking sector," the prosecutor from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office told the court.
It was Tsukerman who actually assembled the group of people to launder the money, finding individuals who "had experience representing the interests of non-residents in financial transactions, whose actions bore the hallmarks of money laundering".
"At the same time, with the assistance of Energy Minister Halushchenko, the criminal organization run by Tsukerman and Mindich brought in the adviser to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, Myroniuk, and the Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security of the joint-stock company NNEGC Energoatom, Basov. These individuals, using their official powers as well as the influence of Energy Minister Halushchenko and their relationship of trust with him, arranged for the receipt and accumulation of significant amounts of funds obtained by criminal means, with the assistance and involvement of officials of JSC NNEGC Energoatom. At the same time, participation in the criminal organization allowed Myroniuk and Basov to personally enrich themselves at the expense of these criminal proceeds, and gave Basov the opportunity to enjoy the patronage of Myroniuk and Halushchenko before the management of JSC NNEGC Energoatom," the prosecutor noted.
Censor.NET has already described how the "barrier" scheme worked and how money was collected from Energoatom’s contractors.
"From 10 February 2025 to 9 May 2025, Ustymenko and Fursenko, acting under Tsukerman’s direction and Mindich’s control in execution of the joint criminal plan of the organization, laundered funds totalling 1,227,300 US dollars and 96,700 euros, which in total exceeds 55 million hryvnias. They did so by disposing of and using these funds and by taking actions aimed at concealing and disguising the fact that they had been obtained by criminal means and the source and location of their origin, transferring them into the ownership of the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for National Unity of Ukraine Oleksii Chernyshov," the prosecutor said.
Overall, according to the investigation, in the period from 12 February 2025 to 21 May 2025 alone, the organization laundered 5,563,523 US dollars and 450,000 euros.
At the same time, one of the heads of the prosecution service, being a member of the criminal organization led by Mindich and Tsukerman and acting in execution of the criminal organization’s joint plan, performed his assigned role by passing on pre-trial investigation data in the criminal proceedings between 16 October 2025 and 26 October 2025. In doing so, he enabled measures to conceal the criminal activity by giving the members of the organization advance warning about the risk of being exposed by detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine," the prosecutor said. (As reported earlier, journalists pointed to the possible involvement of Deputy Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office Andrii Syniuk in the leak.)
In court, the prosecutor also set out in detail how exactly the money was laundered.
In particular, on 10 February 2025, during a conversation, Tsukerman instructed Ustymenko to prepare 300,000 for Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshov. "On 11 February 2025, during another conversation, Ustymenko agreed with Tsukerman on the distribution of money received from an individual with the codename Tenisyst. The group received 250,000 dollars from him.
All these details were entered into the Manhattan accounting system, indicating from whom the organization received the funds and how they were spent.
Shura, so I can close out 96,700 euros and 200 dollars, right?" Ustymenko asks Tsukerman.
For example, on 18 February this year, 10 million hryvnias were distributed in this way.
On 24 February 2025, investigators managed to record Fursenko clarifying with Tsukerman what percentage they would charge for their services.
At first, they were taking 2%, then they decided to raise it to 2.5%. (In some cases, the fee for their services could reach as much as 8%.)
Every day, Tsukerman and Fursenko coordinated who should receive money and how much.
Fursenko: Shura, should I put the twenty through to 23?
Tsukerman: Not to me. The twenty is expenses – ten thousand from me and ten from Karlson.
The conversations between Tsukerman and Fursenko also feature them discussing the use of counter-surveillance measures. These dialogues show that every week, Mindich had his place swept for listening devices.
"We’ve put in a noise suppressor for when we talk," Tsukerman told Fursenko.
On 25 April 2025, Tsukerman told Fursenko that he had noticed surveillance near his home and therefore asked his security guard to help carry out countersurveillance.
In turn, Fursenko informs him about information received concerning the surveillance of Rocket (Ihor Myroniuk).
As a result, Tsukerman asks Ustymenko to delete all accounting records that were no longer needed or hide them on removable media. This is from a conversation on 29 April 2025.
"Yes, look, Lesia, what do I want to do with the bookkeeping? I want us, sort of from the first, from this one, as I recall, to close out the history. All those places where there are old records going back many years should stay where they are and not be in the live operating system. We’ll clear everything out, maybe close some of them, see who we don’t need there and who we do, tomorrow we’ll set something up, and the rest we’ll wipe – to hell with it," Tsukerman says.
In addition, on 2 May, Tsukerman asked Fursenko to wipe his phone.
"One way or another, they’ll manage to get some kind of search here. We’ll be wiping the phones. How? Well, delete everything you can," Tsukerman says.
On 30 May 2025, Tsukerman and Fursenko discussed using foreign numbers in instant messaging applications. To do this, they brought in an information technology specialist, Yudin.
To avoid surveillance of his car, from 16 March 2025, Tsukerman also used a Lexus with the registration plate AA9487МС.
"This registration plate belongs to a Volkswagen Touareg. So we state that cover plates were being used on the Lexus. During surveillance, the detective recorded a grey Mazda moving together with the Lexus, constantly following it and thus taking countermeasures to prevent surveillance of the car," the prosecutor said.
However, this did not prevent NABU detectives from recording that it was in these cars that Tsukerman travelled to the settlement of Kozyn and to the gated community of the Hrushevskoho 9A residential complex, where Mindich lived.
Investigators likewise recorded Fursenko on 13 May 2025, between buildings 4 and 6 on Striletska Street in Kyiv, receiving two shopping bags from a car driver and then returning with them to Tsukerman’s office. In court, Fursenko denied everything and claimed the bags contained wine.
"I would still ask you to open these pages, because they clearly show Fursenko walking along Striletska Street towards the office where the criminal organization was based, carrying two large chequered bags. This is also confirmed by the report dated 8 August 2025 on the results of surveillance measures carried out in respect of Fursenko, which records that on 28 May 2025, again between buildings 4 and 6 on Striletska Street, he received a bundle in a plastic bag from a car driver, put it into his backpack and returned to the criminal organization’s office," the prosecutor said.
The next steps taken by Tsukerman’s office were as follows.
"Second, after the funds and their sources of origin had been mixed and disguised within the territory of Ukraine, they were further moved to the accounts of companies, including non-residents, or transferred into the ownership of natural and legal persons. Third, the form of transfer was changed by carrying out currency-exchange transactions and by purchasing and subsequently moving cryptoassets," the prosecutor said.
She presented one such episode in court, which concerned the transfer of funds to Minister Chernyshov. This is the same episode in which Chernyshov is given 500,000 for construction. And it is Myroniuk who brings the money for this.
It is there that staff at Tsukerman’s office discuss how they do not want to give Chernyshov new dollar bills.
"On 3 March, between 10:41 and 10:46 a.m., while in the office of the criminal organization, its member Fursenko informed Tsukerman that he had received a request from Chernyshov, referred to in the conversation as Che Guevara, regarding his need to obtain funds acquired by criminal means. Chernyshov was one of the participants in meetings organised with Tsukerman, which the latter referred to as an ‘intellectual club’, and therefore he was well aware (of the scheme, ed.)," the prosecutor said.
This is how Tsukerman speaks with Fursenko.
Fursenko: I’ll immediately set 500 aside for Che Guevara, right?
Tsukerman: Yes, write it down. We have 500 to give him.
At 6:26 p.m. on 4 March, Tsukerman talks to Fursenko.
Tsukerman: Ihorusha, overall it was pretty boring today, right? Who are we supposed to be working for here? He took this, and he took that as well
Fursenko: Come on, you saw the sheet – it was pretty well filled up.
Tsukerman: So what, did they take it in hand? Ah, they handed this and that over to Che Guevara. Right?
Fursenko: And Philemon came by as well. Well, you know how it is.
By 9 May, the money was already being passed through Tsukerman’s clinic in central Kyiv. It was collected there by Svitlana Chernyshova, the former minister’s wife.
"On 9 May, while in the premises of the above-mentioned beauty clinic, she informed Tsukerman of her location. After that, on 9 May, Tsukerman, acting in agreement with Mindich and being on the premises of this medical facility, with the aim of laundering the funds, handed over, through Svitlana Chernyshova, into the ownership of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister for National Unity Oleksii Chernyshov, on his instructions, cash in the amount of 500,000 US dollars. Thus, on 9 May 2025, under the direction of Mindich and Tsukerman and with the involvement of Fursenko and Ustymenko, money laundering was carried out in a total amount of 20,735,650 hryvnias," the prosecutor said.
Ustymenko: Ihor, and what is it there, exactly 323.3 dollars?
Fursenko: Yes, and we gave 70 to the yachtsman. That’s Rocket.
Tsukerman: That’s Rocket?
Fursenko: Yes.
Tsukerman: 323, yes, that was the figure.
Fursenko: Yes.
Ustymenko: Wow...
In another episode presented in court, Myroniuk informed Fursenko of the need to meet his partner, Nataliia Shmatok, because she needed to send funds to the United States in the form of cryptocurrency.
Another employee of Tsukerman’s office, Zorina, was sent to the meeting.
At 12:23 p.m. on 25 February 2025, Tsukerman was speaking with Fursenko and Zorina. Fursenko was on the phone.
Fursenko: Rocket called, he’s not coming.
Tsukerman: He’s not?
Fursenko: Well… Sasha will come over, his girl will bring it, turns out it’s for her mother…
Tsukerman: Right, that’s what I thought too.
In the next conversation, Zorina reports back to Tsukerman and Fursenko about how the meeting with Shmatok went, referring to her as Natasha.
Zorina: You know, Natasha came, she had this big bag, you know, Louis Vuitton, like a sack, and it’s been around for many years, already kind of iconic.
At that meeting, Myroniuk’s partner handed over almost 40,000 dollars to be transferred to the United States.
Then Fursenko speaks on the phone: "Hello, hello, yes, Ihorusha, please clear something up for me, I’ve got a bit confused. So, the girls have already met, right? Yes, but she gave 39,300. That’s three bundles of ten thousand and one bundle of 9,300. So, we deduct the commission, and that’s it, the rest goes there. That’s what we’re doing, right? So, 39,300, and then I write it off on my side. All right, she just came in, I took it and transferred it, yes."
However, the most interesting episode in this story does not concern transferring the money, but the company Fire Point.
Over the past six months, there has been a lot of discussion in the media about this company possibly being linked to Mindich and the president’s inner circle. Journalists established that one of the companies affiliated with Fire Point worked on filming Zelenskyy’s movies.
But Fursenko’s court hearing brought another interesting detail to light.
On 20 March 2025, Tsukerman and Fursenko had the following conversation.
Tsukerman: That doesn’t matter. Are you already an employee of Fire Point?
Fursenko: Fire Point, yes. I’m also calculating the taxes now, how much more is needed.
Tsukerman: But everyone will pay for you.
Fursenko: Ah...
...
Tsukerman: Of course, they’ll pay.
In addition, Fursenko’s conversations on 3 April indicate that he was placed in the company in order to obtain the ability to travel abroad and move freely around the country.
This is evidenced by a conversation between Fursenko and his wife, who, as a reminder, bought a luxury apartment and car within two years.
Ihor Fursenko: They’re registering me there today
Oleksandra Fursenko: Registering where?
Ihor Fursenko: Where do you think? To Fire Point.
Oleksandra Fursenko: Well, congratulations, so that you can already drive your new car through the checkpoints without any trouble?
Ihor Fursenko: I said, Dima, do you have any badges like other people have, so I can also hang one on myself – "Fire Point, senior specialist", the whole banana.
...He says that we call the border guards in advance if someone from our company is travelling, and they are already aware of the situation.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Associations, Fire Point LLC’s main line of business is the manufacture of air and spacecraft and related equipment. According to information from Fire Point LLC, Fursenko has been employed there as an administrator since 19 March 2025.
These facts are cited in the context of the risk that Fursenko could freely leave the country and disappear.
The court imposed pre-trial detention for Fursenko until 8 January, with bail set at 95 million hryvnias. But beyond the corruption involved in shaking people down for money, this whole story exposes another very important area of corruption — around mobilisation exemptions. Even on Mindich’s tapes alone, there are two examples: contractors for Energoatom being threatened that their staff will lose their mobilisation exemptions, and the cash-out bagman being granted protected status via an arms company. And of course, few people will now believe that this company had nothing to do with Mindich, whatever its representatives may say in interviews. And no Mike Pompeo on the supervisory board will change that, because it has long been known that organisations like this bring in people like him once their political careers are over. Yet on those same tapes, Myroniuk and Basov discuss the need to set up money-laundering companies with respectable supervisory boards. And that discredits the very idea of such boards.
