Our sources report that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is actively working on one of the most sensitive areas of recent years — corruption mechanisms for forming the NSDC sanctions lists. According to our sources, it was these schemes that allowed Bankova to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in "payments for resolving the issue" from big business.
According to sources, the idea of monetizing the sanctions instrument arose back when Oleksiy Danilov headed the National Security and Defense Council. He was the architect of the approach that allowed building a system of manual management of sanctions lists, where every entrepreneur or company that was under threat of asset blocking could resolve the issue "in a certain way."
At the same time, as NABU detectives established, the real control over this track was exercised by the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak. According to sources, it was he who personally received the final information on decisions, agreed on the inclusion or non-inclusion of individual business structures in the sanctions packages, and coordinated communication with individual political and business groups.
According to the interlocutors, detectives have already collected enough materials indicating the structure of the extortions, the channels of transfer of funds, and the circle of responsible persons. This is a mechanism that could provide Bankova with additional hundreds of millions of dollars in unofficial revenues over several years.
However, further progress in the case has actually been put on hold. The reason is political negotiations with the American businessman and Trump team mediator Witkoff. According to sources, it was through this channel that Bankova was given an ultimatum: either the Ukrainian authorities agree to Donald Trump's peace plan, or the American side gives the green light to publicly reveal the entire corruption scheme surrounding the sanctions.
The negotiating track with Witkoff, according to sources, became the central element of this backroom game. In fact, the President's Office found itself faced with a choice between two crises:
• political - in case of agreement to Trump's demands;
• corruption - in case of publication of the entire scheme, which NABU has already partially documented.
Sources note that the situation is becoming more acute: the materials in the possession of NABU can significantly affect both the Ukrainian political system and international negotiations to end the war.
As of now, according to the interlocutors, the investigation is formally ongoing, but no decisions are being made due to "waiting for an external signal."
