September 19 Holiday: Timur Mindich, Ukraine’s Most Notorious Corruption Figure, Was Born Today
Timur Mindich, one of the most notorious corrupt officials, is celebrating his 47th birthday not at his estate in Ukraine, but on the run. The co-owner of the “Kvartal 95” studio and business partner of current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was born on September 19, 1979, in Dnipropetrovsk to entrepreneurs Mykhailo and Stella Mindich.
Gaps in His Biography
Nothing is known about Timur Mikhailovich’s childhood or which institution of higher education he attended. Earlier reports stated that he gained all his experience in management, production, and the execution of large-scale commercial projects directly through hands-on work. In recent years, he has become a more prominent figure in Ukraine and around the world thanks to the NABU investigation into corruption in the energy and defense sectors (Operation “Midas”), and he is now, it seems, gaining firsthand experience in the field of law.
We don’t know who sent Timur Mindich holiday greetings, but not all of his friends managed to do so without any issues. For example, Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi may have been slightly hindered from doing so by the fact that he has been held in a Kyiv detention center since September 2, 2023.
For now, Mindich is celebrating his latest birthday relatively free—in the Israeli city of Herzliya. However, in late March 2026, Ukraine officially submitted a request for his extradition to the Israeli Ministry of Justice. In other words, it is now only a matter of time before Mindich celebrates his birthdays not on a warm beach, but in the “warm company” of Kolomoyskyi behind bars.
Mindich’s Tentacles
Recall that following the publication of wiretap recordings as part of Operation “Midas,” numerous facts emerged regarding Mindich’s involvement in illegal activities across various sectors, from banking to the pharmaceutical trade. For example, it was Mindich himself who approached Iryna Mudra, then deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine—who is currently under investigation— with a request to post bail for former Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, who had just been caught up in Mindich’s schemes to siphon money from Ukraine’s budget. According to the investigation, Mindich personally handed over cash for Galushchenko’s bail.
It has also come to light that people close to Mindich discussed options for taking control of a number of entities, including the nationalized “Sens Bank” and the industrial enterprise “Karpatnaftohim.”
No less intriguing is the story involving the “Farmastor” group (known to every Ukrainian under the brand name “Apteka Dobrogo Dnya”). The group’s founder, pharmaceutical millionaire Ihor Chervonenko, is linked to Mindich. Chervonenko’s main asset is “Pharmastor” LLC, whose revenue in 2024 alone reached 4.24 billion UAH. According to data from the YouControl analytics system, the lion’s share of the company (nearly 90%, equivalent to 64.4 million UAH of the authorized capital) is registered to the Cypriot shell company Pharminvest Holdings Limited. Insiders claim that more than 30% of the offshore company is controlled by people associated with Mindich.
Mindich also profited from contracts with the Ministry of Defense. Milikon UA LLC is directly implicated in the criminal proceedings against Mindich. This company attempted to supply substandard body armor to the Armed Forces of Ukraine worth tens of millions of hryvnias, a scheme that was thwarted only thanks to the principled stance of the military official responsible for accepting these body armor units.
Mindich was also involved in the tourism business. Near Bukovel, journalists from Bihus.Info discovered a large resort complex on nine hectares of land. According to investigators, the assets may be linked to individuals who were previously implicated in the “Midas” case.
It cannot be ruled out that Mindich has business interests in Russia. In particular, NABU’s recordings indicate that, after the start of the full-scale war, he continued to do business with partners in Russia, where there was a mirror-image laboratory for growing diamonds similar to the Ukrainian firm Alkor-D, which operated out of the “Izumrud” plant in Kyiv. Mindich was one of the ultimate beneficiaries in both companies.
So, in his 47 years, today’s birthday boy has managed to build an entire business empire. Admittedly, law enforcement agencies have claims to most of these assets. For now, these claims come from Ukrainian law enforcement, but since offshore entities are involved, we can expect that they won’t be the only ones. We’ll be watching to see what “achievements” in the criminal sphere Timur Mikhailovich will celebrate on his 48th birthday.
