“I don’t have such funds. Now my lawyer will work with my friends for help [to collect the bail funds],” Yermak told Ukrainian journalists after the decision was announced Thursday.
“I think my attorney, the group of lawyers, will file an appeal. I have nothing to hide, I will continue fighting, and I will stay in Ukraine,” Yermak added.
In his role as Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff, Yermak helped shape Ukraine’s wartime diplomacy and was rarely absent from high-stakes meetings with world leaders, in summit venues from Washington to Brussels.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office charged Yermak with corruption earlier this week. Investigators said he was a member of an organized crime group, involved in laundering $10.4 million on a luxury construction project near Kyiv.
The watchdogs did not name Yermak, but said the latest charges relate to the so-called Midas operation, a $100 million corruption scandal at Ukraine’s state energy company that blew a hole in Zelenskyy’s inner circle.
The probe has touched other Zelenskyy associates — entrepreneur Timur Mindich and Oleksiy Chernyshov, Ukraine’s former deputy prime minister. Both were also charged with corruption but denied the allegations last year. Mindich fled to Israel the day before he was supposed to be arrested.