Yermak’s lawyer calls suspicion of laundering nearly 10 million euros unfounded

Igor Fomin, the lawyer of former head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, has stated that he considers the suspicion against his client in a case involving the legalization of 460 million hryvnias through elite construction near Kyiv to be unfounded, and denies Yermak’s involvement in the scheme.

Fomin made the statement on air at Suspilne.

According to the lawyer, the defense has not yet received the motion but plans to collect it on May 12. Fomin confirmed that following the serving of the suspicion notice, Yermak was granted the procedural status of a suspect.

“I can say that the question of money laundering is, in my view, unfounded, because you don’t even need to be a professional lawyer to ask yourself: whose money was Yermak supposed to be laundering in some construction project. In my opinion, the entire situation has been provoked by public pressure. In my entire career I have never encountered such pressure — including pressure on law enforcement agencies — to have Mr. Yermak served with a suspicion notice. In my opinion, there are simply no grounds to bring any criminal charges against him, there never have been, and there cannot be,” Fomin said.

The lawyer also noted that the serving of the suspicion notice came as a surprise to the defense. According to him, the defense will subsequently provide a legal assessment of the actions taken in this case.

In addition, Fomin rejected any connection between Yermak and the so-called “Mindych tapes,” stating that he does not understand what recordings are being referred to.

“What do we have to do with any tapes? Did you ever hear Mr. Yermak’s voice on them even once? That is, he is not mentioned on those tapes either. I don’t know who is being discussed there, or how reliable those tapes are. I simply don’t understand what is being talked about. We can see that some kind of campaign is underway that precedes certain procedural actions. And I cannot understand whether this campaign was provoked in order for these procedural actions to take place, or whether it is coordinated. It is difficult for me to speak about this, but I see a certain sequence of events where, instead of investigating the case and bringing specific charges as prescribed by law, there is a whole flood of informational materials on the eve of actions that cannot legally be made public at all,” the lawyer said.