Former head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, who is suspected of money laundering at the construction site of the Dynasty cooperative near Kyiv, continues to be held in a pre-trial detention center. On May 14, the court chose for him a preventive measure in the form of detention with the possibility of posting bail – the necessary amount has probably already been collected, but it is currently impossible to post it because the banks are not working.
Yermak's lawyer Igor Fomin informed Suspilny about this.
According to him, the funds will be credited as soon as the banks resume work. Later, on Suspilny, Fomin clarified that the required amount of collateral has probably already been deposited – but he cannot confirm this for sure, since it is unknown which payments the bank has already credited.
“There are payment orders. I don't know what money went, what money the bank credited. Right? I told you that it's just not accurate, that, from my point of view, the amount that people have already transferred should be enough for Mr. Yermak to be released from custody. Look, I don't know. I'm 100 percent sure that there's not one large amount, there are many tranches,” Fomin said.
He also noted that the amount of bail set is legally unjustified and does not correspond to the real income of his client:
“In general, there is a position of both the legislation and the Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, that when the court determines the bail, it should be moderate for the person who has to pay it. And, accordingly, its size should be decided based on the income of the person who has to pay it. We have clearly determined what income Andriy Yermak has. Instead of being guided by this, as the law generally provides, and the practice of the European Court directly, they count the amounts of this unfinished construction and multiply it by two. That is, they want to say that this unfinished construction is his money? Well, something that is not at all burdensome. Therefore, the situation now is such that whoever can helps a person. And I think that other people should look at this as a positive event, that after all, even when you are in trouble, not everyone turns to you,” said Yermak's lawyer.
In addition, answering the host's question about who exactly has already contributed money for Andriy Yermak, Fomin stated that “many people contact us, I don't refuse anyone who wants to contribute money,” but he doesn't know who exactly has already transferred it.
“I don't even know most of them, so you understand. I don't know these people. There are a lot of people, and that's all, so you understand, all these insinuations about cash, there's no such thing. Two people called me there, saying that I have legal income, give me cash, I'll transfer the money there. I sent them away, how can I tell you, more delicately, said that I'm not interested and goodbye,” Fomin said.
Separately, the host asked whether the information that the former coach of the Ukrainian national football team Rebrov paid part of the bail for Yermak was true. Fomin confirmed this:
“Yes, I confirm this is true. And I contributed five million,” Fomin replied.
Regarding further steps, Fomin noted that the defense will file an appeal so that “the illegal decisions are overturned and these criminal proceedings are terminated.”
“Of course, we will prepare for the appeal. In general, we have now received procedural status, whereas before we had no procedural status at all. That is, we were just waiting and watching what was happening. Now we already have procedural status, which allows us to independently collect evidence, and we will do this,” added Yermak's lawyer.