The former deputy head of the Presidentʼs Office Mudra says she did not receive $4 million from Mykytas

The former deputy head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra stated that she never received $4 million from former MP Maksym Mykytas.

She stated this in court, where a preventive measure is being chosen for her today.

"About the amount that Mykytas allegedly transferred to me. On January 8, according to the prosecution, Mykytas said in one of the conversations that he allegedly left me $4 million. I declare directly: I never received $4 million from Mykytas. Neither in cash, nor to a bank account, nor in any other form. There is no withdrawn cash in the materials, no bank transfer, no receipt. There is no evidence of the very fact of transferring these funds to me, there are only the words of another person, perhaps his own intention," she stated in court.

She separately emphasized that out of the 237 conversations included in this case, 232 were recorded through the microphone of a person close to her, referring to Mykytas: "This person was close to me, I trusted her, and the whole time she talked to me, she was recording me."

"Now look what Iʼm being accused of. Not the document I signed, not the decision I made, not the money I took, not the meeting I held. Iʼm being accused of the fact that a person recorded me. I was there and listened to what this person said. He spoke, I listened, he recorded," says Mudra.

The ex-lawyer added that she does not understand why Mykytasʼ words are taken for granted, "because in the 8 cases that NABU has, the investigation probably did not believe everything that Mykytas said".

Operation “Forrest Gump”

On August 19, NABU and SAPO reported that they had uncovered a criminal scheme that organized the legalization of UAH 150 million to pay bail for one of the defendants in the Midas case, former Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko.

According to the investigation, in early June, the participants in the scheme gained actual control over “Sense Bank” and began using it to launder money. They were informed of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — legalization of money obtained by criminal means.

On the first day of the court session, the SAPO prosecutor named all the defendants in this case, including:

• former Deputy Head of the Presidentʼs Office Iryna Mudra;
• former MP Maksym Mykytas;
• current MP Vadym Stolar;
• Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Ferens;
• Director General of the Directorate for Legal Policy of the Public Prosecutorʼs Office Viktor Dubovyk;
• businessman and former deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council Vasyl Astion;
• former chairmen of the supervisory board and management board of the state-owned “Sense Bank” Mykola Hladyshenko and Oleh Stupak;
• the head of the department of the state-owned “Sense Bank” Lyudmila Snihur;
• according to the prosecutor, the people connected with Mykytas are Valentyn Yelizarov, Yehor Merkulov, Oleksandr Ostapenko, and Mykyta Tarkovsky.

In addition, on August 20, NABU and SAPO presented a continuation of this case — Operation “Femida” with the same defendants. As investigators established, with the help of hackers, the defendants hacked into state registers, forged documents, and used "their" people in the Commercial Court and the Ministry of Justice to seize enterprises and real estate.

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