At a meeting of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC), where today and tomorrow they will elect a deputy for former MP Maksym Mykytas, the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO) named the names of the defendants in the "Forrest Gump" case about money laundering for bail for former Minister Herman Halushchenko.
This is reported by Suspilne.
Among the defendants in the case:
- 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 Valentin Yelizarov, Yehor Merkulov, Oleksandr Ostapenko, and Mykyta Tarkovsky.
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.
Operation Themis
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.
In particular, in the fall of 2025, the defendants took possession of an enterprise worth over UAH 248 million in this way. In May 2026, they tried to take possession of objects worth over UAH 207 million.
They also sought to gain control over a facility in the center of the capital worth over UAH 500 million.
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