Budanovʼs deputy Iryna Mudra was responsible for justice, and now she herself has been suspected. NABU believes that she helped raid enterprises and launder money. The investigationʼs version and still unknown details

Persons involved in the cases

Former MP Maksym Mykytas appears in many investigations by law enforcement agencies, mainly NABU and SAPO. In one of the cases concerning the property of the National University of Ukraine, in 2020 he made a deal with the investigation in exchange for testimony against the deputy head of the Presidentʼs Office Oleh Tatarov.

He also appears in the 2020 case of embezzlement of funds for the construction of warehouses of the Ministry of Defense.

In October 2022, Mykytas was detained for attempting to bribe the mayor of Dnipro Borys Filatov. In the latest NABU case, Maksym Mykytas has close relations with the deputy head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra and covers her daughterʼs studies abroad.

Vadym Stolar has been an MP from the “Party of Regions” since 2010, and in 2019 he was elected to parliament on the list of the “OPZZh”. Stolar is a figure in numerous journalistic investigations, in particular Bihus.Info. Journalists have linked him to the head of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Yermak, in scandalous construction projects in Kyiv.

For some time, he was considered to be “watching over” the capital from Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. Journalists claimed that Stolar has significant influence in the Kyiv City Council, the Kyiv City Administrative District Administration, and the cityʼs district administrations.

The deputy head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra has experience in the banking sector. From 2015 to 2022 she was the head of the legal group of “Oschadbank”. From May 20, 2022, she was the Deputy Minister of Justice, and in March 2024 she moved to work in the Office of the President.

Mudra led the track on the creation of the International Registry of Damages, with the team she achieved the ratification of the Rome Statute by Ukraine and joined the track on the creation of the Special Tribunal to investigate Russian aggression.

Together with the team, she was able to turn the situation around and achieve the launch of the Tribunal.

The head of the Legal Policy Directorate of the Presidentʼs Office Viktor Dubovyk, previously headed the Office for Countering Raids at the Ministry of Justice.

Former deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council Vasyl Astion. Businessman, co-founder of “Dnipro Agro Group”, and since 2025 co-owner of the assets of the former state joint-stock company "Construction Company "Ukrbud".

Valentyn Yelizarov is the owner of a number of companies controlled by Mykytas, in particular the head of “Metrobud” LLC.

Mykyta Tarkovsky is related to Mykytas.

Yehor Merkulov is Mykytasʼs bodyguard, nominally the head of the company "Budmontazhservice 1".

Oleksandr Ostapenko is Mykytasʼs driver, nominally the director of the company "Philosophy of Development".

Mykola Hladyshenko is the chairman of the supervisory board of the state-owned “Sense Bank”.

Oleksiy Stupak is the chairman of the board of the state-owned “Sense Bank”.

Lyudmila Snihur is the head of the department at the state-owned “Sense Bank”.

Criminal organization

The investigation claims that Maksym Mykytas and Vadym Stolar created a criminal organization no later than November 15, 2024. No later than October 2025, they recruited all other participants, except for “Sense Bank” employees: they were recruited in the summer of 2026.

The organizationʼs goal is to illegally acquire real estate and profitable companies. Later, the same organization was used to post a bail for former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko — the investigation believes that for this purpose the accomplices legalized the illegally obtained cash.

Mykytas controlled the processes in the organization, Stolar financed it and spent a total of no less than $514 000 on its activities. The participants in the scheme used the funds for hackers, lawsuits, bribes to law enforcement and judicial bodies, as well as other expenses.

Iryna Mudra used her influence in the criminal organization, in particular on officials of the Ministry of Justice. Her subordinate Viktor Dubovyk in the criminal organization provided advice and instructions, adjusted the plans of other members, and involved hacker groups to interfere with state registers.

In addition, he influenced the commission of the Ministry of Justice, which considered complaints on countering raiding. Vasyl Astion was responsible for judicial support of cases in Commercial Courts and other judicial instances so that they would make decisions in the interests of the organizationʼs members.

The investigation claims that Astion was subordinate to Vadym Stolar. Valentyn Yelizarov coordinated the operational activities of the criminal organization, gave instructions to the nominal heads of companies, looked for people to register enterprises, and was involved in the legalization of funds in June 2026.

The investigation suspects Iryna Mudra of participating in a criminal organization.

Episode 1. "Femida" — raider seizures, hackers and pressure on the Ministry of Justice

The investigation alleges that Maksym Mykytas and Vadym Stolar raided companies that owned expensive real estate in the center of Kyiv, and thus wanted to seize buildings in the area of Chykalenka Street (formerly Pushkinska) and the “Arsenalna” metro station. They also tried to take control of other companies, in particular the “Ukrhydroenergobud” consortium, which is a major contractor for “Ukrhydroenergo”, and therefore has large contracts with the state and constant state funding.

The attackers were helped to change the ownership of the companies by hackers who, under the guise of state registrars, infiltrated the Register of Legal Entities and entered forged documents. As a result, the property was transferred from the real owners to the fictitious persons.

Among the companies that were raided by the attackers, the investigation names three:

• "Budmontazhservice 1" (BMS). Until October 10, 2025, the company belonged to businessman Oleksandr Shevchuk, after the hacker attack — to Arkamzod Ulugzhon Zokhirovych, and a few days later, Mykytasʼs driver Oleksandr Ostapenko became its owner.
• "Philosophy of Development". The owner of the company was Antonina Bartash, and after the intervention of attackers on October 10, 2025, the company was transferred to a citizen of Uzbekistan Kayumjon Samatov. The very next day, Yehor Merkulov (Nikitasʼs bodyguard) became the owner.
  For both companies, Dubovyk, through unidentified people, registered criminal proceedings in the Pechersk prosecutorʼs office on behalf of Merkulov and Ostapenko. After that, the prosecutor immediately arrested the corporate rights of the companies through the court so that no one else could change the registration. The attackers paid the prosecutor for "holding the real estate" in this way — Mykytas directly says this in the recording.
• Regional Resources. The company belonged to Mykytas since 2017, but he lost it in 2019. Since then, a legal battle has been going on over it between him and his former partners in “Ukrbud”. The company owns several buildings on Chykalenka Street, including the building that housed the “Ukrbud” office during Mykytas’s time.

According to investigators, stealing the “Philosophy of Development” did not go smoothly. The legal owners began to challenge the decision on the transfer of ownership in the courts and filed complaints with the Ministry of Justice. At this stage, Maksym Mykytas began to involve Iryna Mudra and her subordinate, the head of the Directorate for Legal Policy of the Office of the President Viktor Dubovyk in resolving the issue.

In December 2025, Mudra advised Mykytas which high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Justice he should talk to in order to get the “right” decision. Dubovyk also participated in the discussions.

It is clear from the records that Mudra knew that Mykytas was using hackers to take over enterprises, and she herself gave instructions to a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Justice that "the person with the letter ʼMʼ [obviously referring to Mykytasʼ bodyguard Merkylov] should appear in such a register".

On December 29, 2025, the board of the Ministry of Justice legalized the raider seizure of the “Philosophy of Development”. The conclusion was signed by Deputy Minister of Justice Lyudmila Suhak.

To block the rightful owners from regaining control of the companies, the criminals decided to take over the companies and bankrupt them. To obtain the necessary bankruptcy decision in the Commercial Court, Vasyl Astion negotiated with the judge for 10 thousand (the currency was not specified).

The favorable rulings for Mykytas were eventually made by the judge of the Commercial Court Serhiy Stasyuk. To put pressure on other judges, in particular the head of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal Oleh Khrypun, the accomplices wanted to involve Iryna Mudra, but they refused this idea.

The owners of the “Budmontazhservice 1” LLC also tried to get the company back — they turned to the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office. In March 2026, when the attackers learned that Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko had launched an investigation into the illegal seizure of property, they put everything on hold.

Another company that Mykytas fought for is Regional Resources. It owns several buildings on Chykalenka Street (formerly Pushkinska Street). Previously, one of these buildings belonged to Mykytas through the Ukrbud company. He lost it and has been trying to get it back ever since.

In March 2025, the Ministry of Justice ruled in Mykytas’ favor. The Anti-Raiders Office was supposed to make changes to the register regarding the company’s owner, but the previous owners blocked this process through the court.

In response, Mykytas decided to forge a court order in his favor and force Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Ferens and the Office for Countering Raids to register ownership of his people.

“I will bend Ferens, I will break him,” said Mykytas, whose words were read out in court by the prosecutor. Iryna Mudra knew about this plan, and moreover, she had to agree with Ferens — the investigation claims that they had friendly relations. Until the last moment, Mudra and Mykytas were not sure that the plan would work.

“If Ferens kept everything I wrote to her, I would be done,” said Mudra.

On May 7, it became clear that the scheme had failed — the Justice Ministry employees refused to carry out the illegal instructions. Because of this, Mudra and Mykytas quarreled. Mudra said that she did not know about Mykytasʼs plans to forge the court decision, he assured her that he knew and relied on Ferens in vain. Mudra admitted that she had pressured her and said: "You can done with her [Ferens], I allow it."

The head of the Office for Countering Raids Ihor Ponochovny also refused to comply with Mudra’s criminal requests. According to the prosecutor, Ponochovny obstructed the entire scheme, and according to Babel’s sources, because of this, Dubovyk began to write dirty words about him and Ferens in his anonymous Telegram channel “Femida Sees Through” — the first posts appeared on May 8. The audience of this channel is employees of the Ministry of Justice.

According to Mudra, “she (probably the acting Minister of Justice) planned to dismiss Ponochovny. According to Babel’s sources in the Ministry of Justice, in July 2026, an order was indeed prepared to liquidate the Office and reduce Ponochovny’s position, but it never came into force — Ponochovny and Ferens remain in their positions.

The prosecutor also read words from a conversation between Mykytas and his partner, Valentyn Yelizarov, in which Mykytas says that what they "have now is 80% thanks to Mudra".

Maxim Mykytasʼs lawyer told his version of the story in court. According to him, in 2019, his client was the owner of "Philosophy of Development" and "Regional Resources", which were taken from him by raiders.

One of the raiders pledged to pay Mykytas $11 million, but never paid. The second organizer of the raider seizure is a Russian citizen, who was expelled from Ukraine in November 2021 for raiding.

In 2021, Mykytas appealed to the State Bureau of Investigation because of this story.

"If the circumstances that the prosecutor is talking about here are true, then... Mykytas actually decided to restore the violated rights to the companies stolen from him, in the same way that they were stolen from him," noted Mykytasʼ lawyer.

Investigators qualify this episode as fraud , as well as under two parts of Article 206-2 at once — unlawful appropriation of property using forged enterprise documents by a criminal organization in prior conspiracy and repeated such actions.

Episode 2. Operation “Forrest Gump” — Criminals Take Control of “Sense Bank”

According to the investigation, unidentified individuals from the Presidentʼs Office tasked Iryna Mudra, a former banking sector employee, with taking control of the state-owned “Sense Bank”. The investigation says they did this "so that other government structures could not take control of it".

The investigation does not specify who exactly gave Mudra such an instruction, but in terms of hierarchy, it could only have been two people — President Volodymyr Zelensky or the head of his Office — Mudraʼs immediate superior — Kyrylo Budanov.

The investigation notes that “Sense Bank” came under the control of officials of the Presidentʼs Office in early June 2026, and cites a conversation between Mudra and Mykytas on June 6, 2026.

Mudra says that "A" called her and said that the chairman of the supervisory board and the chairman of the board of “Sense Bank” told him that Davyd (last name or position not specified) and the chairman of the committee *** took turns coming to them to become a "covering" for “Sense Bank”, saying that "they wonʼt done with it", and the bank should "scold them for it".

Mudra also tells Mykytas on the tapes about a conversation with a high-ranking official of the Office, whose name the NABU does not mention. The official said that “our Israeli refugee Tymur” called him and asked him to take “Sense Bank”, because there are flows there, and “these scoundrels will milk the bank”.

So the bank asks not to put a “watcher”, they are ready to “take everything wherever the high-ranking official of OP tells them to”. Judging by Mudra’s words, she was asked to be present at the meeting of the OP official with the bank representatives and “listen to what they have to say”.

Already on June 10, Mudra told Mykytas about this meeting: “I say: do I understand correctly, your master talked to take you under his care? And they said: ʼWell, yes.”

After NABU made this episode public, MP and Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev stated that he "never discussed the issue of control over ʼSense Bankʼ with either Mudra or anyone else — in any format, content, or language".

The head of the “Servant of the People” faction Davyd Arakhamia in a comment to Babel, also stated that he "has never seen or heard any employee or manager of ʼSense Bankʼ, has never been to its offices, and has not held any discussions".

Episode 3. Operation "Forrest Gump" — bail for Herman Halushchenko

"Unidentified persons from the Presidentʼs Office" tasked Mudra with facilitating the posting of bail for former Minister of Justice and later Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko.

In June 2026, the judge reduced the bail from UAH 200 to 150 million.

Iryna Mudra involved Maksym Mykytas and the heads of Sense Bank in this case, through which they planned to deposit money, and Mykytas — his people Valentyn Yelizarov and Mykyta Tarkovsky, as well as Vasyl Astion. They were supposed to receive cash, convert it into non-cash form, transfer it to the accounts of certain enterprises, and from there — to the HACC account as collateral.

Mudra and Mykytas were deciding how to carry out this scheme and not fall under the sights of financial monitoring, which ensures that "black" cash does not end up in official accounts. Iryna Mudra advised Mykytas to communicate with the chairman of the bankʼs board Oleksiy Stupak about the “Sense Bank” case.

The management of “Sense Bank” agreed to the illegal scheme, received lists of companies from which the funds would come, but warned that it had an instruction from NBU to block suspicious payments. Valentyn Yelizarov, a trusted person of Mykytas, found a way to circumvent the instruction, during the transfer of money from the bank to the collateral, the automated system that checks the payments was simply supposed to be turned off.

“So the girl there will press the button when she needs to,” said Mykytas to Mudra on June 16. In response, she asked when she would be able to carry money.

Another person involved in this scheme was the head of financial monitoring at “Sense Bank” — Lyudmila Snihur — who, according to Mykytas, “her will was broken” and threatened with dismissal if she did not turn a blind eye to the point.

From June 22 to 24, 2026, the investigation recorded how people "connected with OP" brought cash in bags and boxes to the premises of the “Metrobud” company controlled by Mykytas every day.

The money came in several tranches:

• On June 22, UAH 50 million were delivered to Mykytasʼ office and divided: 15 million were received by his proxy, and 35 million were transferred to Vasyl Astionʼs conversion center.
• The second tranche — UAH 10 million — was delivered on the same day.
• On June 23, the third tranche was made — UAH 70 million, which was divided into two parts: UAH 20 million was received by a trustee, and UAH 50 million was transferred to Vasyl Astionʼs conversion center.
• The last tranche — UAH 20 million — was also transferred on June 23.

The investigation claims that the money that went to bail Halushchenko was obtained through criminal means, and the people who deposited it knew about it.

In particular, the company "Giran Construct", through which the largest amount was deposited, received money under fictitious contracts. In total, UAH 150 million was accumulated in its accounts, half of which went to bail.

The following companies contributed money for collateral through various banks:

• "Tetras Optima" — UAH 54 million;
• "Giran Construct" — UAH 87 million (UAH 41 million — through FUIB, UAH 46 — through “Sense Bank”);
• "Skyte Retail" — UAH 5 million;
• "Pellet Service" — UAH 4 million.

The investigation claims that all four companies are controlled by Mykytas through various people.

Based on this episode, the actions were qualified as laundering of funds obtained by a criminal organization (Part 3, Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Why the investigation requires a pre-trial detention center or a large bail for Mudra

On Friday, August 21, the prosecutor did not have time to justify in court why the investigation requires Iryna Mudra to be sent to a pre-trial detention center or to pay a large bail of UAH 150 million.

The risks that the investigation fears are detailed in the petition for the selection of a preventive measure. This document is at the disposal of Babel.

Based on it, the investigation believes that Iryna Mudra can:

• hide from law enforcement: her mother and eldest daughter live abroad in two different countries, so Mudra can go live with them. According to the investigation, she has the money for this: in January 2026, Maksym Mykytas told Mudra that he left her $4 million (where exactly is not specified). In general, the investigation believes that Mudra can operate with funds in the amount of UAH 252 million;
• destroy, hide or distort things or documents that are important for the investigation. The investigation claims that the accomplices had already checked the premises for wiretapping, deleted information from phones, changed numbers, Mykytas advised Mudra to throw away the phone card. In January 2026, Mykytas and Mudra discussed how to hide her property from life monitoring, in particular the Range Rover car, place of residence, as well as personal relations with Mykytas. In the spring of 2026, Mykytas and Mudra expected possible searches, so Mudra packed the jewelry in a suitcase and transported it to another location;
• influence suspects, witnesses, or experts. As evidence, the investigation cites a conversation between Mykytas and Mudra, in which he asks her to help the expert in his National Guard case so that she gives "correct" testimony;
• to influence law enforcement agencies. The defendants have previously tried to establish whether there is a criminal case against them and which law enforcement officer is conducting it.

In addition, Mudra discussed with Mykytas the option of asking an OP official to talk to Semen (obviously, this refers to the NABU head Semen Kryvonos) about possible investigative actions against her.

She also said that the Presidentʼs Office should prepare a successor to the SAPO head Oleksandr Klymenko, whose powers are expiring soon, and he will apparently go to a new competition.

• to influence the courts. The investigation cites a conversation between Mudra and Mykytas, in which she says that at the request of an official she “made a decision” in the Lviv court. Another episode: Mudra, in conversations with Mykytas, discusses her contacts with judges of the Supreme Court, says that if Mykytas is convicted in another case, she will ask one of the judges to “read it and add positions.”

The investigation also cites a conversation between Mykytas and Vasyl Astion, in which Mykytas says that Mudra has influence on the appointment of judges. By virtue of her position, she is the one who prepares decrees for the president to sign on the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Judicial Council.

Under President Viktor Yanukovych, Andriy Portnov, a long-time unspoken curator of the judicial system, did the same.

“Whoever [of the judges] reached her [apparently, Mudra], she issued [the decree], and whoever did not reach her, ran on,” says Mykytas.