Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has commented on his name being mentioned in wiretap recordings involving Iryna Mudra, a deputy suspected of taking part in a criminal organisation. Responding to a question from hromadske, he said it was for the court to sort out: “Let the court work out who is mentioned where. As you know, a lot of things get mentioned in a lot of places.”
Budanov said he spoke with Mudra after her dismissal. The decree dismissing her was signed by the President on the day NABU and SAP announced they had uncovered a criminal organisation, and Mudra herself said at the time that she was leaving of her own accord.
“First, dismissal is a legal process. Second, as a rule I never turn my back on people until there are final conclusions. If the court concludes that she is guilty, that is a different matter,” Kyrylo Budanov said.
Earlier, journalists at hromadske reported that in intercepted conversations among suspects, in addition to Iryna Mudra, there was an official whom they referred to among themselves as Kyrylo or Kyrylo Oleksiyovych. The journalists claim that a person with that name was mentioned at various stages of the story about raising money for bail for the former minister Herman Halushchenko, who is a suspect. According to NABU and SAP, a criminal group led by former MP Maksym Mykytas and current MP Vadym Stolar arranged the payment of 150 million hryvnias in bail for Halushchenko. The money was not legal, and they were able to channel it as bail by using the state-owned Sense Bank.
According to the journalists, the name Kyrylo “appears at various stages of the story involving Halushchenko’s bail: from businessman Tymur Mindich’s request for help in securing his release and the handover of cash, to a conversation with former MP Mykytas after the funds were legalised and an agreement to reimburse the costs of organising the scheme”.
Officially, Kyrylo Budanov is not among the 13 suspects in the two cases, “Forrest Gump” and “Femida”. Both concern the Mykytas–Stolar criminal group involving Iryna Mudra. The first is an investigation into a scheme to pay illegal funds as bail for Halushchenko, involving officials at Sense Bank and representatives of companies linked to Mykytas. The second concerns the raider takeover of companies’ assets.
Full list of suspects as of 20 August:
- Vadym Stolar, who, according to journalists, is abroad;
- Maksym Mykytas;
- Iryna Mudra;
- Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Ferens;
- Director General of the Directorate for Legal Policy at the Office of the President, Viktor Dubovyk;
- businessman and former deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council Vasyl Astion;
- former chairmen of the management board of the state-owned Sense Bank, Mykola Hladyshenko and Oleh Stupak;
- head of a bank department Lyudmyla Snihur;
- as well as individuals suspected of being linked to Mykytas: Yehor Merkulov, Oleksandr Ostapenko and Mykyta Tarkovskyy. The investigation also places Valentyn Yelizarov in this same category.
On 19 August, members of the organisation were served with notices of suspicion under Articles 191 (misappropriation), 206-2 (unlawful seizure of property), 358 (forgery of documents) and 361 (unauthorised interference with the operation of systems) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.