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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Given the published NABU recordings, it likely refers to Kyrylo Budanov.
25 August, the High Anti-Corruption Court chose a preventive measure for former deputy head of the presidential administration Iryna Mudra — she was placed under guard for 60 days with a bail of 20 million hryvnias (the SAP asked for 150 million). According to investigators, Mudra organized the legalization of money together with a Kyiv developer, former MP Maksym Mikitas and people brought in by him. In the materials of the petition for preventive measure against one of the defendants, Mudra is joined by another presidential administration official whom the investigation assigns the role of organizer. In the recorded investigations, he is most often referred to as “Kyryl” and “Kyryl Oleksiyovych.”
According to the materials, he was to receive cash under the control of Timur Mindich and participants in his group, organize its storage and the transfer mechanism, and ensure financial remuneration for everyone involved. According to conversations with hromadske’s sources, the case may involve Kyrylo Budanov. His surname also appears directly in the materials of the petition.
Mindich and the OP official
Businessman Timur Mindich, suspected of creating a criminal organization, large-scale corruption in energy, and money laundering, left Ukraine in November 2025 year — on the eve of searches in the “Midas” case about corruption in energy. In February 2026 year, within the same case, NABU detained former energy minister Herman Halushchenko while attempting to cross the border. 16 February he was charged in the “Midas” case, after which he remained in pre-trial detention with the possibility of bail in the amount of 200 million hryvnias.
No later than 8 June 2026 year, according to the investigation, Timur Mindich asked an unnamed presidential administration official to help release Haluschenko from custody. 12 June, the AVK (High Anti-Corruption Court?) reduced the bail for Haluschenko to 150 million hryvnias. According to the petition, the money designated for bail was to be placed under the control of this unnamed official.
According to the investigation, it was he who decided to involve Iryna Mudra in organizing the legalization of money. The Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration “agreed with the proposal” of the official and decided to involve Maksym Mykyitas and the criminal organization he leads. In the scheme, Mykyitas, as the investigation claims, involved people connected with him, Mykyta Tarkovskyi and Valentyn Yelysaryov, as well as businessman Vasyl Astion: each of them was to perform their part, and Astion was to ensure converting the cash into legitimate money.
“Kyrylo” and “Sense Bank”
According to the investigation, 8 June 2026 year, Iryna Mudra told Maksym Mykyitas about Timur Mindich’s conversation with an unnamed OP official. In this portion of the petition, the official is referred to as “Kyrylo.” Mudra says Mindich proposed taking Sense Bank under their control, through which, she says, large financial “flows” passed:
“And he calls, saying to Kyrylo: ‘Listen, Kyrylo, please take Sense Bank.’ … You can’t trust these scoundrels with a bank, there are flows, serious flows… Take the bank under your control… He sat on all the flows,” Mudra said, according to the petition.
The same day Mudra, according to the petition, claimed that the leadership of Sense Bank was ready to follow Kyrylo’s instructions: “They are ready for anything. Wherever Kyrylo says, there they go… They will do everything.”
9 June 2026 year Mudra and Mykyitas, according to the petition materials, discussed Mindich’s request to this official—to take Sense Bank and its “flows” under control. The conversations imply that after Haluschenko’s release from custody, he could again receive income from these “flows.”
“Mindich contacted Kyrylo. Take control… there are normal flows going. No one is taking them now. And now Gera will be released, he will get back on these flows. So we need to bargain something for ourselves before that moment,” Mudra said.
The very next day, 10 June, according to the investigation, Mudra and an unnamed OP official met with the Sense Bank chairman Oleg Stupak and the chairman of the supervisory board Mikhail Hladyschenko. The investigation asserts that, as a result of the meeting, bank executives agreed to work under their informal “supervision” — previously, such a “curator” was Timur Mindich, but at that time he was already wanted and could not perform this function.
That same evening Mudra, according to the investigation, told Mykyitas that she and the OP official had gained informal control over Sense Bank. The bank’s infrastructure, the NABU states, was to be used to launder cash to be directed to the bail for Herman Haluschenko.
How the money was collected
17 June 2026 year Mykyitas, during a phone call, as the investigation notes, said that Mindich personally handed cash for filing the bail for the OP official whom Mykyitas calls “Kyryl Oleksiyovych.”
“He is now doing a huge favor for Mindich. And he brought the money, by the way. Mindich brought it to him in his hands,” Mykyitas said, according to the case materials.
According to the investigation, the personal bodyguard of the official named “Pavlo” was to accompany and transfer the money.
What the transfer of funds looked like is shown by a recorded conversation of the defendants. 22 June Valentyn Yelysaryov told Mykyitas that 50 million hryvnias were brought, packed in four plastic bags. The interlocutors decided that 35 million hryvnias of them would be transported to an address specified by businessman Vasyl Astion — his company, in the money-laundering scheme, was the third link.
According to the investigation, 22–24 June, participants moved 150 million hryvnias in cash, which the investigation considers obtained illegally. From this amount, over 131 million hryvnias were converted into non-cash form and transferred through accounts of companies in various banks to conceal the origin of the money:
83,86 million hryvnias to the account of LLC “Hiran Construct” at Sense Bank;
12,36 million hryvnias to the account of the same company at PUMB;
35,06 million hryvnias to the account of LLC “Company ‘Commandior’” at Globus Bank.
As of 29 June 2026 year, the entire bail for Haluschenko had been paid.
Acknowledgment and reimbursement of expenses
On the same day, 29 June, according to the petition materials, Mudra called Mykyitas and connected to the conversation an unnamed OP official whom she named “Kyrylo Oleksiyovych.” The protocols themselves in the petition materials state that “Be present in the conversation was Budanov K. O.” The official thanked Mykyitas for the work done.
During the conversation Mykyitas asked to reimburse the expenses he incurred organizing the bail-for-Galushchenko scheme — about 7,5 million hryvnias. That same day Mykyitas told Yelysaryov that Mudra planned to meet Mindich, and the next morning the official was to transfer 7,5 million hryvnias to cover the bail-related expenses.
“Control of Corruption”
On 9 February 2026 year Maksym Mykyitas and Iryna Mudra, according to the petition materials, discussed secrecy measures. Mudra told Mykyitas that she was invited to a celebration where court heads would attend, but she decided not to go so as not to “glamour” with judges in a restaurant that could be “under NABU’s lens.”
In the video from the case materials NABU released 19 August, Mudra complained that obtaining information about the case progress from NABU and SAP is almost impossible, while from the Security Service and the National Police the situation is different. In the same recordings, presumably between Iryna Mudra and Maksym Mykyitas, there is a dialogue where Mudra relays a conversation with a certain official from the presidential administration:
“Well, I want to do the right things… He says: ‘Look, the wrong approach. Corruption must be systematized and controlled,’” the deputy head of the OP said. “And to lead it. Urgently lead it,” her interlocutor replied.
The published NABU records did not specify who that ‘he’ was — the OP official with whom Mudra discussed corruption. However, according to the petition materials, the full fragment of that conversation read as: Mudra called the interlocutor “Kyrylo Oleksiyovych” and specified that she told him about her desire to “do the right things” and to fight corruption.
Additionally, as investigators note, in correspondence and conversations, Iryna Mudra repeatedly told Maksym Mykyitas that she regularly received unofficial 20–30 thousand dollars from a person named “Kyrylo.”
Thus, in the investigative materials, the unnamed OP official — whom the case participants mostly call “Kyrylo” or “Kyrylo Oleksiyovych” — appears at various stages of the Haluschenko bail story: from Mindich’s request for help with his release and handing over cash to the conversation with Mykyitas after money legalization and the agreement to reimburse expenses for organizing the scheme.
According to SAP, Iryna Mudra, together with former MP Maksym Mykyitas and current MP Vadym Stolar, were part of a criminal group whose main aim was the illegal seizure of expensive real estate and other assets of enterprises. For this, they illegally took control over business entities.
Moreover, as established by the investigation, Mudra together with Mykyitas and Stolar also ensured the legalization of 150 million hryvnias to contribute to the bail for one of the “Midas” case defendants and for former energy minister and justice Herman Haluschenko. Also involved were companies under their control and leadership of Sense Bank.
Maksym Mykyytas has already been placed in custody with an alternative bail of 30 million UAH. A preventive measure was also chosen for a Mykyitas subordinate, who is also suspected of involvement in the gang’s manipulations.
Stolar, according to media reports, also received charges on five counts. In particular — creating a criminal organization, illicit possession of property, counterfeiting documents, and unauthorized interference in the work of information systems.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "У справі щодо легалізації 150 млн як заставу для Галущенка виплив чиновник ОП, якого називають «Кирило Олексійович»". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.
