The most expensive managers — over 1 billion in bail posted for Zelensky’s circle

Researchers calculated that more than 1,1 billion hryvnias in bail have already been paid for former and current top officials from the president’s team. The money to secure the release of 30 defendants in corruption cases mostly flows through shell companies with no real operations. More than half of the total amount — over 500 million hryvnias — is tied to defendants in the "Midas" case.

This is stated in an analysis by Martina Bohuslavets, head of the Anticorruption Center “Mezha,” published on the Ukrainska Pravda website. In it she broke down who paid and how much to secure the release of former officials from the Office of the President, Servant of the People MPs, ex-government officials, and people connected to them.

The most expensive bail was for Herman Halushchenko, former minister of justice and energy — 150 million hryvnias. 140 million hryvnias were posted for former Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, and he spent only 4 days in pretrial detention. For former vice prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, 120 million hryvnias were paid in the corruption case at the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development and another 51,6 million hryvnias in the "Midas" case — the latter amount was found within a single day.

More than 205 million hryvnias were posted for top officials of the Office of the President: in addition to Yermak, these include Director of the Directorate for Legal Policy of the OP Viktor Dubovyk (7 million hryvnias in the "Forrest Gump" case), Yermak’s former deputy Andriy Smyrnov (28 million hryvnias in an illicit enrichment case), and Yermak’s former adviser Artem Shylo (30 million hryvnias). This sum will increase further once the court-mandated 20 million hryvnias for Mudra are fully posted.

For former government officials overall, more than 412 million hryvnias have been paid. Among them are former minister of agrarian policy Mykola Solskyi (76 million hryvnias), former vice prime minister Olha Stefanishyna (6 million hryvnias in an illicit enrichment case), former deputy energy minister Oleksandr Kheilo (6 million hryvnias in a bribery case involving 500 thousand dollars), and former deputy infrastructure minister Vasyl Lozynskyi (2,5 million hryvnias).

Almost 172 million hryvnias in bail were found for Servant of the People MPs: Yuriy Kysel (40 million hryvnias), Ihor Nehulevskyi (30 million hryvnias), Yevhen Pyvovarov and Mykhailo Labu (20 million hryvnias each), Olha Savchenko (16,6 million hryvnias), Andriy Odarchenko (15 million hryvnias), Andriy Klochko (12 million hryvnias), Mykola Tyshchenko (10 million hryvnias) and Oleksiy Kuznetsov (8 million hryvnias). Odarchenko, for whom police could not find a working electronic bracelet, later left the country and did not serve the 8 years in prison to which he had been sentenced.

Another 39 million hryvnias went for bail for current Antimonopoly Committee head Pavlo Kyrylenko (20 million hryvnias), former head of the State Border Guard Service Serhiy Deineko (10 million hryvnias) and former head of the SBU Cybersecurity Department Illia Vityuk (9 million hryvnias). For other defendants in the "Midas" case — Ihor Fursenko, Dmytro Basov, Lesia Ustymenko and Liudmyla Zorina — another 172 million hryvnias were posted, and for four police officials in the case on protection of “porn-offices” — 18 million hryvnias.

A scheme to launder funds through shell companies was uncovered.

Tens of millions of hryvnias for bail often pass through newly registered companies with minimal charter capital and no income. For Chernyshov, 66 million hryvnias were posted by LLC "Foravto Tor," registered only a month earlier. For Basov, 25 million hryvnias were paid by LLC "Green Plus Company," which was created two months before the bail was posted.

There are cases when the same company finances bail for several different defendants. LLC "Vostoktranslogistics," with no income, provided 5 million hryvnias for MP Tyshchenko, transferred 35 million hryvnias for Halushchenko’s bail, and also posted over 35 million hryvnias for a defendant in the case of former NBU head Kyrylo Shevchenko. The same company, LLC "Vangar," registered in May 2025 with a charter capital of only 1 thousand hryvnias, paid for two "Midas" defendants — Ustymenko and Zorina.

A draft law No. 15388 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada to strengthen control over the legality of the origin of funds posted as bail. The document provides for mandatory verification of the sources of funds: if the legality of the money’s origin is not confirmed, they will not be accepted as bail and the suspect will not be able to leave pretrial detention.

Earlier, Informator reported that Halushchenko could return to pretrial detention — the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion with the court to seize 150 million hryvnias of his bail, since, according to the investigation, these funds were laundered through a scheme in the "Forrest Gump" case. If the court grants the motion, the bail will be considered effectively unpaid. We also wrote that NABU and SAP notified former Dnipro MP Vasyl Astion of suspicions, whom they suspect of involvement in raiding and laundering 150 million hryvnias, part of which went to bail for a defendant in the "Midas" case.