Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
His primary goal is to save his business empire.
One of the defendants in the "Forrest Gump" ("Femida") case, former OPZZh MP Vadym Stolar, according to ZN.UA sources, returned to Ukraine intending to make a deal with investigators. 20 August the court in absentia notified him of suspicion on several counts at once: creating a criminal organization, unlawful appropriation of property, document forgery, and unauthorized interference with the operation of information systems.
At the same time, as UP reports, the High Anti-Corruption Court has already chosen a preventive measure for the deputy. He was ordered 300 million UAH without being taken into custody.
From the editors
Stolar’s return to Ukraine has a pragmatic explanation. According to ZN.UA, prolonged absence threatened his loss of control over business assets: partners could have used his situation to redistribute them. So he returned to hold onto his business empire.
Stolar had prepared 300 million in advance for a possible bail payment. The plan is to deposit the funds immediately, right after the court ends — which does not necessarily conclude on Friday — to avoid ending up in pretrial detention and to continue personally controlling affairs. The final terms of the preventive measure are set by the HACC. Then comes the investigation, the trial, time. And also the possibility of reaching a plea agreement.
Examples of Borys Kaufman, Oleksandr Hranovskyi, and Mykola Zlochevsky are in view, whose cases ended with agreements. In particular, Kaufman’s and other defendants’ agreement provided for a billion hryvnias in compensation, and Zlochevsky received a fine of 68 thousand hryvnias and transferred more than 660 million to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the full terms and results of a number of high-profile agreements remain closed. SAP explains this by protecting whistleblowers and the interests of other investigations. But it is difficult for the public to assess the real efficiency of such arrangements: whom they helped expose, what convictions resulted, and whether the achieved outcome is commensurate with the mitigation of punishment.
The possibility for defendants to remain free and continue business activity only sharpens these questions. It is possible that Stolar also counts on a deal and incriminating testimony. For example, against another defendant in the "Forrest Gump" case, Maksym Mykytas, who already faces several criminal cases investigated by NABU. In such a scenario, testimony against a person whose procedural situation is already grave may seem a convenient way to arrange one’s own future. This is a possible scenario, not confirmed information about negotiations with SAP. His hope may be exactly that: to provide testimony, pay an amount he can afford, and remain in business. To preserve assets, connections, and the ability to keep working.
However, this calculation has a vulnerable point. According to ZN.UA, SAP is revising its policy on making agreements in terms of defining criteria, transparency, and communication with the media. The current benchmark in high-profile cases is real serving of punishment if the charged article provides for imprisonment. A deal may reduce the term but not avoid imprisonment. An example is former Supreme Court head Vsevolod Knyazev, who, despite a concluded agreement, received a real prison sentence.
This is precisely where Stolar’s hope to keep both his freedom and his business empire may fail.
Recall that in August NABU and SAP announced a number of suspicions as part of the anti-corruption investigation "Forrest Gump." The investigation established that members of the criminal organization, among them ex-MP and developer Mykytas, MP from the former OPZZh Stolar, and former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra, ensured the legalization of 150 million hryvnias obtained by criminal means, which were later used to pay bail for one of the defendants in the "Midas" case. Preliminary reports indicate this involved the former minister of energy and justice Herman Halushchenko. Controlled companies and the management of state-owned "Sense Bank" were also involved in the scheme.
The investigation also believes that those suspected in the "Forrest Gump" case illegally seized expensive real estate in Kyiv by forging documents, including court decisions and ownership rights. The value of the assets of the enterprises they appropriated in the autumn of 2025 is over 248 million hryvnias.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Столар повернувся в Україну із 300 млн для застави й планом укласти угоду зі слідством. Але цей задум має вразливе місце". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.