Full 20 million hryvnias bail posted for ex-presidential aide Iryna Mudra in "Forest Gump" case
The full court-set bail of 20 million hryvnias has been posted for Iryna Mudra, a former deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a suspect in the "Forest Gump" money-laundering investigation led by NABU and SAP. The Higher Anti-Corruption Court (ВАКС) confirmed the payment on 8 October, allowing her release from pretrial detention. Mudra's defense had previously failed in an attempt to reduce the bail to 12.5 million hryvnias.
Key points
- Full bail of 20 million hryvnias posted for former deputy head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra, confirmed by the Higher Anti-Corruption Court (ВАКС) on 8 October.
- On 25 August the same court placed Mudra in custody for 60 days with the alternative of 20 million hryvnias bail; prosecutors had requested 150 million.
- Mudra is a suspect in NABU and SAP's "Forest Gump" case, which alleges the laundering of 150 million hryvnias through shell companies and the de facto control of Sense Bank, with the funds used to post bail for a suspect in the separate "Midas" case.
- On 28 September the defense asked the court to lower the bail to 12.5 million hryvnias; ВАКС refused and left the original amount in force.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Mudra from her post as deputy head of the Office of the President on 19 August, the same day NABU and SAP searched her and MP Vadym Stolar as part of the "Forest Gump" operation.
- Reporting by the Schemes investigative project (Radio Svoboda) and Ukrainska Pravda, citing law-enforcement sources, identified specific contributors to the bail, including Mudra herself (5,937,000 hryvnias), her partner Pavlo Polyarush, an Odesa-based singer, and a Lutsk-registered company.
- Co-suspects in related proceedings include former MP Maksym Mykytas (detention with 30 million hryvnias bail) and MP Vadym Stolar (300 million hryvnias bail); on 20 August NABU and SAP also unveiled the "Themida" investigation involving the same suspects.
Why it matters
A former senior presidential aide has been released on bail in a major NABU-led money-laundering investigation, making the case a live test of Ukraine's anti-corruption institutions. The size of the bail set by the court, the prosecution's demand for a much larger sum and the defense's failed attempt to reduce it signal how seriously the alleged conduct is being weighed. The web of contributors to the bail — including a bank official, an Odesa-based singer, a Lutsk-registered firm and multiple individuals whose connection to the suspect is unknown — illustrates the breadth of the network now under scrutiny and explains why banks reportedly refused to process some of the payments.
What happened
On 19 August 2026, NABU and SAP searched the homes of Iryna Mudra, then a deputy head of the Office of the President, and people's deputy Vadym Stolar as part of the "Forest Gump" operation; the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Mudra from her post. On 25 August, the Higher Anti-Corruption Court (ВАКС) placed Mudra in pretrial custody for 60 days with the alternative of 20 million hryvnias bail — prosecutors had asked for 150 million. On 28 September, the defense asked the court to reduce the bail to 12.5 million hryvnias; ВАКС refused and left the original figure in force. On 8 October 2026, ВАКС confirmed that the full 20 million hryvnias had been posted, allowing Mudra's release. According to Schemes and Ukrainska Pravda, the largest individual contribution — 5,937,000 hryvnias — came from Mudra herself, with further sums posted by her partner Pavlo Polyarush (a National Bank of Ukraine department head), Odesa-based singer Maria Skaballanovych, the Lutsk-registered company "Malteks-M," and roughly two dozen other individuals whose connections to Mudra are not publicly established. Defense lawyers said collecting the remaining funds was made difficult by banks refusing to process payments across more than ten institutions.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian outlets — Ukrainska Pravda, the Schemes investigative project at Radio Svoboda, agencies and other national media — converge on the core fact that the full 20 million hryvnias bail was posted and that the Higher Anti-Corruption Court confirmed it. Ukrainian reporting frames the payment as the procedural outcome of NABU and SAP's "Forest Gump" operation, and the investigative Schemes project identifies the specific contributors, foregrounding transparency about who helped post the money. The same outlets also highlight the defense's failed attempt to reduce the bail and the reported refusals by banks to process payments, framing both as part of the judicial and financial friction around the case.
Where reporting differs
Sources differ on the timing of the disclosure: one strand points to early-October reporting by Ukrainska Pravda and the Schemes project, citing law-enforcement sources, while others — including Interfax-Ukraine, ZN.UA and Suspilne — cite the Higher Anti-Corruption Court's own confirmation on 8 October that the full amount had been posted. The detailed breakdown of who posted the bail comes primarily from law-enforcement leaks and Schemes' reporting rather than from an official court release.
Background
Iryna Mudra was a deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine before President Zelensky dismissed her on 19 August 2026, the same day NABU and SAP searched her home and that of MP Vadym Stolar as part of the "Forest Gump" operation. The "Forest Gump" case concerns the alleged laundering of 150 million hryvnias in cash through shell companies and a bank that investigators say the group brought under de facto control in early June — understood to be Sense Bank — with the laundered funds used to post bail for a suspect in the separate "Midas" case. On 20 August, NABU and SAP also unveiled the "Themida" investigation, a separate but related case about raider activity in Kyiv that involves the same suspects and methods such as hacking state registers and forging documents. Related preventive measures have been imposed on co-suspect Maksym Mykytas (detention with 30 million hryvnias bail on 21 August) and on MP Vadym Stolar (300 million hryvnias bail on 11 September).