Court continues to decide on pretrial measure for Mykytas: SAPO is requesting his arrest with bail set at 200 million hryvnias. LIVE BROADCAST
The High Anti-Corruption Court is considering a preventive measure for former MP Maksym Mykytas, who is implicated in the "Forrest Gump" case.
Censor.NET reported this.
Details
The prosecutor is asking the court to order Mykytas’ pre-trial detention with bail set at UAH 200 million.
List of individuals implicated
According to the prosecution, the criminal organization organized and formed by Stolar and Mykytas included the following members:
- Iryna Mudra, former Deputy Head of the Office of the President;
- Olena Ferens, Deputy Minister of Justice;
- Viktor Dubovyk, Director General of the Directorate for Legal Policy at the Office of the President;
- Vasyl Astion, businessman and former member of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council;
- Valentyn Yelizarov (Mykytas’ subordinate and head of Metrobud LLC);
- Mykola Hladyshchenko, former Chairman of the Management Board of the state-owned Sense Bank;
- Oleh Stupak, former Chairman of the Management Board of the state-owned Sense Bank;
- Liudmyla Snihur, head of a department at the state-owned Sense Bank;
- Mykyta Tarkovskyi (an associate of Mykytas);
- Yehor Merkulov (Mykytas’ driver and nominal head of Montazh Servis LLC);
- Oleksandr Ostapenko (Mykytas’ security guard and nominal director of Filosofiia Development LLC).
According to SAPO, no later than 15 November 2024, Mykytas and Stolar established a criminal organisation and entered into an "informal criminal agreement."
At the same time, the prosecutor noted that Iryna Mudra had influence over Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Ferens regarding the work of the Justice Ministry’s Anti-Raiding Commission. Viktor Dubovyk advised the commission and issued instructions concerning its work, while Vasyl Astion was responsible for defending its decisions in court.
Yelizarov coordinated operational activities, recruited individuals to register companies and participated in laundering funds in June 2026.
According to SAPO, Sense Bank representatives Hladyshchenko, Stupak and Snihur facilitated the laundering of funds.
The defense’s position
The attorney pointed out that in one of the criminal cases against Mykytas, bail was set at 20 million hryvnias, while in another it was set at 900,000 hryvnias.
"He hasn’t disappeared anywhere. … Through his conduct over the past six years, he has proven that he has no intention of fleeing; he has appeared whenever summoned by investigators, prosecutors, or the court. And there is no such risk," said the defense attorney.
Operation "Forrest Gump"
- It was previously reported that NABU and SAPO were conducting a special operation aimed at exposing a criminal group involving MPs and senior Presidential Office officials.
- According to media reports, NABU and SAPO were conducting searches involving Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra as part of the announced operation.
- NABU detectives also conducted searches involving Hladyshchenko, chair of the Sense Bank supervisory board.
- Vadym Stolar, an MP from the court-banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, confirmed that NABU and SAPO were searching his property as part of Operation "Forrest Gump."
- NABU later said the case involved UAH 150 million in cash, which, according to the investigation, was channelled through a series of shell-company accounts and brought into legal circulation to post bail for one of the defendants in the Midas case.
- Former deputy head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra later confirmed that searches had been conducted at her home on August 19, that she had been served with a notice of suspicion and a motion seeking a preventive measure, but that she had not been detained. She is preparing for a court hearing.
- On 20 August, NABU released new recordings of conversations involving individuals implicated in the "Forrest Gump" case. The case concerns a scheme to seize real estate and other assets through unauthorised interference with the Justice Ministry’s information (automated) networks.
