Mudra on Mykytas: "This person was close to me and was recording me all time"
Iryna Mudra, former deputy head of the President’s Office, stated that former MP Maksym Mykytas was the person who had recorded conversations with her, which were subsequently made public by NABU and the SAPO.
She made this statement during a court hearing on the imposition of a preventive measure, according to Censor.NET.
Details
"Of the 237 conversations included in this case, 232 were recorded via one person’s microphone. Not mine. This person was close to me; I trusted him, and every time he spoke to me, he was recording me. Now look at what I am being accused of. It’s not a document I signed, not a decision I made, not money I took, not a meeting I held.
I am being charged with the fact that someone was recording me. That person was speaking, I was standing nearby and listening. He spoke, I listened, and he recorded it," said Mudra.
She also pointed out that Mykytas has several cases pending with the NABU and has spent these years at liberty.
"Three days ago, the prosecutor requested a bail of 200 million hryvnias for this man; the court set it at 30 million. For me, on my first ever charge, it was 150 million hryvnias. I am not asking the court to be harsher on anyone. I am asking for the same standards to be applied to me and for proportionality," she added.
Mudra also commented on the reports regarding the $4 million from Mykytas.
"I have never received $4 million from Mykytas. Neither in cash, nor into a bank account, nor in any other form. There is no mention in the case files of cash, a bank transfer to my account, no receipt, and no evidence whatsoever of these funds having been transferred. There are only the words of another person – perhaps his own intention, perhaps his own wish. Perhaps the investigation will ask him what he meant by these $4 million from ‘Ukrbud’, as he put it," she noted.
Operation ‘Forrest Gump’
- It was previously reported that NABU and the SAPO are conducting a special operation to expose a criminal group involving MPs and senior officials from the Office of the President.
- According to media reports, as part of the announced special operation, NABU and the SAPO are carrying out searches at the home of Iryna Mudra, deputy head of the Office of the President.
- In addition, NABU detectives carried out searches at the home of Hladyshenko, chairman of the supervisory board of ‘Sense Bank’.
- Vadym Stolar, a Member of Parliament from the ‘Opposition Platform – For Life’ party, which has been banned by the court, confirmed that NABU and the SAPO are conducting searches at his premises as part of the ‘Forrest Gump’ special operation.
- NABU later stated that the case involved 150 million hryvnias in cash which, according to the investigation, had been channelled into the legal system via a series of accounts held by front companies to pay bail for one of the defendants in the ‘Midas’ case.
- Subsequently, the former deputy head of the Presidential Office, Iryna Mudra, confirmed that her premises were searched on 19 August; she was informed of the charges against her and served with a request for a preventive measure, but was not detained. She is preparing for the court hearing.
- On 20 August, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) released new recordings of conversations involving those implicated in the ‘Forrest Gump’ case — the second part of the investigation, entitled ‘Themis’. This concerns a scheme involving the hostile takeover of property and other assets through unauthorised interference with the Ministry of Justice’s information (automated) networks.
- On 20 August, a prosecutor from the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) named all the individuals implicated in NABU’s ‘Forest Gump’ and ‘Themis’ operations.
- On 21 August, the High Anti-Corruption Court imposed a preventive measure on former MP Maksym Mykytas in the form of detention, subject to the payment of a 30 million hryvnia bail.
