Mindich gave cash to Mudra, implicated in "Forest Gump" case, for Halushchenko’s bail – SAPO

Businessman Timur Mindich, a figure in the NABU "Mindichgate" case, provided former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Iryna Mudra with the cash needed to post bail for former minister Herman Halushchenko.

A SAPO prosecutor stated this at a hearing on a preventive measure for Sense Bank head Oleksii Stupak, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported, according to Censor.NET.

What the prosecutor said

According to Zhelezniak, the SAPO prosecutor said in his address that on 9 June, Mindich transferred cash to Mudra specifically to arrange the payment of Halushchenko’s bail.

The prosecutor’s direct quote:

All these events effectively began on 9 June 2026, when Ms Mudra received a proposal to become involved in organizing the laundering of cash that, based on the circumstances, had been obtained through criminal means, directly from a member of the criminal organization who transferred it while wanted and while staying in Israel. He transferred this cash to an unidentified person so that it could subsequently be converted into non-cash funds through financial transactions. Using, among other things, sham transactions, the money was deposited into the accounts of legal entities controlled by the participants in these events, thereby giving it the appearance of legitimate non-cash funds. After that, the money was to be transferred to the account of the High Anti-Corruption Court as a bail payment.

In addition, several other conversations were presented at the hearing which, according to SAPO, confirm that the money came specifically from Mindich and that it was he who asked Mudra to post bail.

Sense Bank

The SAPO prosecutor is asking the court to remand Stupak in custody with the option of posting UAH 150 million in bail. He is suspected in a case concerning the laundering of funds used to post bail for Halushchenko.

The prosecutor also mentioned a conversation between former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Mudra and Stupak, after which she said:

"Wait, there are some decent cash flows there, and there is no one to take them right now. Hera (former minister Herman Halushchenko) will be released now, and he will get back in on those flows. So we need to bargain for something for ourselves before that happens."

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, the 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 ‘Forrest 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.
On 25 August, Iryna Mudra was remanded in custody with the option of posting UAH 20 million in bail.

Earlier, the media reported that UAH 105 million of the required UAH 150 million in bail had been posted for Halushchenko.

The case of Herman Halushchenko

Earlier, the media reported that Halushchenko had been detained while attempting to cross the border. Subsequently, NABU confirmed that NABU detectives had detained the former energy minister while he was crossing the state border as part of the "Midas" case.
The media also reported that Halushchenko would be served with a notice of suspicion after being taken to Kyiv.
Halushchenko was informed of the suspicion of laundering over $112 million.
Halushchenko appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court against his "unlawful detention", but the court remanded him in custody.
On 17 February, the former minister was arrested with the possibility of bail set at 200 million hryvnias.