How 150 million hryvnias in bail for Halushchenko was transferred: financial monitoring failed to work, – Zhelezniak. VIDEO
Tens of millions of hryvnias intended as bail for those implicated in the ‘Midas’ case may have passed through the accounts of shell companies, whilst the banks’ financial monitoring system was effectively non-operational at the time.
This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak in his article, as reported by Censor.NET.
How was the bail paid?
For instance, on 25 June, a company based in Dobropillia – which employs three staff and reported a net profit of 34,400 hryvnias last year – received 54 million hryvnias into its account.
"On the same day, the entire 54 million was transferred to the High Anti-Corruption Court’s special account as part of the bail for the former minister. The money remained in the account for several hours.
And there are several such companies. One is from Brovary: authorised capital of 5,000 UAH, one employee, 25 KVED codes – ranging from metal trading to freight transport – and no income reported in the financial statements. The owner and nominal director is the mother-in-law of the person implicated in the case. Another is from the village of Shchaslyve, with 31 KVED codes and no financial data whatsoever: it received 5 million, supposedly for goods, and transferred the funds as a deposit on the very same day.
The largest transaction was 72 million in cash, which entered the account via 137 fictitious payment transactions from 68 front companies and sole traders," said the MP.
Financial monitoring failed to work
According to the investigation, the payment monitoring system was temporarily switched to maintenance mode, and the participants were informed of the exact time. During this pre-arranged window, the payment went through automatically, so no one saw it.
"The system wasn’t hacked. It was switched off for half an hour," noted Zhelezniak.
According to the MP, none of the security layers failed: the bank’s own financial monitoring system, the National Bank’s oversight of the bank, and the State Financial Monitoring Service.
He also pointed out that the National Bank had previously fined "Sense Bank" for breaches in the area of financial monitoring — at least twice, totalling nearly 52 million hryvnias.
Whose money is it?
At the High Anti-Corruption Court hearing, the SAPO prosecutor stated that Mindich had organised the cash for the bail on 9 June.
"And the bank’s management, according to the SAPO, agreed to operate ‘under informal control’ – because the bank’s previous ‘supervisor’, ‘the leader of the criminal organisation Mindich’, is wanted by the police. And the icing on the cake from the wiretaps: ‘if Mindich pays, we can also deposit funds for other, smaller-scale corrupt officials: the channel is already in place, and we’re not closing it down’. The channel. That’s what they themselves call it…. (The defence denies everything – "why Mindich specifically, and where the cash came from, is unclear". The court will decide.)," the MP continued.
In Zhelezniak’s view, there was no ingenious scheme at play here.
"34,000 in profit a year and 54 million a day – that’s plain to see. The issue isn’t that they didn’t notice. The issue is that a loophole was opened for this money," he added.
What is Zhelezniak proposing?
"My colleagues and I have tabled Bill No. 15388 on enhanced scrutiny of bail: a public list of those posting bail; the ability for NABU and the SAPO to quickly trace the origin of funds; and risk factors — lack of staff, lack of reporting, and a newly registered company," he concluded.
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 Presidential Office.
- 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 shell 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 30 million hryvnias in bail.
- On 25 August, Iryna Mudra was remanded in custody with the option of posting bail of 20 million hryvnias.
