Over UAH 1 billion in bail posted for Zelenskyy’s senior officials: Some funds provided by shell companies – media
In the "Mindichgate" and "Forest Gump" cases, more than UAH 1.1 billion in bail has been posted for former and current senior officials from the entourage of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. These include former Presidential Office officials, MPs from the Servant of the People party, former government officials and members of criminal organisations linked to them.
As Censor.NET reports, the MEZHA Anti-Corruption Centre analysed the payments.
Details
In total, more than UAH 1.1 billion in bail has already been posted for former and current senior officials, MPs from the single-party majority and individuals linked to them. According to analysts, this includes about UAH 1 billion in laundered cash and so-called "cashback" from money-laundering operations to keep 30 defendants in corruption cases out of pre-trial detention. More than half a billion hryvnias of these funds was posted for defendants in the Midas case.
The largest bail payments
- UAH 150 million — Herman Halushchenko, former justice and energy minister;
- UAH 140 million — Andriy Yermak, former head of the Presidential Office;
- UAH 171.6 million (UAH 120 million in the case concerning corruption at the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development plus UAH 51.6 million) — Oleksii Chernyshov, former deputy prime minister.
Bail for Presidential Office officials (over UAH 205 million)
- Andriy Yermak (former head of the Presidential Office) — UAH 140 million (Midas case);
- Artem Shylo (Yermak’s former adviser) — UAH 30 million;
- Andrii Smyrnov (former deputy head of the Presidential Office) — UAH 28 million (illicit enrichment case);
- Viktor Dubovyk (head of the Presidential Office’s Legal Policy Directorate) — UAH 7 million (Forest Gump case).
This amount will increase when UAH 20 million in bail is posted for Iryna Mudra, a former deputy to Yermak and Budanov.
Former government officials and commissioners
More than UAH 412 million in bail was posted for former government officials. They include:
- Herman Halushchenko (former minister) — UAH 150 million (Midas case);
- Oleksii Chernyshov (former deputy prime minister) — UAH 171.6 million in total in two episodes;
- Mykola Solskyi (former agrarian policy minister) — UAH 76 million;
- Olha Stefanishyna (former deputy prime minister) — UAH 6 million (illicit enrichment);
- Oleksandr Kheilo (former deputy energy minister) — UAH 6 million (case involving a $500,000 bribe);
- Vasyl Lozynskyi (former deputy infrastructure minister) — UAH 2.5 million.
Servant of the People MPs (almost UAH 172 million)
- Yurii Kisiel — UAH 40 million;
- Ihor Nehulevskyi — UAH 30 million;
- Yevhen Pyvovarov — UAH 20 million;
- Mykhailo Laba — UAH 20 million;
- Olha Savchenko — UAH 16.6 million;
- Andrii Odarchenko — UAH 15 million;
- Andrii Klochko — UAH 12 million;
- Mykola Tyshchenko — UAH 10 million;
- Oleksii Kuznietsov — UAH 8 million.
Other officials and Mindichgate defendants
Among other officials, the total amount of bail posted stands at UAH 39 million:
- Pavlo Kyrylenko (current chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine) — UAH 20 million;
- Serhii Deineko (former head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine) — UAH 10 million;
- Illia Vitiuk (former head of the SSU Cybersecurity Department) — UAH 9 million.
Separately, within the framework of Operation Midas, UAH 172 million was paid for other defendants:
- Ihor Fursenko ("Ryoshyk") — UAH 95 million;
- Dmytro Basov ("Tenor") — UAH 40 million;
- Lesia Ustymenko — UAH 25 million;
- Liudmyla Zorina — UAH 12 million.
- Another UAH 18 million was posted for four police unit officials in the case concerning protection provided to "porn offices."
Who is paying the bail?
According to MEZHA’s analysis, the funds are mostly paid through shell companies with zero revenue and no business operations. The same limited liability companies often pay tens of millions of hryvnias for different defendants.
Shell companies posted bail for senior officials and defendants in the Midas case. In Yermak’s case, UAH 10 million was paid by the private enterprise SV-GROUP. In 2025, the company had zero revenue, while its assets amounted to only about UAH 137,000.
For Oleksii Chernyshov, UAH 66 million was posted by Foravto Tor LLC, which had been registered a month earlier. For Dmytro Basov (Tenor in the NABU recordings – Ed.), UAH 25 million was posted by Green Plus Company LLC, which had also been registered only two months earlier.
