Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court will continue on Tuesday, August 25, considering a motion on pretrial restrictions for Iryna Mudra, the former deputy head of the Presidential Office, Radio Svoboda's correspondent reported.
The court opened the hearing last week but postponed it to August 24 after Mudra's defense team requested a delay, citing a deterioration in her health. Tuesday's session began at 15:00.
During the hearing, a prosecutor laid out the reasoning behind a proposed bail of 150 million hryvnias, which the prosecution is seeking as an alternative to pretrial detention. The prosecution said Mudra's assets could total as much as 250 million hryvnias.
The prosecutor said the risk of her fleeing was closely tied to her financial standing.
The prosecutor also argued that Mudra has ties to officials in Ukraine's Border Service, which could help her leave the country.
Mudra has not responded to these claims. She had previously said she was ready to answer every question from investigators through legal means.
Yonatan Binyamin Markovych, the chief rabbi of Kyiv, took part in Tuesday's session and offered to act as a personal guarantor for Mudra. In total, two people have offered to vouch for the former official. The defense also presented arguments during the hearing.
The Forest Gump investigation
On August 19, Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies announced a special operation against a criminal organization they said operated under the leadership of a sitting and a former member of parliament, with the involvement of senior Presidential Office officials.
According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the operation, codenamed "Forest Gump," exposed a group that organized and carried out the legalization of criminally obtained funds. The bureau said the group included a deputy head of the Presidential Office, a former member of parliament, the chairman of the board of a state bank, and the head of that bank's supervisory board.
NABU said the case involved 150 million hryvnias in cash that, according to investigators, was funneled through accounts belonging to shell companies to legalize the money and use it to pay bail for a participant in the separate "Midas" corruption case.
Possible link to Halushchenko
The identity of the person for whom the bail was paid has not been officially disclosed. However, published recordings of conversations reference the name "Herman," and the amount matches the bail previously set for former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on August 19 dismissing Mudra from her post as deputy head of the Presidential Office.
The High Anti-Corruption Court has separately applied pretrial restrictions to three suspects in the "Forest Gump" case, according to Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
