Investigators release new tapes implicating top Zelensky staffer in corporate raiding

Editor’s note: This story is being updated.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on Aug. 20 published new tapes implicating top officials in an alleged criminal group that illegally seized real estate.

The NABU said that the scheme allegedly involves a presidential deputy chief of staff, a current member of parliament, and a former lawmaker.

While the people on the tapes are identified only by their titles, a law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent that they are Iryna Mudra, who until yesterday served as a deputy chief of staff for President Volodymyr Zelensky, lawmaker Vadym Stolar, and former lawmaker Maksym Mykytas.

The recordings also feature another unidentified official of the President's Office.

The new tapes follow the publication of other recordings by the NABU on Aug. 19 that allegedly implicate Mudra, Mykytas and other suspects in money laundering.

Mudra was charged with money laundering and fired the same day.

Mykytas has also been charged, and a court hearing on his arrest began on Aug. 20.

The new tapes published on Aug. 20 allegedly reveal a scheme "to seize valuable real estate and other corporate assets by illegally taking control of businesses owned by other individuals," the NABU said.

"The suspects carried out hostile takeovers of companies by forging documents establishing ownership rights to those companies, as well as court rulings," the bureau said. "The assets of the companies illegally seized by members of the criminal organization in the fall of 2025 were worth more than Hr 248 million."

The bureau also said that, in May 2026, they attempted to seize real estate in Kyiv worth more than Hr 207 million.

"The purpose of taking over one of the companies was to gain control of real estate in central Kyiv worth more than Hr 500 million," the NABU added.

To carry out the scheme, the suspects enlisted hackers who gained access to the register of legal entities and entered forged documents and false information showing that ownership had been transferred from the legitimate owners to proxies, according to the bureau.

The NABU also said that the suspects arranged the opening of a criminal case and a freeze on shares in the seized companies "in order to retain control over them and prevent any registration changes."

In the tapes, Mykytas said that prosecutors had received money for an asset freeze.

Mudra was responsible for the judiciary and judicial reform at the President's Office.

One of the suspects, Stolar, represented the pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life faction in parliament until it was banned amid Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Now he represents the Restoration of Ukraine group, an offshoot of the Opposition Platform-For Life.

Stolar has been linked to several controversial construction projects in Kyiv, as well as a scheme that allegedly defrauded hundreds of homebuyers during the 2000s, according to investigative journalists. He has denied the accusations of wrongdoing.

Under former President Petro Poroshenko, Ukrainian media labeled Stolar the “de facto mayor of Kyiv” due to his influence in the city.

Stolar has also partnered up with Artem Kolyubayev, a former business partner of former President's Office Head Yermak, according to the Bihus.info investigative project.

Another suspect, Mykytas, headed state-owned construction company Ukrbud from 2010 to 2016 and was a lawmaker from the Will of the People faction from 2016 to 2019.

Mykytas was charged in two embezzlement cases in 2019 and 2023 and in a bribery case in 2022.