Updated: Investigators release new tapes implicating top Zelensky staffer in corporate raiding

Editor’s note: This story is being updated.

Key takeaways:

• Investigators release tapes implicating top officials in corporate raiding.
• The suspects include former presidential Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra, lawmaker Vadym Stolar, and former lawmaker Maksym Mykytas.
• The new tapes allegedly reveal a scheme "to seize valuable real estate and other corporate assets by illegally taking control of businesses owned by other individuals."
• The suspects allegedly enlisted hackers who gained access to the register of legal entities and forged documents and false information.
• The suspects also allegedly discussed paying for court decisions as part of the corporate raiding scheme.

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. Anti-corruption prosecutors asked the court to place him in pretrial detention with bail set at Hr 200 million.

At the hearing, the prosecutor said that the case involves Mykytas, Stolar, Mudra, as well as Viktor Dubovyk, head of the legal policy department at the President's Office, Deputy Justice Minister Olena Ferens, and Vasyl Astion, a businessman and former member of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's legislature. Other individuals implicated in the case include Sense Bank CEO Oleksiy Stupak, Mykola Hladyshchenko, chairman of Sense Bank’s supervisory board, and Lyudmila Snihur, head of a department at the bank, according to the prosecutor.

The prosecutor also mentioned several associates of Mykytas.

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 suspects spent at least $514,000 to hire hackers, bribe judges and law enforcement agencies and finance court proceedings, the NABU said.

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.

Myktas also discusses what appears to be a payment for a Pechersk District Court order to keep a freeze on shares in the seized companies.

He said that initially they agreed to pay “5,000” for the court order – an apparent reference to $5,000 – but later the price was changed to “10,000” – an apparent reference to $10,000.

"Isn't it to much for keeping (the asset freeze)?" Mudra told Mykytas. "... The prices are outrageous."

Mykytas also said that some unidentified “Viktor” had received $7,000 for a court order.

"I understand that, regardless of what happens to this prosecutor who received the money, Viktor will not say the truth," he added.

Mykytas and Mudra also mention influencing a top Justice Ministry official – an apparent reference to Deputy Justice Minister Ferens – to ensure that complaints related to the seized companies are handled in their interests.

Mudra said she had told the Justice Ministry official that a certain person should become a shareholder based on the consideration of the complaints at the ministry.

An unnamed official of the President's Office - an apparent reference to Dubovyk, head of the office's legal policy department - also takes part in the discussions about influencing the Justice Ministry, according to the tapes.

However, Justice Ministry officials refused to carry out Mudra’s instructions, according to the NABU.

In an expletive-laden speech, Mykytas shouted at Mudra, expressing his unhappiness with the outcome. Mudra responded that she had exposed herself to criminal liability by giving the instructions.

In the recordings, Stolar said that he had met a commercial court judge to discuss initiating bankruptcy proceedings in order to take over high-end real estate in downtown Kyiv.

"I will summon the director, and - if he comes - you will give me questions that I should ask him to humiliate him," the judge said, as cited by Stolar in the tapes. "And if he doesn't show up, it's disrespect, and I'll remove him starting from the second hearing."

Stolar also said he had told the judge he would not give him more than 10 - an apparent reference to $10,000 - for removing the director.

The judge later upheld motions filed by people linked to the suspects, banning changes in the corporate register related to the company involved and terminating the director's powers, the NABU said.

Mudra complained in the tapes that the State Investigation Bureau and the police easily leak information about criminal cases but the NABU does not.

“The National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine are no big deal,” Mykytas said. “But once the NABU comes after you, there’s no way around it.”

Mudra also said in the tapes that someone told her that “corruption shouldn’t be fought – it should be controlled.”

“Corruption shouldn’t be fought, it should be spearheaded,” Mykytas added.

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 Andriy 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.