Central bank demands Sense Bank CEO's dismissal amid corruption probe, ministry disagrees

Key takeaways:

• The National Bank of Ukraine wants the Cabinet to dismiss Sense Bank CEO Oleksiy Stupak
• The Finance Ministry claims the Cabinet has no authority to fire him
• Court sets $340,000 bail for Stupak but refuses to arrest him in a money laundering case
• Zelensky's former Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra allegedly promoted the candidacy of another suspect for Sense Bank's board
• Zelensky ally Timur Mindich allegedly delivered cash to Zelenksy's Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov to pay a suspect's bail with laundered money via Sense Bank

The National Bank of Ukraine has sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers to fire Oleksiy Stupak, CEO of Sense Bank, amid a major corruption scandal, Andriy Pyshnyi, head of the central bank, said on Sept. 2.

The same day, the High Anti-Corruption Court set Hr 15 million ($340,000) bail for Stupak but rejected prosecutors’ request to hold him in custody.

In August Stupak and Mykola Hladyshchenko, former chairman of state-owned Sense Bank's supervisory board, were charged with laundering Hr 150 million ($3.4 million) and transferring the funds through Sense Bank to post bail for former Justice and Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko. The most high-ranking suspect is President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ex-Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra.

Halushchenko has been charged with money laundering and organized crime in a separate case centered around state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom — the largest corruption investigation of Zelensky's tenure. Sense Bank is also allegedly implicated in the Energoatom corruption case.

On Aug. 21, the Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Hladyshchenko.

Meanwhile, Stupak went on vacation on Aug. 20 and asked Sense Bank to suspend him from his position on Sept. 1, his lawyer Olena Sidei told the Kyiv Independent.

The National Bank found on Sept. 1 that Stupak did not meet the professional competence requirements for his position, Pyshnyi said at a meeting of the parliamentary commission investigating Ukraine’s largest corruption cases.

Under Ukrainian law, Sense Bank’s supervisory board has the authority to fire Stupak. However, it has so far failed to do so because it lacks a quorum, Pyshnyi said.

Pyshnyi argued that the Cabinet has the power to fire Stupak under martial law if the supervisory board is unable to do so.

However, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko argued at the commission meeting that the Cabinet has no such power. The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from the Cabinet.

On Aug. 20, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi also announced that the Finance Ministry had been instructed to sell Sense Bank and transfer the proceeds to the military.

Sense Bank, formerly known as Alfa Bank Ukraine, was owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman until it was nationalized by the Ukrainian government in 2023 amid Russia's full-scale invasion.

After its nationalization, the bank reportedly came under the influence of Zelensky's then Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak and Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky.

According to alleged transcripts of audio tapes published in April and May, Vasyl Veselyi, an aide to Sense Bank's supervisory board,  and Oleksandr Tsukerman, a suspect in the Energoatom case, mentioned talking to Yermak several times while discussing the bank. They also discussed influencing board appointments.

Mudra, then one of Yermak's deputies and now a suspect in the ongoing corruption case, led the nomination committee selecting independent members of Sense Bank's board in May 2025.

Mudra also allegedly played a role in the appointment of Hladyshchenko, former head of Sense Bank's supervisory board.

Viesturs Liegis, the managing partner of Amrop Baltics and Ukraine, said at the Sept. 2 commission meeting that Hladyshchenko had not been initially included in the short list of board candidates for Sense Bank in 2025.  Amrop Baltics and Ukraine is a recruiting company that recommended candidates for the board.

However, Liegis said Mudra had called him and asked him to include Hladyshchenko in the short list. Amrop Baltics and Ukraine and the Finance Ministry were against his candidacy.

The situation at Sense Bank appeared to have changed in November 2025, when Mindich, the bank's alleged informal overseer, fled to Israel before the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) charged him in the Energoatom case. He was also sanctioned by Zelensky at the time.

But Mindich appears to have kept his influence on Sense Bank despite being on the run, according to tapes recorded by the NABU.

In June 2026 Mindich was allegedly looking for political cover for the bank and asked "Kyrylo" — an apparent reference to Zelensky's current Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov — to take over Sense Bank, according to alleged transcripts of NABU tapes published by the media outlet Hromadske on Aug. 26.

Control over Sense Bank allegedly allowed the suspects to organize shady dealings.

A prosecutor said at a court hearing on Aug. 25 that "a member of the criminal group" based in Israel — an apparent reference to Mindich — had transferred cash to Mudra to pay bail for ex-Justice and Energy Minister Halushchenko.

In June, Mykytas said that Mindich had personally delivered cash for Halushchenko's bail to "Kyrylo Oleksiyovych" — another apparent reference to Budanov, according to the alleged transcripts published by Hromadske.

"Let the court sort it out. You know, it (his name) comes up in a lot of places," Budanov said on Aug. 27 when asked about alleged references to him in the tapes.

Investigators have also linked several former and current Sense Bank officials to the possible circumvention of financial monitoring requirements to post bail for Halushchenko, according to the NABU.

Stupak's defense denied the accusations.

“We consider this allegation to be false and unsupported by the evidence," Stupak's lawyer Sidei told the Kyiv Independent. "The case materials currently contain no explanation whatsoever from the prosecution as to which specific payments processed through Sense Bank allegedly bypassed financial monitoring."

She argued that Stupak had become a hostage of political games and "has nothing to do with them."