Ukrainian MP charged in graft case involving President's Office flees abroad

Lawmaker Vadym Stolar has been charged in absentia as part of a major corporate raiding case involving officials of the President’s Office, Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), told the Kyiv Independent on Aug. 25.

Stolar fled abroad more than a month ago and faces the charges of organized crime, embezzlement, corporate raiding, forgery, and hacking, two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told the Kyiv Independent.

The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from Stolar and will publish his response once it is received.

Last week President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra, lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, and Viktor Dubovyk, head of the legal policy department at the President's Office, were also charged as part of the case. The suspects are accused of both corporate raiding and money laundering.

Stolar, Mudra and Myktytas are accused of illegally seizing real estate by hacking the corporate register, forging documents, and bribing judges and law enforcement agencies.

Apart from that, Mudra and Mykytas are also are accused of 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.

Halushchenko was charged in February in a case involving state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom — the largest corruption investigation of Zelensky’s tenure.

One of the unanswered questions is whether the latest corruption case involves Mudra's superiors.

Mudra repeatedly refers to her "boss" on audio tapes released by the NABU. Mudra has two bosses — Zelensky and his Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov.

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 Zelensky's former Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak, according to the Bihus.info investigative project.