Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky's Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov has been named as part of a major corruption case involving Zelensky's former Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra, who was arrested and is currently center of a top corruption court case, local outlet Hromadske reported Wednesday, citing court documents.
Mudra, who was Zelensky's #2 staffer before being dismissed and detained, stands accused of hiding assets and money laundering. The whole saga has placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the presidential office, and is proving to be an embarrassment for Zelensky himself, who has sought to distance himself as scandal runs straight through the highest government offices of Kyiv.
National media says that not only did Mudra receive significant regular monthly off the books income, but the prosecutor has alleged there is at least $4 million among other undeclared assets.
Now, more names and potential future cases could come out of court proceedings centered on Mudra's case. Hromadske identifies how presidential chief of staff Budanov - who is still in his position - factors in [machine translation]:
In these materials, in addition to Iryna Mudra, another official of the President's Office appears, to whom the investigation assigns the role of organizer. In the conversations cited by the investigation, he is mainly called "Kyril" and "Kyril Alekseevich". According to the materials of suspicion, he was supposed to receive cash under control from Timur Mindich and members of his criminal group, organize its storage and the mechanism for transferring funds, as well as provide financial rewards to all persons involved.
According to Hromadske's sources, this may actually be the head of the President's Office, Kirill Budanov. Budanov's name can also be seen in the petition materials themselves.
Budanov appears in audio recordings made by investigators, with his voice being captured in at least one key conversation, also with investigator transcripts explicitly naming him.
The below outline has been put together by prominent national outlet Kyiv Post on Thursday:
- President Volodymyr Zelensky's Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov is allegedly mentioned by his former deputy Iryna Mudra on the tapes
- In at least one conversation, Budanov's voice was allegedly recorded
- Timur Mindich, a top Zelensky associate, allegedly delivered cash to Budanov to pay a suspect's bail with laundered money
- Mindich also allegedly asked Budanov to take over Sense Bank's cash flows
- Sense Bank's management was allegedly prepared to take orders from Budanov
- Budanov allegedly told Mudra not to fight corruption but to control it
Budanov himself has newly commented on the case to Hromadske, and appears somewhat defensive but without giving a full-throated denial of emerging media allegations [machine translation]:
“Let the court sort it out," he said. "You know, it (his name) comes up in a lot of places,” Budanov said when asked about alleged references to him in the tapes.
He also said he had spoken to Mudra after her dismissal amid the NABU searches at her premises last week.
“First, dismissal is a legal process," he said. "Second, as a matter of principle, I never turn my back on people until there are definitive conclusions. If the court finds her guilty, that’s a different matter."
At a court hearing on Aug. 25, a lawyer for Sense Bank CEO Oleksiy Stupak, one of the suspects in the latest case, publicly cited NABU tapes referring to “Kyrylo Oleksiyovich" — a person whose first name and patronymic coincide with Budanov’s. He did not specify his last name.
“Listen, Kyrylo Oleksiyovich called and asked what’s going on with Sense Bank,” Mudra said, according to the tapes cited by the lawyer.
According to more from the tapes:
In the alleged transcripts, Budanov thanked ex-lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, a suspect in the case, for his work.
“I’m with Kyrylo Oleksiyovich,” Mudra told Mykytas. “I put it on speaker.”
“Thank you, hello,” Budanov allegedly replied. “Thanks a lot.”
According to the alleged transcripts, on June 9 Mudra and Myktytas discussed a request by Timur Mindich, a suspect in the Energoatom case and a close Zelensky associate, to take over Sense Bank's cash flows.
“Mindich approached Kyrylo," Mudra allegedly said in an apparent reference to Kyrylo Budanov. "To take control of it... Wait, there are some serious money flows there... There’s no one to take them over right now. Do you understand? And once Gera (an apparent reference to ex-Justice and Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko) gets out, he’ll get his hands on those flows again. So we need to bargain for something for ourselves before that happens.”
Mudra and Mykytas are accused of laundering Hr 150 million ($3.4 million) and transferring the funds through Sense Bank to post bail for Halushchenko.
Halushchenko was charged in February in the Energoatom case.
According to the alleged transcripts, Mudra said that Sense Bank’s management was prepared to follow instructions from Kyrylo — an apparent reference to Budanov.
“They’re ready to do anything," she allegedly said. "I mean, wherever Kyrylo tells them to bring (the money), they’ll take it... They’ll do whatever he says.”
"Let the courts decide...":
The timing of all of this is very sensitive, given that with the Russia-Ukraine war now well past four-years, Kiev is awash in direct Western aid - with billions in weaponry and cash having steadily flowed in.
The current investigations also follows on a series of prior very public probes by NABU and SAPO into corruption at the highest levels of government, which has taken down many officials and been an ongoing source of embarrassment for Ukraine.
These investigations tended to get spun as if 'heroic' Zelensky is on a mission to root out corruption and destroy the rot from within.
Journalist, Mark Ames has pointed out the following trend: Every shocking Zelensky corruption scandal - and they keep getting worse - is PR’d away as “proof that Ukraine is a functioning western democracy fighting corruption”, as if it’s always one corruption scandal away from turning the corner & becoming Denmark.