Key facts
- Lawmaker Vadym Stolar returned to Ukraine on September 11.
- The High Anti-Corruption Court set bail at $6.7 million for Stolar.
- Stolar was charged in August with organized crime, embezzlement, corporate raiding, forgery, and hacking.
- Former Deputy Chief of Staff Iryna Mudra, lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, and Viktor Dubovyk were also charged in the case.
- Suspects are accused of corporate raiding and money laundering.
- Stolar previously represented the pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life faction.
Lawmaker Vadym Stolar, a suspect in a corporate raiding and money laundering case involving officials from the President’s Office, has returned to Ukraine. A law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent on September 11 that the High Anti-Corruption Court has set bail at Hr 300 million ($6.7 million) for Stolar. Stolar had fled the country before being charged in August with organized crime, embezzlement, corporate raiding, forgery, and hacking.
Last week, Iryna Mudra, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, lawmaker Maksym Mykytas, and Viktor Dubovyk, head of the legal policy department at the President's Office, were also charged in connection with the case. The suspects are accused of corporate raiding and money laundering. Specifically, Stolar, Mudra, and Mykytas are alleged to have illegally seized real estate by hacking the corporate register, forging documents, and bribing judges and law enforcement agencies. Additionally, Mudra and Mykytas are accused of laundering Hr 150 million ($3.4 million) to post bail for Herman Halushchenko, the former Justice and Energy Minister who was charged in February in a separate corruption investigation related to the state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom.
Stolar previously represented the pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life faction in parliament before it was banned in 2022. He now represents the Restoration of Ukraine group, an offshoot of the banned party. Investigative journalists have linked Stolar to controversial construction projects in Kyiv and a scheme that allegedly defrauded hundreds of homebuyers in the 2000s, accusations he denies. Under former President Petro Poroshenko, Stolar was reportedly known as the “de facto mayor of Kyiv” due to his influence in the city. He has also partnered with Artem Kolyubayev, a former business partner of Zelensky's former Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak.