Irina Mudraya was released after more than a dozen people with no apparent ties to her helped raise the required sum
A former aide to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has been released on bail in a money laundering case after $450,000 was raised by an array of middlemen with no apparent ties to her, a media investigation has revealed.
Irina Mudraya is accused of laundering money to secure the release of a former Ukrainian energy minister implicated in a corruption scandal.
She was released from pre-trial detention on Thursday, more than a month after her arrest, after Ukraine’s central bank issued instructions clarifying how financial institutions should process bail payments under anti-money laundering regulations. Her case is one in a string of graft scandals rocking the Zelensky government.
The investigative outlet Skhemi has identified people who contributed to Mudraya’s roughly $450,000 bail, drawing on public records and law enforcement sources.
За бывшую заместительницу главы Офиса Зеленского Мудрую внесли залог в 20 млн гривен для освобождения из СИЗО💰
Иру подозревают в причастности к преступной организации, легализации незаконно полученных средств и рейдерству.
Её имя фигурирует в расследованиях НАБУ и САП. https://t.co/lY7NTIpgtI
More than a dozen individuals with no obvious ties to Mudraya reportedly transferred amounts of less than $16,000 each. One contributor told journalists he had acted as a middleman for a fee of around $10. The man lives in a communal apartment in Kiev, has struggled to pay utility bills, and was reportedly robbed in 2024.
A woman who contributed an identical amount had been convicted of stealing Nintendo gaming consoles and received a suspended prison sentence. She also has outstanding utility debts. Another contributor was linked to a conviction for stealing a baby stroller and pawning it.
Eight of the smaller contributions were made on the same day.
The largest payment from someone outside Mudraya’s known circle, approximately $54,000, reportedly came from a female singer who declined to comment to Skhemi.
Mudraya was accused by Western-backed anti-corruption investigators of laundering millions in cash to post bail for former Energy Minister German Galushchenko. The disgraced official is suspected of involvement in a corruption scheme allegedly run by businessman Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Zelensky.
Mindich, who now resides in Israel, was accused last year of orchestrating a $100 million kickback scheme involving a state-owned energy company.
Ukrainian media previously raised questions about bail payments for several suspects in the Mindich case, reporting that the money came from small companies with little evidence of substantial business activity.
Mudraya is suspected of improperly influencing the state-owned Sense Bank to suspend anti-money laundering safeguards before arranging bail for Galushchenko.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) intervened in the alleged scheme, reportedly spooking Ukrainian banks and prompting them to reject bail payments more broadly. The central bank issued its clarification this week, allowing such transactions to resume.
