The Ukrainian leader\u2019s inner circle was frantically trying to cover up extravagant purchases made while the rest of the country suffered<\/p>\n
A senior official in Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s office frantically tried to reconcile her official annual salary of $12,500 with what surveillance records suggest was $30,000 per month in cash payments received from her new boss, a former head of Ukraine\u2019s Military Intelligence (HUR), according to a new investigation.\u00a0
\nIn records published by veteran investigative journalist Vladimir Boyko, Irina Mudraya, a former deputy justice minister serving as deputy head of Zelensky\u2019s office, allegedly confided in her property magnate accomplice: \u201cWho will ever believe me that I live on 50,000 hryvnia [$1,100] a month? Who?\u201d<\/p>\n
Excerpts from a printout of purported NABU records of Irina Mudraya and Maksim Mikitas.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Telegram \/ volodymyrboyko <\/p>\n
Mudraya was fired in August after being accused of laundering millions through Ukraine\u2019s banking system to bail out one of Zelensky\u2019s energy ministers, who himself had been arrested in a separate case involving the Ukrainian leader\u2019s long-time associate Timur Mindich.
\nBoyko has been publishing pages of what he says are transcripts of surveillance recordings produced by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) between January and June as detectives followed Mudraya and her partner, former MP Maksim Mikitas.
\nWho is tasked with countering corruption in Kiev?
\nNABU and its sister agency, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SAPO), established after the armed coup of 2014, have repeatedly clashed with Zelensky\u2019s cabal. Last year, the Ukrainian leader attempted to place them under his control, but reversed course after Western donors threatened to suspend all aid.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Ukrainian officials stole $3 million from Polish gift to Kiev \u2013 investigators (PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
Most recently the agencies exposed a massive scam-call center protection racket that was run through the office of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who then fled abroad under the false pretense of attending a conference in Paris.
\nEarlier this month, HUR agents engaged in a gunfight in Kiev with agents from the rival Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which some news outlets linked to the fight for protection money from the scam-call criminal businesses.
\nAside from NABU and SAPO, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAPK) obliges hundreds of thousands of civil servants to submit annual finance and property declarations.
\nWhat did Mudraya have to worry about, according to the transcripts?
\nAccording to the transcripts, Mudraya received some $30,000 a month in cash payments from a man she called \u201cKirill Alekseyevich.\u201d
\nZelensky appointed Kirill Budanov, whose patronymic is Alekseyevich, as head of his office in January, replacing Andrey Yermak. Yermak resigned last year as initial news broke of Zelensky insiders syphoning some $100 million through energy contracts.
\nMudraya appeared to seek advice from her partner Mitkas on hiding her ill-gotten riches from NAPK.
\n\u201cYou can declare the Bvlgaris and at least the Van Cleef. But no way can you declare the earrings,\u201d the man said. \u201cI\u2019ll put you in touch with a man who will handle the income issue.\u201d\u00a0
\nBuying a Van Cleef piece during the war with Russia was \u201cf**ked up,\u201d Mudraya admitted.<\/p>\n
Mudraya allegedly had a fondness for the French luxury brand Van Cleef & Arpels. Photo shows a special edition Pink Alhambra pendant for illustrative purposes.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Nick Papananias \/ Patrick McMullan via Getty Images <\/p>\n
The exchanges, which Boyko has staked his reputation on, suggest senior officials were flying under NAPK\u2019s radar.
\nMudraya and Mikitas discussed securing a highly paid sinecure that could cover for her enormous under-the-table income. She mentioned her envy of Zelensky\u2019s adviser on sanctions policy, Vladislav Vlasyuk, who she said officially earned $335,000 a year as a member of the oversight committee of state-owned Sense Bank.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
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Sense Bank is the former Ukrainian branch of Alfa Bank, nationalized in 2023 under Kiev\u2019s anti-Russian sanctions and through which Mudraya allegedly laundered cash by having the bank\u2019s anti-fraud team suspend their digital monitoring platform.\u00a0
\nWhile Mudraya said netting a job like Vlasyuk\u2019s would not be legally possible, Mikitas suggested that a teaching position at a private institution could serve the same purpose. He offered to speak to a friend who headed a construction university, but Mudraya said she would look ridiculous teaching anything other than law.
\nDoes the corruption link reach upwards?\u00a0
\nAccording to the recording, Mudraya\u2019s new boss personally delivered her first \u201csalary,\u201d unlike his predecessor who had a \u201cspecially trained girl\u201d to carry cash. The payout turned out to be larger than expected:
\n\u201cIt was 30 [thousand dollars]. I went to him and said: \u2018Kirill, it\u2019s too much.\u2019 Brought the hat with me. He says: \u2018You said 30.\u2019 I say: \u2018No, I said I used to get 30. But we agreed to 20, not 30.\u2019 He said: \u2018Well, I won\u2019t take it back.\u2019\u201d
\nSubsequent transcripts suggest the higher monthly payments continued and that Mudraya received an additional $20,000 bonus in May.
\n\u201cHe values you a lot,\u201d Mikitas concluded. \u201cMark my word, in two months you\u2019ll become first deputy prime minister,\u201d he added, saying he expected \u201cKirill\u201d to become the new cabinet chair.
\nWhat could the leaks mean for Budanov?
\nSome Ukrainian media have argued that NABU is targeting Zelensky\u2019s inner circle to leverage reforms demanded by the EU.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s political endgame has begun<\/p>\n
Bloomberg reported that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had a \u201ctense meeting\u201d with Zelensky this week, conditioning further financial support on implementing the changes Kiev had promised to Brussels.
\nReform would give more power to NABU and SAPO and introduce oversight by EU-aligned experts for appointments of senior officials, curbing Zelensky\u2019s extensive influence and the corrupt network he runs through his inner circle.
\nNABU and SAPO accused Yermak of involvement in a major money-laundering scheme in May and leaks to pro-EU media implicated Zelensky himself.\u00a0
\nNo formal charges can be filed against Zelensky as long as he holds presidential powers, which he has attempted to retain under martial law since his term expired in 2024.
\nReplacing Zelensky\u2019s personal friend Yermak with Budanov, who has extensive contacts among Western special services, seems to be consistent with the EU\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ukrainian leader\u2019s inner circle was frantically trying to cover up extravagant purchases made while the rest of the country suffered A senior official in Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s office frantically tried…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t