VAKS Sets Hladyshenko Bail at 7 Million Hryvnias Instead of Requested 150 Million

The High Anti-Corruption Court (VAKS) on September 8 imposed a bail of 7 million hryvnias on Mykola Hladyshenko, former head of the supervisory board of state-owned Sense Bank, in the "Forest Gump" corruption case. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) had requested detention with an alternative bail of 150 million hryvnias — a figure 21 times higher. The court gave Hladyshenko five days to post the amount; failure to do so allows prosecutors to seek a stricter measure. He is also barred from leaving Kyiv, must surrender foreign passports, and is prohibited from contacting case participants or visiting Sense Bank, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), and the State Financial Monitoring Service.

The charges center on Hladyshenko's alleged role in channeling 150 million hryvnias in bail for former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko. According to NABU materials published by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, at least 50 million hryvnias moved directly from Sense Bank accounts to the court's special account, including a 46 million hryvnia transfer from Giran Contract LLC on June 25. An additional 37.86 million hryvnias from Giran Contract passed through Tetras Optima LLC to OTP Bank, after which Tetras transferred 54 million hryvnias to the court. In total, Sense-linked flows accounted for a minimum of 87.86 million hryvnias of Halushchenko's bail, which was fully paid by June 29.

Wiretaps cited by investigators show Hladyshenko reporting to presidential aide Iryna Mudra on June 22 that "the first part has been accumulated," to which she replied, "don't let us down, because they are already stamping their feet there." The probe alleges that automatic banking financial monitoring was effectively disabled during the transfers under the pretext of service works. A separate episode involves a June 10 meeting where Mudra, an unnamed Presidential Office official, Sense Bank chairman Oleksandr Stupak, and Hladyshenko discussed placing the state bank under "informal control" instead of Timur Mindich, who was already a fugitive.

Despite formally stepping down from the supervisory board after a May NBU meeting, Hladyshenko continued to participate in operational discussions, according to NABU recordings. On August 19, detectives searched Sense Bank offices and Hladyshenko's premises. The NBU had sought his removal from the board for six months, noting his appointment had contradicted recommendations from AMROP and the Finance Ministry. The disparity between the 150 million hryvnias sought by SAP and the 7 million set by VAKS raises questions about the deterrent effect of such bail for a figure alleged to have orchestrated tens of millions in transactions through a state bank.