Lawmaker Serhiy Klyuyev faces numerous accusations ranging from embezzlement and fraud to money laundering and vote rigging.
Prosecutors accuse him of illegally privatizing the Zaporizhzhya-based Semi-Conductor Plant, a polycrystalline silicon producer, in 2007.
They also suspect Klyuyev, and his brother Andriy Klyuyev, of possible fraud involved in borrowing Hr 5 billion from state-owned Ukreximbank and Hr 10 billion from state-run Oshchadbank, and not repaying the loans.
Firms reportedly linked to Klyuyev have enjoyed government generosity and received enormous funds from the state, with critics arguing that corruption is involved.
In 2010, the government allocated subsidies worth Hr 200 million to develop Klyuyev’s businesses, while in 2011 state power company Ukrenergo allocated Hr 382 million to connect his solar power plants to the state electricity grid.
In 2011-2012, firms reportedly connected with Klyuyev leased about 1,000 hectares of land from the government at below-market price for 49 years.
The Klyuyev brothers have also benefited as a result of a state-imposed, above-market electricity price for solar power plants that they allegedly lobbied.
Serhiy Klyuyev has also come under fire as the former owner of Tantalit, which controlled ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s palatial Mezhyhirya residence.
Tantalit spent millions of dollars furnishing and building the estate, with critics accusing Klyuyev of using the firm for money laundering. In another episode, Serhiy Klyuyev has been accused of laundering money to buy an apartment in Kyiv from Yanukovych in 2008 and paying for it in cash.
Serhiy Klyuyev has also allegedly helped Yanukovych in other ways. In late 2004, he was accused of involvement in vote rigging in favor of Yanukovych’s presidential bid, with recordings of alleged conversations on such rigging being leaked by the media.
Daria Kalenyuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said by phone that prosecutors had failed to include many of these accusations in their request to strip Klyuyev of immunity despite vast evidence. For instance, they did not include the Mezhihirya episode and the apartment affair, she said.
