The NABU and the SAPO accuse Andrii Kliuiev, former First Vice Prime Minister under fugitive president Yanukovych, and Oleksandr Taran, former head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Investment and Innovation, of embezzling over UAH 195 million in budget funds. They face up to 12 years in prison, along with confiscation of property.

According to the investigation, in 2008, Andrii Kliuiev became the ultimate beneficial owner of the unprofitable Semiconductors Plant JSC through companies under his control. As early as 2010, Kliuiev, in collusion with the former head of the State Investments Agency Oleksandr Taran, allegedly orchestrated the embezzlement of budget funds through companies under their control.

In total, according to the investigation, Kliuiev and Taran embezzled more than UAH 195 million, transferring the funds to the accounts of companies under their control. The largest portion of this money — UAH 170 million — was embezzled as follows: it was allocated to Semiconductor Plant OJSC, purportedly for the development of an innovation project, but according to the investigation, these funds were in fact appropriated by the defendants. Later, under a similar scheme, an additional UAH 25.3 million was transferred, purportedly for the development of energy-saving technologies, to limited liability companies under their control.

Lead Recovery LLC and Metalist Production and Commercial Enterprise JSC submitted applications for state support to the State Agency of Ukraine for Investment and Innovation. Despite these companies being unprofitable and having outstanding debts to the State Innovation and Development Finance Corporation — which was an impediment to granting state support — Taran ensured that these applications were reviewed by the Competition Commission and that, on December 14, 2010, it adopted a conclusion recommending state support. The defendants then secured a decision by the Coordination Commission to grant state support to the aforementioned enterprises.

The investigation into these proceedings was initiated by the Department of Special Investigations of the Prosecutor General’s Office in 2014, and the NABU has conducted its own investigation since 2019.

Kliuiev's actions are classified under Article 27(3) and Article 191(5); Taran's actions under Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

What Kliuiev is known for

Andrii Kliuiev was one of the most influential figures in the Party of Regions.

According to an investigation by Ukrainska Pravda, Kliuiev is believed to be responsible for the violent dispersal of Euromaidan on November 30, 2013. Among other things, journalists reported that "...this operation was led by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Andrii Kliuiev..." and that "..Kliuiev, together with his first deputy, Volodymyr Sivkovych, selected the Berkut brigades they considered best suited for the dirty work."

Kliuiev also coordinated the activities of the pro-Russian Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Justice, the banned Socialists Party had operated in the committee's interests since 2019; Kliuiev himself, through his defense counsel, denied any connection to the party.

Kliuiev has been in politics since the mid-1990s, starting at the regional level in the Donetsk Region. At the Party of Regions Congress in December 2001, he was elected First Deputy Chairman of the party. Since April 2002, he has served as a Member of Parliament of Ukraine and Chairman of the Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy, and Nuclear Safety.

In April 2003, at the Party Congress, he was elected Secretary of the party's Political Council. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Deputy Prime Minister for the Fuel and Energy Complex. In April 2006, he was elected an MP for the second time on the Party of Regions' list, and in August of the same year he was again appointed Deputy Prime Minister for the Fuel and Energy Complex. In the early parliamentary elections of 2007, he was elected a MP from the Party of Regions for the third time.

On March 11, 2010, Kliuiev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister in the Azarov Government, and on December 9, 2010, following the administrative reform, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade. On February 14, 2012, he was dismissed from this post and appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. On January 24, 2014, Kliuiev was appointed Head of the Presidential Administration; however, on February 23, 2014, he submitted his resignation, after which he disappeared.

The former Vice Prime Minister was repeatedly put on the wanted list: first the national one (in March 2014, with the SSU canceling it in June of the same year), and later, in April 2016, the international one as well. In January 2017, the Pecherskyi District Court denied permission for a special in absentia investigation against him, and in May 2017, Interpol removed Kliuiev from the international wanted list. His parliamentary immunity was also lifted.

It is known that Kliuiev fled to Russia, just like former president Yanukovych. According to the prosecution, he took part in a court hearing in Moscow, where he gave testimony regarding the so-called “coup d'état in Ukraine” (as Russia refers to the Revolution of Dignity), and also appeared on Russian television. The SAPO received a letter from Azerbaijan claiming, on Kliuiev's behalf, that he was in that country; however, verification did not confirm this information.

In early January 2020, the HACC arrested Kliuiev in absentia, but a month later it reversed this decision. In 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship, and the NCDC imposed personal sanctions against him. As of 2025, the HACC is hearing — in absentia, since the defendant is hiding in Russia and is on the international wanted list — the case concerning the embezzlement of almost UAH 200 million in budget funds committed with his participation.