For 9 years now, Ukraine has been suffering from Russian military aggression. The second year of a full-scale war has begun, which the Muscovites brought to our land.
Every day people die, residential buildings, kindergartens, hospitals are destroyed, enterprises and the economy of Ukraine as a whole are destroyed. Despite this, Kremlin adherents and open traitors to Ukraine, who have been robbing it for decades, continue to profit from our state with impunity.
Further in the thematic investigation, we will tell how the business of the odious Klyuev brothers continues to operate in Ukraine and receives reimbursement of hundreds of millions of hryvnias from the state budget during the war, bypassing sanctions. We are talking about OJSC Nezhinsky Fat Plant, which in 2020 was re-registered as affiliates.
CRIMINAL TRAIL: BILLIONS FROM THE BUDGET, SANCTIONS AND COOPERATION WITH THE FSB
The Klyuev brothers are one of the brightest, so to speak, representatives of the Party of Regions banned in Ukraine. Andrey Klyuev is the ex-head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine during the time of Viktor Yanukovych (during the decisive period of the Euro-Madan), former first deputy prime minister and people's deputy of three convocations of the Verkhovna Rada. His younger brother Sergei, a people’s deputy of four convocations, was the formal owner of the Mezhyhirya residence of Viktor Yanukovych. As of 2019, they took 61st place in the NV and Dragon Capital ranking of the top 100 richest Ukrainians with a fortune of $104 million.
According to the SBU, Andrei Klyuev fled Ukraine in 2014. Lawyers indicated the village of Shulgino, Moscow Region of the Russian Federation, as his place of registration. Sergei Klyuev was elected people's deputy in early elections in 2014, but left the country after the parliament in 2015 supported the proposal of the Prosecutor General's Office to lift his parliamentary immunity. Andrey Klyuev tried to take part in the last parliamentary elections in Ukraine, but the Central Election Commission canceled his registration as a candidate for deputy.
It is believed that the first large business of the Klyuev brothers was the Ukrpodshipnik company, registered in the long-suffering city of Bakhmut. As of now, it has already lost its assets, has been declared bankrupt and is in liquidation proceedings.
It is known that the Klyuevs retained control over their assets in occupied Crimea, re-registered them under Russian laws and continue to conduct business. As for the Activ Solar SPP on the mainland of Ukraine, back in 2014, the Chinese state concern CNBM International Corporation received them as compensation for debts for supplied equipment.
Both brothers are now wanted. Sergei Klyuev appears in cases of abuse of power, embezzlement of property, fraud and money laundering. The Security Service of Ukraine suspects Andrey Klyuev of illegally obstructing peaceful protests, abuse of power and misappropriation of property. In 2014, the EU introduced personal sanctions against the brothers, but already in 2018-2019 lifted them - first from Sergei, and then from Andrey. They were also excluded from the Interpol wanted list. To date, Klyuev is only on the US sanctions list (since 2015).
The Klyuev brothers are considered classic oligarchs from Viktor Yanukovych’s inner circle. Their companies received land on preferential terms during his presidency and built power plants with loans from Ukrainian and Russian state banks. The Klyuevs sold electricity to the Ukrainian state at prices five times higher than wholesale prices under a special “green” tariff. In Crimea, at the time of the annexation, Activ Solar of the Klyuyevs managed four solar power plant complexes and was building two more.
Claims to the Klyuevs’ business were made not only by the Ukrainian authorities and state banks, but also by the Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov. As early as May 2014, he called Activ Solar's power plants "fraudulent" and "bogus" and said they had accumulated $300 million in debt to Russian state-owned banks. A year later, the Kommersant publication already wrote about 800 million euros of debt. We were talking about loans that the companies of the Activ Solar group took from Vneshtorgbank and Sberbank through their Ukrainian branches. Aksenov assumed that state banks would take away the SES as part of their loans.
Deutsche Welle wrote in 2017 that the Klyuev companies did not return almost 28 billion hryvnia or $1 billion to Ukrainian state banks (hereinafter, dollar amounts are indicated at average annual rates). The Ukrainian government had to cover the banks' losses from the state budget. Journalists calculated that each Ukrainian taxpayer paid 2 thousand hryvnia for the debts of the Klyuev brothers - approximately $75 at that time.
In 2015, there was an attempt on the life of the then Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin. As the media reported, the killer fired three bullets from a sniper rifle at his office; the armored glass saved the prosecutor general. At a briefing on this matter, former military prosecutor Anatoly Matios hinted at the involvement of the Klyuev brothers in the assassination attempt.
“Opposite the back side of the building where the Prosecutor General’s office is located from Gusovsky Street, there are several premises, one of which belongs to the Ukrpodshipnik corporation. Look who owns this enterprise,” Matios emphasized.
In 2020, the High Anti-Corruption Court arrested Andrei Klyuev in absentia, and already in February 2022, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky deprived him of Ukrainian citizenship.
A little later, the head of the SBU Vasily Malyuk assured that the former Ukrainian politicians who are now hiding in Moscow will not escape responsibility: the “Political Office” of Sivkovich-Klyuev is a real mole farm that helped the Russian Federation conduct intelligence and subversive activities against Ukraine. A nest of traitors that directly cooperates with the FSB.”
In May of this year, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office completed the pre-trial investigation into Klyuev's case of misappropriation and embezzlement of 195 million hryvnia of budget funds.
Despite the proven participation of the “gray cardinal” Yanukovych Klyuev in the plans to create Putin’s puppet government in Ukraine in February 2022 and numerous other criminal offenses, the authorities still will not get their hands on the brothers’ domestic assets, which, obviously, allow them not only to live comfortably in exile, but also to maintain hope of returning to their homeland.
PJSC "NEZHYNSKY FAT FAT PLANT": PEEK FEEDER
One of the main assets of the Klyuev brothers in Ukraine, which still remains unnoticed by law enforcement, is PJSC Nizhyn Fat Plant, one of the largest producers of sunflower oil in the state, which is exported to dozens of countries around the world.
The fat plant, located in the Chernihiv region in the city of Nizhyn, has a full cycle of processing oilseeds - a multicultural oil extraction plant that processes sunflower, rapeseed and soybean seeds. According to Opendatabot, the company’s assets as of 01/01/2023 amount to UAH 1.704 billion.
When the Klyuevs had significant problems with the law in Ukraine, the brothers began to “transfer” their assets to trustees. Thus, PJSC “Nizhyn Fat Plant” in 2020 unexpectedly became the property of a certain Mr. Mikhail Borisovich Goncharenko, who took the position of chairman of the supervisory board of the enterprise and became 100% the beneficial owner of the enterprise.
Mikhail Borisovich Goncharenko is a longtime associate of the Klyuev brothers and their confidant. Thus, the said gentleman was an assistant to the people’s deputy both Andrei Klyuev in the 5th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and his brother Sergei in the 7th convocation.
Mikhail Goncharenko (born February 25, 1974) for a long time held positions in the top management of PJSC Ukrpodshipnik, the founders and owners of which are and are still the Klyuev brothers. From 2006 to 2008, he was the executive director of PJSC “Ukrpodshipnik” of the SLAV AG group of companies (Donetsk region), subsequently he was promoted and from 2009 to 2014 he held the position of general director of “Ukrpodshipnik”.
According to sources from business circles, after 2014, Goncharenko seemed to distance himself from the Klyuevs, but this is refuted by the available indisputable facts: M. B. Goncharenko is a co-owner (15% of shares worth UAH 13.5 million) of AGREX LLC. (USREOU 25602906), which was also created by the Klyuev brothers and are beneficiaries of the activities of this enterprise and currently.
AGREKS LLC, whose deputy director is Mikhail Goncharenko, controls the companies SVATOVSKOE MASLO LLC and Nezhinsky Fat Plant PJSC. One of the founders of SVATOVSKOE MASLO LLC is the same M.B. Goncharenko. But let us return to the current activities of the fat plant.
As you know, the Russian Federation launched a full-scale war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, which led to the severance of all economic and diplomatic ties. Enterprises affiliated with the aggressor state began to look for ways to work with Russian business through intermediaries in the form of international enterprises. Analysis of data from the Importgenius website has established that during 2022-2023, PJSC Nizhyn Fat Plant is a key Ukrainian supplier for the following buyers:
- Viterra BV (Netherlands), which, according to the company’s website, has an operating business in the Russian Federation
- Aves Grup (Turkey), which, according to the company’s website, has a subsidiary in the Russian Federation
- CARGILL INTERNATIONAL SA (USA), which has a subsidiary in the Russian Federation
Considering the volumes of PJSC Nizhyn Fat Plant, interaction with Russian business amounts to billions of hryvnia, despite the fact that the aggressor country kills Ukrainian citizens every day and destroys Ukrainian cities.
But even this is not all, fans of the “Russian world” do not shun anything, have neither shame nor conscience, and even receive a VAT refund from the Ukrainian budget, which is very difficult to do under martial law. Thus, according to telegrams from the DON QUIXOTE channel, which is anonymously conducted by tax officials, dated November 4, 2022, the Nezhinsky Fat Plant received 107,874.3 thousand UAH. VAT refunds automatically (receipt date 10/03/2022).
The same information, but somewhat supplemented, is confirmed by our sources in the tax office, who, on condition of anonymity, provided journalists with tax returns and corresponding transcripts of VAT refunds. According to the table below, the total amount of VAT refund for PJSC Nizhyn Fat Plant for 2022 amounted to UAH 190 million, and from January to April 2023 - more than UAH 150 million. Thus, in less than a year and a half, the fat plant received 340 million hryvnia from the budget!
According to sources in the State Border Guard Service, Mr. Goncharenko, from the beginning of the military aggression, began to export cash worth more than a million US dollars from Ukraine through the Krakovets and Shchegini checkpoints. Evil tongues say that the top manager of the Klyuevs may have permission to permanently reside in Austria, where he allegedly has real estate next to the odious brothers.
Considering the above, we can come to the logical conclusion that the Nizhyn Fat Plant works in the interests of the fugitive oligarchs, the Klyuev brothers, in favor of the food security of citizens (including the military) of the Russian Federation and is registered in the name of their authorized representative Mikhail Borisovich Goncharenko. And all this in the second year of a full-scale and ninth year of Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine.
We call on the SBU and other law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, which are involved in the investigation of the criminal activities of the traitors of Ukraine, the Klyuevs, to pay attention to the activities of the “business” of these “Moscow canned goods”, conduct a thorough check of them and bring the perpetrators to justice. It is possible that it is from the income of this business that the activities of various subversive groups of the FSB in Ukraine are financed, as the head of the SBU Vasily Malyuk directly spoke about. We will monitor developments in this high-profile case.
