Let him “Hertz”! Who was donated by Naftogaz consumers
During the war, the gas supply company Nafogaz Ukrainy, not without the help of the state, significantly increased the number of consumers.
A mysterious company from the street Jewish in Odessa stuck to powerful financial flows.
Until recently, Hertz was little known in the market for servicing utility bills and other payments. But when the Hertz payment system received the exclusive right to be the only one in the Naftogaz client account, almost the whole country found out about it.
For the uninitiated: the gas supply company Naftogaz Ukrainy (a “daughter” of the same Naftogaz) has recently been responsible for providing almost the entire population of Ukraine with blue fuel. Each client of the company anywhere in the country can create a personal account on its website and pay for the supplier's services from there. At some point, the gas supply company withdrew all payment systems from the menu, filling in only the Hertz system, owned by an enterprise of the same name from Odessa. The Commander-in-Chief investigated why this happened.
Gertz LLC: “Money was lying on the road. I picked them…»
Before the full-scale war, Naftogaz's daughter LLC Gas Supply Company Naftogaz of Ukraine served almost 2 million households. After the Cabinet of Ministers took 26 regional gas companies from businessman Dmitry Firtash in May 2022 and handed them over to Naftogaz, the number of households in Naftogaz's portfolio increased to more than 10 million at once.
Sergey Belyaev is now the head of the gas supply company. From the official biography, you can find out that before joining the state-owned company, he worked as the Finance Director of DTEK Krymenergo and worked in senior positions in the Brusnichka retail chain. Both companies are owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
As one of the former top managers of Naftogaz told the Commander-in-Chief, the business model and the system of communication with people were as follows: unlike the Firtash obgas companies, the state-owned company decided to save money – it did not open service centers in the regions. If a person had questions about paying for a service, he either called the hotline, which was always busy, or went to his personal account on the Naftogaz website. In particular, through your personal account, you can track the entire chronology of payment, as well as pay for the gas used. To do this, various payment systems such as EasyPay, Portmone, LiqPay were added to the account.
As of July 2022, 2 million consumers used their personal account.
“We pursued a simple goal: as much competition as possible among payment systems with a low commission rate for gas consumers. In 2021, the Odessa company Hertz came to us and immediately asked for an exclusive right in your personal account. We refused her this, but added it to the general list of payment systems. Even then, Hertz put up a 2% commission on the payment. It was the highest rate among other payment platforms,” recalls the former Naftogaz employee.
According to the manager, about a month and a half ago, the situation suddenly changed. All payment systems disappeared from the personal account of clients, except for the most expensive Hertz. That is, the “exclusive” was managed to be knocked out by the mysterious Odessans. =”Hertz payment” />
Screenshot from the website of the gas supply company Naftogaz of Ukraine
“This is one hundred percent corruption,” concludes the source of the “Commander-in-Chief”. – There is no reasonable explanation for the fact that the leaders of the payment market were thrown out of their personal account, and the company with a high interest rate received privileges. According to my rough calculations, Hertz earned up to UAH 6 million from Naftogaz customers in a month. And maybe more.”
However, on November 8, the situation changed again. Naftogaz removed Hertz from the client's personal account altogether. Its place was taken by the state-owned PrivatBank and Sberbank.
Screenshot from the website of the gas supply company Naftogaz Ukrainy
“Naftogaz saw how people on social networks reacted violently to the Hertz story. Therefore, we decided to put down the hype,” Naftogaz’s ex-manager concludes.
However, Hertz’s appetites are not limited to Naftogaz. As the Commander-in-Chief found out, the company also managed to impose its “exclusive” scheme on several large cities.
Who hit the jackpot?
According to the information of the Youcontrol business search resource, Hertz LLC was registered in December 1999 in Odessa. The current address is Jewish street, 2A. Through the firm “Avers” “Hertz” is run by two residents of Odessa region Gennady Besedovsky and Konstantin Tkach. Until July 2022, Dmitry Nikitin from Odessa was considered another ultimate beneficiary. This is the former deputy chairman of the Odessa Regional Council. According to his cadence, for each payment made by residents of Odessa for utilities, Hertz received 2.4% of the commission, which, according to experts, amounted to UAH 20-30 million per month.
Until July 2022, the former Deputy Chairman of the Odessa Regional Council Dmitry Nikitin was the owner of Hertz
As of November 2022, Hertz has also successfully established itself in the utility and municipal services markets , for example, Kyiv, Khmelnitsky and Lutsk.
In some places, the work of Odessa residents was converted into criminal cases. According to the court register, the National Police is investigating proceedings on the facts of abuse of official position, which entailed grave consequences. As law enforcement officers found out, starting from 2020, a number of municipal enterprises of the capital in invoices for payment for services provided did not indicate to the people of Kiev their details, but Odessa LLC Hertz Financial Company (this company founded Hertz LLC, the owners recorded the same Besedovsky and Weaver). And according to the terms of the law, consumers cannot get the real details of utility companies to pay for the services received directly, according to the materials of the criminal case.
By the way, from September 1 services for its users using the personal account of the company. At least 10 UAH will have to be paid for each receipt.
Screenshot from the Hertz website
But in Khmelnitsky, Hertz holds a monopoly on the introduction of an electronic ticket in public transport. In 2018, local authorities held a competition with one participant, which was won by Hertz Financial Company LLC. There were others who wanted to compete for the lot, in particular, UkrSibbank and Privatbank, but, as noted by a source in the city council, they were simply not allowed.
Residents of Odessa have installed their own fare payment terminals with the appropriate software in Khmelnytsky trolleybuses. 6.75% commission from the sold ticket is accepted for service. It turns out that the utility company “Khmelnitskelectrotrans” gives “Hertz” from UAH 7 to 9 million annually, the source added.
An important detail. When the Odessa “Financial Company Hertz” entered the Khmelnitsky market, Alexander Malin was its representative.
Alexander Malin worked as First Deputy Minister of Infrastructure in the government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk after the Revolution of Dignity
This is the former First Deputy Minister of Infrastructure in the government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk after the Revolution of Dignity. It was also reported that Yatsenyuk and Malin have been friends for a long time. In 2009, Malin became a party member of the prime minister and headed the Odessa Front for Change. Under Yanukovych, Malin was vice-chairman of the Odessa Regional State Administration, for which he fell under lustration. The media published information about the cosmic amounts of bribes that Malin allegedly received while supervising the construction sector in the Odessa region.
In 2015, Malin pushed his longtime business partner Dmitry Nikitin to the post of head of Ukrposhta. The same that had a share in Gerka. That is, it could turn out that Ukrposhta and Hertz could take control of the billions of flows? But it didn't work out.
Another non-random coincidence. On the already mentioned Odessa street Evreiskaya, 2A, Odessa City Map LLC is now registered. The head of the organization is Alexander Malin, and among the co-owners are residents of Odessa Nikitin and Tkach and Besedovsky from Hertz.
In addition, the “hertsovtsy” work very fruitfully with the Volhynians. In particular, at the beginning of the Russian aggression, they won a tender worth UAH 1 million, which was held by the subsidiary “Evoda Trade” of the utility company “Lutskvodokanal”. For this money, the contractor maintains a single database of personal accounts of payers, service providers and a debt base; handles information about consumer debts and accruals.
Let him “Hertz”! Who was donated by Naftogaz consumers
What is interesting: the customer and the contractor from Odessa drew up the specified service agreement in a strange way. In the column “Details of the parties”, the contractor and the customer indicate a subsidiary of Lutskvodokanal. But the seal and signature on the part of the performer were put by the then director of Hertz, Dmitry Nikitin. the post of General Director of State Enterprise Ukrposhta, the Ministry of Infrastructure provoked another scandal
Oleksandr Malin. The regions are rushing to the power of the holding companies of the Ministry of Infrastructure
