"Ukraine is a country of opportunities" is the humorous caption of one of the last photos, which shows the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Petro Poroshenko, Yulia Tymoshenko, representatives of the top EU leadership, and Valery Hnatenko, an MP from OPZZH, who supported Novorossiya in 2014 . The author of the signature is indignant that it is possible for a person who supported the separatists to be a deputy in principle and to hold meetings at such a high level. The outrage is quite obvious, but, unfortunately, this situation is not unique.
Journalists learned that one of the leading Ukrainian taxis, to whom volunteer Serhiy Prytula thanks for his patriotism, conducts its financial transactions through a company created by the wife of a henchman of the "DPR" terrorists. It is about Uklon taxis and how imprudently they chose their financial partner.
In the last few weeks, Ukrainian Telegram channels began to actively discuss the topic of taxi work. Here and about how drivers transport passengers during the curfew, winding up the price tag 10 times. And about where the drivers get their passes to travel at night. And about many other "how and why". But among all these messages there are those that relate to settlements between drivers, passengers and the taxi service. In particular, Uklon drivers write that since the spring of last year, all payments and enrollments began to be made through the intermediary company Fondy. Previously, the WayForPay system was used, which, for some reason, the National Bank did not renew the license to provide financial payment services.
According to the NBU, the Fondy payment system, which is registered under the legal entity "FC Alliance" LLC, received a work permit on May 1, 2023 in the status of a payment institution with a license to provide payment services.
"FC Alliance" LLC was established in 2013, and its founder is a native of Donetsk, Valeriya Valeriyivna Vahorovska. This surname is very closely associated with Donetsk region and the events of 2014, when separatists seized power in Donbas.
Valeria Vahorovsky's husband, Volodymyr Vahorovsky, was a minority shareholder of the "Amstor" supermarket chain, which operated in the territory of Donbas. The majority owner was a member of the OPZZH, an active supporter of the "Russian Peace" Vadym Novinsky. In December 2014, Novinsky announced the raiding of "Amstor" by Wahorovsky. According to the investigation, he created a shell clone company to which he transferred all property and finances, "abandoning" Novinsky.
It is important to add that the history of trials for "Amstor" continues to this day. One of the last court decisions was issued in January 2022 in the Vilnius court. It was possible to learn from him that in December 2014, Vahorovsky tried to sell his shares in "Amstor" to the Lithuanian company Topfonda UAB, forging documents with back numbers. What is more, the court decision says that he created a front company for this transaction.
Why is it important to recall this story in the context of Uklon's work with the Fondy payment service? Because the founder of the payment system was too closely associated with the terrorists of the "DPR" and even handled their financial transactions, helping her husband in this.
In August 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine established facts that indicated that the Vahorovsky family financed the terrorists of the so-called "DNR". In particular, they handed over products and vehicles to combat units of the "Kalmius" battalion. And in order to continue the activities of the "Amstor" stores they seized, the Wahorovskis created a legal entity that paid taxes to the "DPR" terrorists.
In 2017, the SBU reported that it suspected Volodymyr Vahorovsky of financing terrorism. "In the course of clandestine investigative activities, the SBU established that only in July-October 2015, Amstor stores in the occupied territory transferred 36.8 million rubles or about 0.6 million dollars at the exchange rate of 2015 to the budget of the DNR" - it is said in the message of the special service.
Vahorovsky's wife Valeria, then still with the surname Bondarenko, was also not aloof from financing terrorists. According to media reports, she, together with other employees of the captured Amstor, created the "Single Wallet W1" payment system, which was used to make payments from Ukraine to the DPR on the one hand, and from the DPR to the Russian Federation on the other.
Thus, in 2015, Bondarenko Valeriya Valeryivna was the founder of the company "Almost Software" LLC together with other employees of "Amstor". At the same time, in December 2013, another company related to electronic funds transfers moved to Donetsk - "Payment Technologies" LLC. One of its founders was Denys Stanislavovych Glinchevskyi. He also managed Yediny Hamanets LLC, which had Donetsk registration from 2013 to 2015. Another company operated at the same address in Donetsk - "Digital Payment Systems" LLC, which was headed by the same Denys Glinchevskyi in 2015. All these companies were associated with the fact that they were used to make payments through the "Single Wallet W1".
Valeria Bondarenko-Vagorovska has a historical connection with both "Payment Technologies" and "Almost Software", so it is safe to say that she is involved in the use of these systems by terrorist organizations.
In order to prove that these are not empty accusations, it is worth paying attention to the decision of the Court of Appeal of the Dnipropetrovsk region from April 1, 2015: "The conducted pre-trial investigation has established that from September 2014 to the present, officials of LLC "Digital Payment Systems" (YEDRPOU 36859032) , legal address: Donetsk, st. Shevchenko, 41d, acting on a prior conspiracy by a group of persons, organized an illegal financial scheme aimed at financing terrorism, namely: using the company's current accounts opened at PJSC KB "PrivatBank", they organized the collection of funds for further use by representatives of the "Humanitarian Battalion" Novorossia » under the guise of the "Person_2 Charitable Fund" for the purchase of weapons, uniforms, unmanned aerial vehicles, food and other material support for members of terrorist groups (organizations) operating in the territory of Donetsk region. In particular, it was established that financial assistance for the needs of illegal armed formations, which carry out forceful confrontation with Ukrainian military formations in the territory of the anti-terrorist operation zone, comes from individuals and legal entities, in the form of charitable donations for targeted support of the activities of the specified funds. At the same time, from the materials of the proceedings, it can be seen that the accumulation of non-cash funds for the purpose of their conversion and subsequent transfer to the territory of the Russian Federation is carried out using accumulative and transit bank current accounts, including #26003001014280, which is opened at PJSC Radykal Bank (MFI 319111) LLC "Prime Monitoring" (YEDRPOU 38958522)"".
Valeria Vahorovska now positions herself almost as a financial genius, whose payment service Fondy works in many countries of the world, and its clients are the largest companies. So, for example, on the Ukrainian Fondy website it is indicated that they serve the already mentioned Uklon, Nova Poshta, Sport Life, Glovo, etc. But nothing is said about the fact that before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the Fondy company worked in Russia without any remorse, despite the annexed Crimea and separatist actions in Donbas. The office in Moscow was happy to have Russian clients, despite what has been happening since 2014 in Valeria Vahorovskaya's native Donetsk.
However, as mentioned above, the arrival of terrorists in the Ukrainian Donbas did not upset the Vahorovsky family at all. And apparently, it is not disappointing even now, because until 2018, Bondarenko Nina Mykolaivna was listed among the founders of LLC "Foxvipayment" from Donetsk. This woman has the same Donetsk residence permit as Valeriya Bondarenko-Vagorovskaya. She may possibly be the mother of the founder of Fondy.
Well, in the end, a person with the same registration and the same first and last name - Valeriya Bondarenko until October 2021 headed the company "Regional Investment Agency" LLC, which now continues to operate in occupied Donetsk.
It turns out that a person who is rightfully suspected of ties to terrorists, in the second year of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, calmly receives a license from the NBU to conduct business related to payment systems, connects the largest Ukrainian companies to them, and there are no questions asked. from the SBU, nor from other law enforcement agencies.
This month, Valeriya Vahorovska's Fondy company must undergo an audit by the Tax Service. Such data are contained in open registers. But the question of the company manager's connections with terrorists still remains open.
On the other hand, there are no less questions about the Uklon taxi service, which chose a company whose founder has such a tarnished reputation as its financial partner. On the one hand, Uklon, together with charitable foundations, call themselves patriots and volunteers. On the other hand, the company makes financial payments through the service of a person who served the top of the DNR, paid taxes to a quasi-state entity and stopped working for Russia only after a full-scale invasion. Shouldn't Uklon's recklessness also interest law enforcement? Not to mention that the police should finally open their eyes to violations by taxi drivers during the curfew.
