Billion-Hryvnia Flows at State Enterprise “Document”: Tkach’s Company “HERTS” Has Been Handling Payments for Years, — Media

Billion-Hryvnia Flows at State Enterprise “Document”: Tkach’s Company “HERTS” Has Been Handling Payments for Years, — Media

LLC Payment Center “HERTS” (and affiliated structures of Kostyantyn Tkach’s group) has for a long time monopolistically handled payments for the services of SE “Document.” This is the migration service enterprise that issues and records citizens’ documents. Its role grew especially with the start of the full-scale war, when a significant number of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homeland.

This is reported by investigators.

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Billion-Hryvnia Flows at State Enterprise “Document”: Tkach’s Company “HERTS” Has Been Handling Payments for Years, — Media

People needed new documents abroad, and they were willing to pay significant sums for legalization. Merchants took advantage of this. There is no official indication anywhere that SE “Document” has a contract with “HERTS.” This becomes known only after submitting an application for a new passport. Citizens are given payment details for a specific payment system, and there are no alternative options. In practice, officials of the state enterprise leave no possibility to choose another payment method.

“HERTS” holds an NBU license for money transfers without opening accounts and acts as a payment intermediary. SE “Document” (an enterprise under the management of the State Migration Service) uses it to receive payments for passport and other administrative services. There is no public text of the contract between the parties available. The existence of a commission is confirmed only by the tariffs on the company’s own website.

Billion-Hryvnia Flows at State Enterprise “Document”: Tkach’s Company “HERTS” Has Been Handling Payments for Years, — Media

Only on the “HERTS” website is the commission for such payments explicitly stated — 3 % + 10 UAH. This is one of the company’s lines of business alongside accepting utility payments, fines, and other services. At the same time, this direction is not reflected in the firm’s general list of services. At the end of 2024 year, commercial director of LLC FC “HERTS” Olena Kyselova noted that one of the company’s key achievements that year was the successful launch of payment acceptance at SE “Document.”

Billion-Hryvnia Flows at State Enterprise “Document”: Tkach’s Company “HERTS” Has Been Handling Payments for Years, — Media

At the same time, Tkach’s companies are toxic for state structures. The State Bureau of Economic Security has repeatedly opened proceedings under Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (tax evasion). The materials feature companies of the “HERTS” group, in particular due to the possible use of fictitious counterparties and the inflation of VAT tax credit. Searches at the group’s office on Yevreiska Street in Odesa were carried out, among other times, in July 2024. The cases have been ongoing since 2021–2022 years.

In 2024 year, the State Audit Service found violations at SE “Document” totaling about 71 million UAH: unjustified bonuses and allowances, payments for unworked time, as well as procurements without proper procedures totaling more than 52 million UAH.

Are there alternatives to such payment intermediaries?

A number of licensed payment services operate on the Ukrainian market that accept payments for services of state and communal enterprises:

– LiqPay (PrivatBank) — one of the largest systems, commission usually amounts to 1,5–2,75 %.– Portmone — has long worked with communal and budget payments.– WayForPay, EasyPay, iPay, NovaPay and others.– Bank apps (Privat24, monobank, Oshchad 24/7 etc.) — often allow payment directly by the enterprise’s account details.

For the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, their own “Payment Hub” has already been implemented. It generates a single payment document with a QR code that can be paid via mobile banking or any other service. The system automatically calculates fee amounts and reduces the risk of errors. So far the hub operates primarily for vehicle registration actions, but it was planned to be expanded to other services.

Regarding SE “Document,” there is no public information about the obligatoriness of specifically “HERTS.” In practice, citizens can often pay to the enterprise’s account details through a bank or other services if such details are provided. At the same time, in many cases the site or the on-site staff offer the integrated intermediary (in this case — “HERTS”) because it is technically more convenient for the enterprise itself.

Given the scale of cash flows (SE “Document” has already provided SMS services for more than 1 billion hryvnias) through a payment intermediary, the existence of lengthy tax investigations into the “HERTS” group, and confirmed corruption violations within SE “Document,” NABU, SBU, DBR and the State Financial Monitoring Service have grounds to thoroughly check the nature of cooperation between the enterprise and the payment company, the terms of contracts, commission volumes, and possible risks of money laundering or abuses.

Tkach, like an octopus, for years sent his tentacles into various state bodies, primarily into the MIA system, extracting the most valuable and turning state flows into private profit.

And here the question is no longer only about Tkach but also about the state itself: has it really been unable over decades to create its own modern payment system?

Why did the state allow a private businessman for years to profit from state cash flows, with the funds, if appropriate evidence exists, ultimately ending up through persons connected to the law enforcement system in offshore jurisdictions?

And most importantly: who ensured the inviolability of this model all these years?