Rooting out information about people and companies is Sergi Milman’s business: His online website youcontrol.com.ua helps its users monitor financial reports, connections between various businesses and their owners, and court decisions.
The website gathers information from 16 state registers, automatically compiling it into tailor-made reports. Once users request a report, it takes only about a minute for it to be prepared and delivered. On top of that, users can order round-the-clock monitoring.
The business became possible after the government approved laws on open data and open registers in October, which significantly increased access to information. The new legislation opened up registers of private entrepreneurs, companies, real estate, land, court decisions, tax debts, and beneficial owners.
Improving conditions
But gathering together all that information is a task in itself. To simplify the process, Milman launched You Control in 2014. Today, the company employs 35 people, and Milman has plans to expand.
While access to the website for a year costs Hr 25,000, users can make 10 requests for free during a trial period. Plus, Milman allows investigative journalists to use the website free of charge in exchange for advertising. “It’s not a gift, because when you reveal corruption, you improve business conditions,” Milman said of his cooperation with the media.
Milman said his website helps fight against corruption, promote transparency in business, and improve Ukraine’s investment environment. “Today, Ukraine is a sort of a black box, in which nothing can be seen and where everyone is backstabbing,” Milman said.
But not everyone is happy with the fact that the information about them and their business can now easily be found online. “Occasionally, people call and ask: Why are you doing this? Could you stop it, maybe? Perhaps, if we gave you some money?” Milman said.
But not all of the calls have been as innocent-sounding. YouControl has had at least five calls in which staff were threatened with legal action or even violence, according to Milman. So far, the threats have come to nothing.
“Not everyone offers money, only the nice ones,” Milman joked. “The others just make threats.”
So far, the search engine is only available in the Ukrainian language. However, Milman said it was his company’s top priority to translate the service by the end of 2016 in order to “make this information available to business partners, as it clearly accelerates business processes and the signing of new contracts.”
What YouControl does
The website allows users to search for an individual entrepreneur or a private company. To order a file on a person, the generator requires the private number of a taxpayer. While looking for a private enterprise, it can search by its name or by its EDRPOU number – a unique state registration number (EDRPOU is the Ukrainian acronym for the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations of Ukraine).
After that, Youcontrol generates a file within one minute. However, reading the file can take hours, as it often includes a history of the company, its financial history, types of activity, renaming of the enterprise, staff changes, and tax debts since 2000.
When clicking on a beneficial owner’s name, the website shows all of the businesses linked to this person.
Moreover, the search engine also goes through the records of court decisions. For instance, the Kyiv-based Leninska Kuznia ship building plant – which belongs to President Petro Poroshenko – has been involved in 318 court rulings since 1996.
Combining the results from different registers is one of the strengths of the system. According to Milman, there is a two-week lag while the state register of companies processes information on a bankruptcy ruling from a court. That means the company register might indicate that an enterprise is active, while in fact it is already undergoing liquidation. To cover such lags, YouControl shows results from both registers — the state register of private enterprises and that of court decisions — so users can always see the bigger picture.
“Due to the fact that we combine a lot (of registers), we can notice some danger or evidence of insider information earlier than others can,” Milman said. “(Most) people don’t check 20 resources every day.”
In addition, the website offers day-and-night monitoring of 1,000 contractors. A client gets a report on his e-mail that notes any changes at the supervised contractor. “It is like you’re taking the pulse of any contractor and… (feeling) any changes,” Milman said.
Political connections
Milman and his team are now working on enhancing the website. The company is trying to raise financing for another service that will show the connections of business people to politics, and their areas of interest.
“That’s the point about there being a conflict of business interests – if someone works at a high position and uses it for personal or family enrichment. It’s a conflict of interest that (politicians) do not mention,” Milman said, adding that the search engine would help citizens make informed choices about politicians at elections.
However, such requests for information on a person will not be automatically researched, and may take a week to compile, Milman said.
Winning clients
Since its opening in 2014, YouControl has won 200 clients – mostly mid-sized and large businesses. Some clients want to monitor their competitors or contractors, while others want to investigate corruption. Clients include the National Bank of Ukraine, Ciklum IT company, agro-holdings, and industrial companies.
Anton Yeliseyev, a lawyer at Sante Alco alcohol distributing company, has been using YouControl for six months. Through its website, he monitors potential contractors – cafes, bars, restaurants, and shops.
He said that before using the website he spent up to 20 minutes checking up on partners directly in the registers, while now it takes him only 5 minutes.
After the beneficial owner register was opened up in September, YouControl added this feature to its service. Yeliseyev said that this helps users work out the connections between companies. “It helps to understand whether has been company launched with serious intentions,” he said. For instance, one of his potential partners was doing business in the building sector, what has nothing to do with the alcohol trade.
Any criminal proceedings ongoing against a company are highlighted in red on YouControl. “And for us, that’s an immediate danger signal, although the (state) register of companies alone might show no evidence of risk.”
DIY register searches
While YouControl takes information from open registers and generates it reports automatically, it’s also possible for anyone to do the same “manually” by accessing individual registers online, although it takes a great deal more time.
Access to most of the registers is free of charge via links at the Justice Ministry website
The Unified State Register, which can be accessed from the ministry’s website, gives users assess to a listing of private entrepreneurs, companies, and civil organizations.
