How open data visualisation can uncover the operations of foreign businesses and their ownership structures

“Tools based on open data enable the detection of potential red flags, facilitate well-informed decisions, support strategic adjustments, and ultimately contribute to building a global culture of corporate integrity. Ukrainian-developed solutions are particularly valuable in this regard, as they combine expertise, creativity, and technological strength,” notes Natalya Chornogub, Compliance and Government Relations expert at YouControl. — At YouControl, our mission is to analyse, visualise, and reveal connections so that anyone can clearly understand what lies behind corporate or political structures. The YC World platform empowers users to investigate links, expose illicit financial networks, and harness open data in a format tailored to the needs of analysts, journalists, legal professionals, and investigators.”

The automation of connection mapping substantially reduces the time required for analysing complex investigations, enabling users to concentrate on interpreting the findings. As reported by Prague Monitor, "Czech Police Prosecute a Russian Citizen for Violating International Sanctions" (dated 07.08.2023), Czech authorities initiated criminal proceedings against Russian citizen Dmitry Kalantyrsky, suspected of facilitating financial transfers to sanctioned Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg. 

A verification of Arkady Rotenberg and Dmitry Kalantyrsky in YC World, using the Find connections feature, revealed 50 interlinked associations. The visualisation demonstrated Rotenberg’s connections to Kalantyrsky through multiple corporate entities. One such entity, PSB INSURANCE, registered in Moscow in 2003, belonged to the “Rotenberg Brothers Group,” where Arkady and Boris Rotenberg were central figures. The group’s operations span various sectors, including construction (Mostotrest PJSC), transportation (TPS Avia), and chemicals (Minudobrenia JSC). Additionally, both Rotenberg and Kalantyrsky are linked to SMP Bank JSC, founded in Moscow in 2001 and reorganised in 2009 as Aktsionerne tovarystvo Bank “Pivnichnyi morskyi shliakh”. This bank is subject to sanctions imposed by Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Ukraine. 

To streamline risk identification, the system automatically highlights Rotenberg’s associations with sanctioned jurisdictions, PEPs, and entities on sanctions lists, using distinct colour codes.

Arkady Rotenberg is further associated with a range of foreign-capital companies, including Lucasnel S.A. in Luxembourg, EFLEN CONSTRUCTIONS LIMITED, YERISTEN INVESTMENTS LIMITED in Cyprus, and Eurotube GmbH in Germany. 

An expanded search also uncovers Rotenberg’s connection to a luxury yacht. As reported by the Center of Journalistic Investigations in its article “Arkady Rotenberg Acquired the Stolen Port of Yalta with Piers from Cape Kikineiz to Cape Meganom” (dated 05.08.2025), Rotenberg is identified as the owner of the yacht Rahil. The vessel has been subject to sanctions since 2014 and has remained confined to the Black Sea. 

YC World additionally provides the functionality to build investigative projects that integrate both internal system data and user-sourced materials. Finalised investigations can be saved or exported. The platform’s newly introduced Data Extractor feature further enhances this process by converting text, web pages, files, or videos into structured analytical graphs. The system automatically detects referenced entities, cross-references them within its database, establishes links based on the information supplied, and delivers a fully developed project ready for investigative use.

YC World, previously known as RuAssets, was established in 2022 to track Russian assets. Thanks to YouControl products, including YC World, law enforcement agencies and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) have successfully frozen and confiscated over $1 billion in Russian assets.

YC World is an international platform that provides advanced tools for visualising and analysing corporate networks, supporting comprehensive investigations and informed business decision-making. The platform integrates information on 127 million individuals and 130 million companies, aggregated from more than 300 data sources spanning 77 countries. It enables verification of ultimate beneficial ownership, identification of connections to politically exposed persons, detection of sanctions, and discovery of further relationships via property and financial accounts across a database of more than 236 million mapped links. This solution is part of the analytical toolkit developed by the Ukrainian IT company YouControl.