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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Former owner of the delivery service Rocket, Tymur Rokhlin, has become the center of an international case involving a scam of 10 million euros. The businessman was arrested in Israel, and Kyiv-linked assets related to him worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias were seized.
According to the investigation, the money taken from defrauded Europeans may have been invested in expensive real estate and luxury cars in Ukraine. We are republishing this piece to remind readers of the criminal trail connected to Tymur Rokhlin.
Tymur Rokhlin, former co-owner of the Ukrainian delivery service Rocket, has been arrested. dou.ua reported this citing the Israeli publication Posta. The businessman was detained in Israel back in 20 December 2021 when he intended to fly to Kyiv.
The arrest and Germany’s extradition request are the result of a two-year investigation by competent authorities in Germany and Ukraine into a large fraud that affected about 400 Europeans. According to the investigation, in 2017—2020 they invested roughly 10 million euros in financial products that do not exist. German investigators claim that Tymur Rokhlin was at the helm of the scheme, and the sums that the fraudsters extracted from “investors” passed through his British company. Ukrainian law enforcement is now examining the possibility that these funds were used to buy VIP cars and real estate in Ukraine.
As part of the investigation, courts have already imposed seizures on some Ukrainian assets linked to the businessman — cars, real estate objects. The sanctions did not touch the Rocket delivery service. Recall that in 2019 Tymur Rokhlin bought a controlling stake in the collective-discounts service Pokupon. Forbes wrote that by doing so Rokhlin saved Rocket from “ending up in the startup graveyard.” 100% investor of Rocket now is Tymur’s father — Israeli citizen Ihor Rokhlin. The son ceded his position to his father in 2020, when the Bamberg public prosecutor’s office in Germany was already conducting its investigation.
However, Rocket did begin to experience turbulence. According to Ain.ua, in December 2021 — January 2022 Rocket significantly reduced its staff in Ukraine — more than 50 people. The main reason given for this step was allegedly reduced funding from the investor at the end of the year, which surprised management.
How is Tymur Rokhlin connected to Rocket?
In 2019 Tymur became the majority owner of the delivery service, which at the time was still called “Raketa.” He bought it from Ukraine’s largest coupon platform Pokupon, Forbes wrote. Minority shareholders became the Rocket developers — Oleksii Yukhymchuk and Stanislav Dmytryk (holding 7%). Later the ownership structure changed. In April 2020, an investigation into fraud was already underway, and in December assets of Ihor Rokhlin were seized; Tymur left the company, and founders Yukhymchuk and Dmytryk left in August of the same year. Currently, the registry lists the founder of “Rocket Delivery” as the company Tisea Fresh Food Ltd, and the ultimate owner as Tymur’s father, Ihor Rokhlin.
Rocket replied to LIGA.net’s inquiry that Tymur Rokhlin has no relation to the company.
Little is known about the Rokhlin family. A Forbes piece from early 2021 says that Ihor Rokhlin graduated from the Baku Institute of Oil and Chemistry and has been an Israeli citizen since 2005. He appeared in media coverage when he was a board member of the Romanian refinery RAFO Onesti, which was sold in 2006 to Russian businessman Yakov Goldovsky, who later resold it to Moldovan businessmen.
Tymur Rokhlin, a citizen of Ukraine and Israel, graduated from Rotterdam School of Management. He moved to Ukraine several years ago. Forbes notes that at the beginning of 2021, besides Rocket, Tymur owned the coworking BeeWorking, the venture fund BeeVentures and several IT businesses. He also owned at the time a car fleet that included a Rolls-Royce Wraith worth approximately $500 000.
What was Rokhlin arrested for?
In mid-November, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova posted photos on her Facebook page of two cars — a Lamborghini Aventador SJV and a Rolls-Royce Phantom — with a combined value of over 1 million euros. At Boryspil airport they were being loaded into the hold of an An-12 before being sent to Germany. The prosecutor general clarified that the photos show the handover to German competent authorities of “evidence” in the case of a large international fraudulent scheme related to investing in financial products that do not exist.
Venediktova did not name the owner of the cars, only noting that the fraudulent scheme was organized by Ukrainian citizens and that victims included residents of Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia and other European countries. As can now be seen from the court registry, these cars are registered to the Czech company Beryltrans, which is owned by Tymur Rokhlin. Senior partner of the law firm Klochkov and Partners, Ivan Starosta, who represented Tymur Rokhlin’s interests in court, had not responded to LIGA.net’s request at the time of publication.
That a Ukrainian is possibly on the list of persons involved in the case first became publicly known in September 2021 from an article by dev.ua, which cited materials from the court registry.
Thanks to the article in the Israeli publication Posta and court registry data, details of the high-profile case can be learned. In 2017—2020 the organizers of the scam created several websites and trading platforms that simulated stock market activity: Trade Capital (www.tradecapital.com); Fibonetix (www.fibonetix.com), Nobel Trade (www.nobeltrade.com), Forbslab (www.forbslab.com), Huludox (www.huludox.com). The pseudo-investment platforms promised clients profits from alleged real trading on the stock market in various financial instruments, including binary options, currencies, cryptocurrencies, and more.
Over time more than 100 IT specialists worked on the software interface for the sites that simulated deal-making and “growth of returns on invested funds.” Several “call centers” in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Serbia “helped” and “advised” clients.
When investors tried to cash out their investments, the fraudsters, posing as operators of the trading platforms, demanded that they pay a service fee and a cash-out commission — 15% of the investment sum. After payment the investors’ accounts were blocked. In this way the participants managed to appropriate approximately 10 million euros.
According to German investigators, the fraudsters channeled the obtained sums through a number of companies with nominal directors and owners. At the end of the chain was the company RIJV HOLDINGS LTD, which investigators say is linked to Tymur Rokhlin. To date the investigation knows of 10,8 million euros that passed through this company. Ukrainian investigators indicated that RIJV HOLDINGS LTD in 2019 became the founder of a number of companies into which it injected about 500 million hryvnias.
In December 2020 companies belonging to Tymur’s father, Ihor Rokhlin, were seized in Ukraine: Spectorg, Ukrdonbud, Buildings Empire (owner of the building in Kyiv that houses Tymur Rokhlin’s BeeWorking coworking), Renome Rent (owner of an office center of 11 00 sq. m). The seizure on Spectorg and Ukrdonbud was lifted in 2021. But at the same time seizures were imposed on the real estate itself — several thousand square meters of commercial space in Kyiv.
Ukrainian investigators explain the seizures by saying that part of the money fraudulently obtained from Europeans may have been directed to acquiring assets in Ukraine. Case materials, for example, state that in 2018—2019 Tymur Rokhlin, as the ultimate beneficiary of Ukrdonbudivnytstvo (now the beneficiary is his father Ihor Rokhlin), “effectively acquired ownership rights” to a number of real estate objects — non-residential premises and parking spaces (at Sichovykh Striltsiv St., 62), the estimated market value of which is about 214 million hryvnias. In the fall investigators secured seizures of these assets. Another over 4000 “square meters” were seized on Lomonosova Street, where Beecoworking is located. Earlier Forbes wrote, citing Tymur’s lawyers, that the funds and assets of their client featured in the investigation were obtained legally.
Sanctions against the Rokhlin father and son did not affect the Rocket delivery service.
What will happen to Rocket?
From December last year to January this year Rocket underwent staff reductions. According to the company, more than 50 people were dismissed, 40% of them technical specialists. “Due to market changes and reduced funding there was a need to revise financial plans and seek additional investments,” Rocket said. According to ain.ua, the staff cuts are linked to the service’s investor — Ihor Rokhlin, who stopped funding, which surprised the founders — Oleksii Yukhymchuk and Stanislav Dmytryk (who continue to work at the company).
Rocket only recently began seeking external financing. “Negotiation processes with potential investors are currently underway, but details will be announced by the company only after agreements are reached,” the Rocket press service said. In a comment to Forbes the company clarified: “...Such news in the information space can negatively affect communications with funds.”
Rocket’s market positions in Ukraine are stable; market share continues to grow, as do the number of orders and new partners, the press service says. “In 2022 we plan to improve unit economics, delivery speed and other business economic indicators, although the first-half spending plan has undergone certain changes. We also do not plan to launch in new countries in the first half. The priority is consolidating positions in seven EU countries where Rocket is already present, as well as expanding the grocery delivery segment. Currently we remain competitive and grow in EU markets, in some of them much faster than competitors,” LIGA.net was told by the press service.
When asked whether the owner — Ihor Rokhlin — is considering selling the delivery service, the company replied: “We do not comment on the shareholder’s position.”
Rocket is one of Glovo’s main competitors. Over a fairly short period — since aggressive investing began in 2019 — the company expanded beyond Dnipro and now operates in 31 cities of Ukraine. The service also entered foreign markets and now operates in the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Spain, Hungary and Cyprus. The company opened five dark kitchens in Ukraine and planned to further develop the network and open more dark stores, but due to the cessation of investment had to put development of these areas on pause.
A former employee told ain.ua that the company is now self-sustaining — it can only spend what it earns. For three quarters of 2021 the company’s revenue was 153 million hryvnias, and the loss was over 68 million hryvnias, Forbes reports citing SPARK-Interfax. For comparison, in 2020 the service’s revenue was 157 million hryvnias, and the loss was 47 million hryvnias.
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