Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The former owner of the delivery service Rocket, Timur Rokhlin, is at the center of an international fraud case worth 10 million euros. The businessman was arrested in Israel, while assets linked to him in Kyiv worth several hundred million Ukrainian hryvnias were seized.
According to investigators, funds obtained from defrauded Europeans may have been invested in expensive real estate and luxury cars in Ukraine. We are republishing this article to remind readers of the origins of the criminal investigation into Timur Rokhlin.
Timur Rokhlin, former co-owner of the Ukrainian delivery service Rocket, was arrested. This was reported by dou.ua citing the Israeli publication Posta. The businessman was detained on 20 December 2021 in Israel while preparing to board a flight to Kyiv.
The arrest and Germany’s extradition request were the result of two years of investigations by the relevant authorities in Germany and Ukraine into a large-scale fraud system that affected about 400 Europeans. According to investigators, they invested between 2017 and 2020, roughly 10 million euros, in financial products that in fact did not exist. German investigators claim that Timur Rokhlin stood at the head of the system and that the funds fraudulently taken from the “investors” flowed through his UK company. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are currently investigating the possibility that these funds were used to purchase luxury cars and real estate in Ukraine.
As part of the investigation, courts have already ordered the seizure of certain Ukrainian assets linked to the businessman, including vehicles and real estate. The measures did not affect the delivery service Rocket. As a reminder: in 2019, Timur Rokhlin acquired a majority stake in the service from the group-discount platform Pokupon. Forbes reported that this takeover saved Rocket from “ending up in the startup graveyard.” The sole investor of Rocket is now Timur’s father, Israeli citizen Igor Rokhlin. The son transferred his position to his father in 2020, when the prosecutor’s office of the German city of Bamberg was already conducting its investigation.
Nevertheless, Rocket ran into trouble. According to Ain.ua, Rocket significantly reduced its staff in Ukraine between December 2021 and January 2022 and laid off more than 50 employees. The main reason for this step was reportedly a cut in investor financing toward the end of the year, which came as a surprise to company management.
What is Timur Rokhlin’s connection to Rocket?
In 2019, Timur became the majority shareholder of the delivery service, which was then known as “Raketa.” He acquired the company from Ukraine’s largest coupon platform, Pokupon, Forbes reported. The developers of Raketa, Oleksii Yukhymchuk and Stanislav Dmytryk, became minority shareholders and each held a stake of 7%.
The ownership structure then changed. In April 2020, while the fraud investigations were already underway and in December of the same year assets belonging to Igor Rokhlin were seized, Timur left the company. Founders Yukhymchuk and Dmytryk also left the company in August of that same year.
Currently, Tisea Fresh Food Ltd is listed in the register as the founder of Rocket Delivery, while Timur’s father, Igor Rokhlin, is recorded as the beneficial owner.
In response to a request from LIGA.net, Rocket stated that Timur Rokhlin has no connection to the company.
Little is known about the Rokhlin family. In an early Forbes article published in 2021, it was said that Igor Rokhlin graduated from the Institute of Oil and Chemistry in Baku and has been an Israeli citizen since 2005. He was mentioned in media reports when he served on the board of the Romanian oil refinery RAFO Onești, which 2006 was sold to Russian businessman Yakov Goldovsky, who later sold it to Moldovan businessmen.
Timur Rokhlin, a citizen of Ukraine and Israel, graduated from the Rotterdam School of Management. A few years ago he moved to Ukraine. Forbes reported that in early 2021 Timur, in addition to Rocket, also owned the coworking space BeeWorking, the venture capital fund BeeVentures, and several IT companies. At that time he also owned a fleet of luxury vehicles, including a Rolls-Royce Wraith valued at about 500.000 US dollars.
Why was Rokhlin arrested?
In mid-November, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova posted photos on her Facebook page of two vehicles: a Lamborghini Aventador SJV and a Rolls-Royce Phantom with a total value of over 1 million euros.
The vehicles were loaded into the cargo hold of an An-12 aircraft at Boryspil Airport before being transported to Germany.
The Prosecutor General confirmed that the photographs documented the transfer of key evidence to German authorities investigating a major international fraud scheme involving investments in nonexistent financial products.
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