Finale of an “investor” career: an international fraud trail worth 10 million euros follows Tymur Rokhlin from Rocket

Former owner of the delivery service Rocket, Tymur Rokhlin, has found himself at the center of an international case involving a fraud worth 10 million euros. The businessman was arrested in Israel, and Kyiv-linked assets tied to him worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias have been seized.

According to investigators, the money of defrauded Europeans may have been invested in expensive real estate and luxury cars in Ukraine. We republish 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 outlet Posta. The businessman was detained in Israel back on 20 December 2021 while intending 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-scale 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 Tymur Rokhlin was at the head of the scheme, and the sums the fraudsters extracted from “investors” passed through his British company. Ukrainian law enforcement is now pursuing the version that these funds were used to buy VIP cars and real estate in Ukraine.

As part of the investigation, courts have already frozen some Ukrainian assets linked to the businessman — cars and real estate objects. Sanctions did not affect the Rocket delivery service. Recall that in 2019 Rokhlin bought a controlling stake in the collective discount service Pokupon. Forbes wrote that by doing so Rokhlin saved Rocket from “ending up in the startup graveyard.” 100% investor in 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 be hit by turbulence. According to Ain.ua, in December 2021–January 2022 Rocket significantly reduced its Ukrainian staff — more than 50 people. The main reason for this step was allegedly reduced funding from the investor at the end of the year, which surprised management.

How is Tymur Rokhlin linked to Rocket?

In 2019 Tymur became the majority owner of the delivery service, then still called “Raketa.” He bought it from Ukraine’s largest coupon platform Pokupon, Forbes wrote. Minority shareholders became the developers of “Raketa” — Oleksiy Yukhimchuk and Stanislav Dmytryk (each with 7%). Later the ownership structure changed. In April 2020, while the fraud investigation was already underway, and in December assets of Ihor Rokhlin were frozen, Tymur left the company, and the founders Yukhimchuk and Dmytryk exited in August of the same year. Currently the register lists Tisea Fresh Food Ltd as the founder of “Rocket Delivery,” and the ultimate owner is Tymur’s father Ihor Rokhlin.

Rocket told LIGA.net in response to inquiries that Tymur Rokhlin has no relation to the company.

Little is known about the Rokhlins. A Forbes piece from early 2021 states that Ihor Rokhlin graduated from the Baku Institute of Oil and Chemistry and has been an Israeli citizen since 2005. He was mentioned in the media when he served on the board 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, in addition to Rocket, Tymur owned the BeeWorking coworking space, the venture fund BeeVentures, and several IT businesses. He also then owned 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 transfer to German competent authorities of “evidence” in a case about a large international fraud scheme involving investments 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 its victims included residents of Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia and other European countries. As can now be seen from the judicial decisions register, these cars are registered to the Czech company Beryltrans, which is owned by Tymur Rokhlin. Ivan Starosta, senior partner at the law firm Klochkov & Partners, who represented Tymur Rokhlin’s interests in court, did not respond to LIGA.net’s request by the time of publication.

That a Ukrainian appears on the list of persons possibly involved in this case first became publicly known in September 2021 via an article by dev.ua, which cited materials from the court register.

Thanks to the Israeli outlet Posta and the court register data, details of the high-profile case can be learned. In 2017–2020 the organizers of the fraud 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). These pseudo-investment platforms promised clients profits from purported real trades on the stock market in various financial instruments, including binary options, currencies, cryptocurrencies, and so on.

More than 100 IT specialists at various times worked on the software interface for the sites that simulated making buy-sell deals 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 trading platform operators, demanded they pay a service fee and a cash-out commission — 15% of the investment amount. After payment, investors’ accounts were blocked. This allowed the perpetrators to seize about 10 million euros.

According to German investigators, the fraudsters routed the proceeds through a chain of companies with nominee directors and owners. At the end of the chain was RIJV HOLDINGS LTD, which investigators say is linked to Tymur Rokhlin. To date the investigation is aware of 10,8 million euros that passed through this company. Ukrainian investigators noted that RIJV HOLDINGS LTD in 2019 became a founder of several companies into which it injected about 500 million hryvnias.

In December 2020 companies owned by Tymur’s father Ihor Rokhlin were seized in Ukraine: Spectorg, Ukrdonbud, Buildings Empire (which owns the building in Kyiv where Tymur Rokhlin’s BeeWorking coworking operates), Renome Rent (which owns an office center of 11 00 sq. m). In 2021 the seizure on Spectorg and Ukrdonbud was lifted. But at the same time the real estate itself was frozen — several thousand square meters of commercial space in Kyiv.

Ukrainian investigators explain the freezes by saying that part of the money fraudulently obtained from Europeans may have been used to acquire assets in Ukraine. For example, case materials specify that in 2018–2019, as the ultimate beneficiary of Ukrdonbudivnytstvo (now Ihor Rokhlin), Tymur Rokhlin “effectively acquired ownership rights” to a number of real estate objects — nonresidential premises and parking spaces (at the address Sichovykh Striltsiv St., 62), the approximate market value of which is about 214 million hryvnias. In the fall investigators succeeded in freezing these assets. More than 4000 “square meters” were also frozen on Lomonosova Street, where BeeWorking is located. Earlier Forbes wrote, citing Tymur’s lawyers, that the funds and assets of their client mentioned 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 cuts. According to the company, more than 50 people were dismissed, 40% of whom were technical specialists. “Due to market changes and reduced funding, there was a need to change financial plans and seek additional investment,” Rocket said. According to ain.ua, the staff reductions are linked to the service’s investor — Ihor Rokhlin, who stopped funding, which surprised the founders — Oleksiy Yukhimchuk and Stanislav Dmytryk (who continue to work at the company).

Rocket only recently began looking for external financing. “Negotiations with potential investors are currently ongoing, but details will be announced by the company only after agreements are reached,” the Rocket press service said. In a Forbes comment the company added: “...Such news in the information space can negatively affect discussions 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 spending plan for the first half-year has undergone some changes. We also do not plan to launch in new countries in the first half. The priority is to consolidate positions in seven EU countries where Rocket is already present, as well as to expand the grocery delivery segment from stores. At the moment we continue to be competitive and to grow in EU markets, in some of them much faster than competitors,” the press service told LIGA.net.

When asked whether the owner — Ihor Rokhlin — is considering selling the delivery service, the company replied: “We do not comment on a shareholder’s position.”

Rocket is one of Glovo’s main competitors. Over a relatively 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 (restaurants that operate only for delivery) and planned to further develop the network and open more “dark stores,” but due to the cessation of investment had to pause development in these areas.

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 47 million hryvnias.