Rokhlin-Kozlenko case. An investor of the Rocket service is accused of a grandiose fraud

German law enforcement agencies are investigating one of the largest frauds in Europe involving pseudo-investment platforms. The losses are estimated to be in tens of millions of euros.

Among those possibly involved, as listed by the Bamberg city prosecutor’s office, are citizens of Ukraine and Israel, according to an article on the Dev.ua website.

Among them is Tymur Rokhlin, who invested in the well-known Rocket food delivery service in 2019. According to the Ukrainian investigation, a British company controlled by Tymur received €10.8 million, which was income from fraudulent activities. Some assets allegedly connected to Tymur were seized at the end of 2020. Recently, some lawyers managed to lift the seizure. They are confident that all their client’s funds were acquired legally.

The Beginning

At the end of March 2021, the General Prosecutor’s Office announced that two Kyiv residents were detained as suspects, supposedly participants in an international fraud scheme. The suspects could only be released from the detention center on bail — 325 million UAH.

The Essence of the Case

The pre-trial investigation began at the request of the prosecutor’s office of the German city of Bamberg as part of the cooperation between Ukrainian law enforcement and Eurojust and Europol. According to the investigation, an organized group of citizens from Ukraine and other countries carried out the fraud from 2017 to 2020. Allegedly, they extracted money from citizens of European countries by inviting them to invest through special websites in buying and selling bank metals, foreign currencies, cryptocurrencies, securities, and other assets. Investors were promised a return on their investments by 100 times or more.

When people wanted to cash out their investments, operators of fraudulent call centers would call them, posing as representatives of trading platforms and demand service charges and commission fees for cash withdrawals, an additional 15% of the sum. After payment, the investors’ accounts were blocked, and the funds in them were appropriated by the fraud scheme’s organizers.

The documented amount of losses from the fraud scheme amounted to €9 million. The German newspaper Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that about 400 people, citizens of European countries, victims of the fraud, contacted the police.

The estimated monthly turnover of the fraud scheme, according to the investigation, was from €8 to €10 million. Most of the victims are citizens of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

During searches in Ukraine, documents and three cars were seized from the suspects. Photos of the operatives were attached to the announcement. The moment of arrest of two people was captured. Faces are blurred. One of them stands near a Toyota Rav 4, in a field, in boots, ankle-deep in mud.

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Suspect

The same announcement from the Prosecutor General’s Office refers to recent events. It turns out that the first series of searches in this case took place three months earlier, in December 2020. At that time, law enforcement agencies seized a fleet of 8 luxury-class cars: Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Mercedes Benz, and other well-known brands.

Before the New Year, the Prosecutor’s Office posted a video on its YouTube channel showing these cars parked in the garage of an estate with a domed roof.

“By the way, all the cars taken by the police belong to a Ukrainian, whom international experts consider the main player,” wrote the German SZ.

The total value of the seized property is €50 million.

The announcements did not specify who owned the luxury car fleet. The names of the two detainees were not disclosed. But a few months later, the names surfaced themselves.

Ihor Kozlenko

A few months later, some things were clarified by the suspects’ own lawyers. In April, a post appeared on the Facebook page of the law firm Miller. It stated that the company defends the interests of its client, Ihor Kozlenko.

The lawyers referred to the March announcement from the prosecutor’s office.

“Our client was accused of money laundering with criminal proceeds. The basis was the acquisition of a car (Toyota Rav 4) in a mortgage, an apartment (57 meters), and a land plot. The cumulative value of this property is almost a hundred times lower than the alleged damage of 325 million,” the post states.

A little later, in May 2021, a Facebook page “Justice for Ihor Kozlenko” appeared, run by Ihor’s wife. As she wrote, the family earned their property through honest work.

The wife published the details of her husband’s arrest: “In March 2021, my husband was returning from Kherson (where he was with me because I was on a business trip abroad) to Kyiv. That day, I was finishing my business abroad. Operatives grabbed him in the field, in the mud (where he got stuck because he was returning quickly, knowing that a second search took place at our home without us).”

But the most important thing is that she immediately published a screenshot of the title page of the Bamberg prosecutor’s request in her first post. The latter asks Ukrainian law enforcement to conduct further investigation on a group of individuals. Among them is the second suspect who was taken into custody in March, Yuriy Kopachevskyi, as well as others possibly related to the case: Andriy Kurochkin (a citizen of Ukraine), and three citizens of Israel: Michael Chebotar, Maxim Baranovsky-Rafael, and Tymur Rokhlin.

Ihor Kozlenko is not among them.

The editorial office sent a request with clarifying questions to Miller. But received a response that the law firm does not provide comments on their client’s case. Ihor’s wife also refused to disclose any details publicly.

The request was also sent to the Bamberg prosecutor’s office. The response came from senior prosecutor Thomas Hoger: “Unfortunately, at this stage, I cannot disclose any information due to the ongoing investigation.”

A Dead End? Actually, No

If the investigation in Ukraine managed to arrest the property, then in any case, there must be clues in the registry of court decisions. And this time, it turned out that way.

As it turned out, as part of assisting the German pre-trial investigation, the property of several companies and individuals was seized in Ukraine. According to the investigation, those involved in the case are related to them. All arrests are connected through one criminal proceeding number 62020100000000583.

In particular, Ihor Kozlenko tried to appeal the seizure placed on the land plot mentioned earlier. But in July 2021, he received a refusal. An appeal related to the seized car also resulted in a refusal. The apartment was not exempted from the seizure either.

What role did Kozlenko play in the fraud scheme according to the Ukrainian investigation?

Approximately from the second half of 2016, he sought out and engaged Ukrainian citizens who, in exchange for financial compensation, provided their personal data. Subsequently, allegedly on behalf of Kozlenko, these people repeatedly traveled to the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and other countries, where, acting on his instructions, they registered legal entities. These entities would supposedly accumulate the victims’ funds from the fraud.

Here is a list of companies mentioned in the investigation: PETRAMKO HOLDING OU (Estonia), DATA MANAGEMENT EOOD (Bulgaria), E-VATCH TECHNOLOGIES SRO (Czech Republic), X-LIGHT MARKETING O.O. (Estonia), WDI MEDIA MARKETING S.R.O. (Czech Republic), MAGNETS DIGITAL S.R.O.” (Czech Republic), MOONFOCUS CONSULTING S.R.O. (Czech Republic), VOLCANO MAX SOLUTIONS S.R.O. (Czech Republic).

Alternative sources indicate that indeed in the last company, Ihor was listed as an official from 2017 to 2018. The company was then registered to another Ukrainian.

Why is the bail amount so large — 325 million UAH? Allegedly, that’s exactly how much was stolen from Europeans through websites and fake trading platforms like Tradecapita, Fibonetix, NobelTrade, Forbslab, Huludox, created with the participation of Ukrainians.

Ihor Kozlenko is currently in custody. His lawyers initially chose a defence tactic with an emphasis on publicity on Facebook. But so far, this has not brought the desired result.

At the beginning of August, Kozlenko’s wife published a screenshot of a fresh response from the Bamberg prosecutor’s office, stating that supposedly Ihor is not suspected in the German investigations.

“Catching a guy who was involved in registering companies, which were then unscrupulously used by others, is much easier,” was written on the Facebook page where the wife maintains a blog supporting her husband.

Yuriy Kopachevskyi

This is the second person detained by law enforcement in March 2021.

According to the Ukrainian investigation, Yuriy coordinated the activities of the criminal scheme and was responsible for the financial direction. He managed accounts, cash withdrawals, and deposits, and paid for server rentals and telecommunications services.

In the materials of the Ukrainian investigation, it is stated that law enforcement agencies in Europe conducted searches in April 2020 at call centers located in Serbia and Bulgaria. Their operators communicated with the victims, persuading them to “invest.”

9 people were detained at that time. As reported by the German SZ, citing the local prosecutor’s office, the analysis of evidence seized during the operation in Belgrade and Sofia by Bamberg criminal police specialists revealed “traces in Ukraine.”

Here is a significant clue: as stated in the Ukrainian case materials, German law enforcement established that the fraud websites (Huludox, Fibonetix, Forbslab) were hosted on the servers of the German provider Hetzner Online GmbH, paid from a PrivatBank account belonging to Kopachevskyy.

He was also, until November 2016, the head of the Ukrainian company “Quest Marketing.” According to Ukrainian investigators, its employees took part in creating fraudulent websites and platforms.

Between 2018 and 2021, Yuriy Kopachevskyi invested in the construction of three apartments, purchased a land plot for 1 million UAH, bought a house for 6 million UAH, another apartment for 6 million UAH, and also acquired five cars. The last one — a MERCEDES-BENZ GLC 250 — cost him 2.5 million UAH.

In May, lawyers tried to release Kopachevskyi, who has three children, from the detention center and place him under house arrest. The court refused.

According to Ukrainian investigators, he was allegedly a trusted person and the closest assistant to Tymur Rokhlin, whose name was also mentioned in the Bamberg request.

Tymur Rokhlin

Much more significant assets were allegedly associated with Tymur Rokhlin, according to the investigation. In December 2020, the following companies were seized:

1. “Spectorg,” belonging to Israeli citizen Igor Rokhlin, Tymur Rokhlin’s father. According to the cadastral numbers mentioned in the case, the company owns a private house of 1408 sq. m in the settlement of Kozyn. The plot is located right on the banks of the Dnipro. The seizure of this company was lifted at the end of July 2021 by the appellate court.

2. “Ukrdonstroy,” whose ultimate beneficiary is Igor Rokhlin. The company owns office real estate in a business center with a total area of 1694 sq. m at Sichovyh Striltsiv St., 62. The company arrest was lifted by the appellate court at the beginning of August 2021.

3. “Buildings Empire” (ultimate beneficiary — Igor Rokhlin), which owns a non-residential building in Podil (853 sq. m), at Borys Hlibska St., 15B. A coworking space BeeWorking is located at this address. The appellate court in July 2021 decided to leave the decision of the first instance in force. The arrest was not lifted.

4. “Renome Rent” — office center on Dilova St., 5, of 11 thousand sq. m. The arrest could not be appealed.

The Ukrainian investigation justified the property seizure by stating that funds from defrauded foreign citizens entered the network of European firms (we mentioned them earlier) and later accumulated in the accounts of the British company Remini Consulting LP. According to its registration data, the company is now controlled since August 2020 by some Oleksandr Bban, a citizen of Ukraine. Previously (since August 2018), it was controlled by Yuriy Kopachevskyi.

According to the investigation, from September 2018 to March 2020, €35.9 million allegedly from criminal activities flowed to the accounts of the British company Remini Consulting LP. Of them, supposedly €10.8 million were transferred to the accounts of the company RIJV Holdings ltd (UK), which was controlled since October 2018 by Tymur Rokhlin.

In the investigation materials published in the court registry, it is stated that RIJV Holdings ltd in 2019 became the founder of a number of companies in Ukraine — “Ukrdonstroy,” “Beeworking” (BeeWorking coworking network), “Beconstruct” (office center on Dilova 5A), “Buildings Empire,” “Arnas Group,” “Podol Group,” “Homeland Ukraine.” The current ultimate beneficiary of all these companies is Igor Rokhlin, Tymur’s father.

“Homeland Ukraine” was previously listed as the founder of the Rocket food delivery service (TM Rocket, Raketa). Currently, it is controlled by another entity — the Cypriot company Tisean Fresh Food Ltd. But the main ultimate beneficiary remained the same — Rokhlin senior (86% of the capital).

According to the Ukrainian investigation, in 2020, to conceal assets acquired with funds from criminal activities, Tymur re-registered controlled business entities to his father’s structures.

Forbes magazine in April published the history of the Rocket service creation. The publication’s journalists wrote that it was Tymur Rokhlin who saved “Rocket” from ending up in the startup graveyard.

According to the publication, in late summer 2019, he bought the project from the group discount service Pokupon. The startup’s founders, Stanislav Dmytryk and Oleksiy Yukhymchuk, retained a minority share — 7% each.

Rokhlin: Father and Son. Forbes Background

Igor Rokhlin is a graduate of the Baku Institute of Oil and Chemistry, and since 2005, a citizen of Israel. He was a member of the board of directors of the Romanian oil refinery RAFO Onesti, which was bought in 2006 by Russian businessman Yakov Goldovskiy.

His son, a graduate of Rotterdam’s School of Management, Tymur Rokhlin, moved to Ukraine several years ago, seeing great potential there. He holds a Ukrainian passport, runs a sole proprietorship, and owns a car fleet whose centerpiece is a Rolls-Royce Wraith worth about $500,000. The same one mentioned in the investigation materials.

He became an investor in “Raketa” for a simple reason — he could not find a convenient way to order food. As Forbes writes, in public communications, partners do not mention Rokhlin’s name, preferring the wording “third partner.”

And thanks to investments from the Rokhlins, “Raketa” quickly reached the level of the popular Spanish food delivery service Glovo.

“To reach its current numbers, the company had to spend at least $3–5 million,” Taras Potychnyi, former head of the Estonian Bolt in Ukraine, estimated in a Forbes article.

And Everyone Remains Silent

Tymur Rokhlin’s partners in "Raketa" — Stanislav Dmytryk and Oleksiy Yukhymchuk do not comment on the investigation where he is mentioned.

“I’m not aware of this issue,” said the first.

“I’m not aware of this case. I’m focused on developing Rocket,” stated the second.

Ilya Aizenshtat, CEO of the BeeWorking coworking network, also commented on the situation. When asked if he was currently in contact with Tymur, he replied negatively.

Dev.ua’s journalist attended a meeting with Tymur Rokhlin’s lawyers from JSC “Klochkov and partners.” Ivan Starosta, representing Tymur’s interests in court, said his client did not want to be public during the pre-trial investigation, until the investigative materials were submitted to trial, if that happens.

Tymur’s lawyers are sure that the funds and assets of their client mentioned in the investigation were obtained legally.

It was not possible to find information about three other suspects mentioned in the Bamberg request — Ukrainian Andriy Kurochkin, Israeli Michael Chebotar, and Maxim Baranovsky-Rafael.

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