Tech billionaire and Ohio State University donor Ratmir Timashev is asking a Franklin County judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging fraud and conspiracy at his AI startup, blaming former executives for what he calls lavish spending of company funds.
Three former executives with OH.io Ventures Inc., Timashev’s AI startup venture, accused him of luring them from lucrative jobs for publicity and then firing them to avoid sharing future profits in a lawsuit filed April 14 in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. The tech entrepreneur and other defendants have now filed motions to dismiss the suit, alleging that the former executives were fired for their own conduct and have attempted to “manufacture a media spectacle out of an ordinary employment dispute,” according to Timashev’s motion.
Jeff Schumann, Kevin Colón and J. Seth Metcalf claimed that Timashev persuaded them to leave senior roles at established tech firms by promising to fund OH.io with at least $50 million, raise another $50 million and give them a share of the venture’s future profits.
“By inducing Schumann, Colón, and Metcalf to get things started and lend their names to the tech project, Timashev got all the benefit of associating with a known commodity in Ohio tech circles, Ohio private and public circles, national private and public institutions, and international private and public institutions,” the initial legal complaint states.
Instead, the lawsuit alleges, promised funding was never delivered and the three executives were fired after questioning changes to the business model. The plaintiffs claim Timashev never intended to fund OH.io as promised, using the company and its leadership team’s reputations to generate favorable publicity and promote his own broader business interests.
Timashev alleges that the plaintiffs spent more than $8 million in nine months; secured no unaffiliated, external clients; and approved luxury travel, helicopter rides and club memberships, according to his motion. He also claims that they were “at-will employees” whose written offer letters never guaranteed carry interest and instead made that perk contingent on future conditions and separate agreements that were never finalized.
A spokesperson for Timashev referenced the involvement of Metcalf, one of the plaintiffs, in a May 2025 scandal involving the management of the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, a public pension fund. Metcalf, co-founder of financial startup QED, accused STRS Ohio of making false claims to discredit QED after the startup’s investment pitch was rejected.
In February, after a five-day bench trial, a judge held that two members of STRS Ohio violated their fiduciary duties to the pension system. The court was critical of Metcalf’s role in the matter, according to Timashev’s spokesperson.
“As he did in that case, Metcalf is again attacking those who refuse to countenance his financial improprieties,” she said in an email to The Dispatch.
In the legal complaint, the plaintiffs also reference Gordon Caplan – a former co-chair of international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher – and Joon Park – a managing director at Dutchess Management LLC, which is described in the complaint as the “family office” that manages Timashev’s finances and trust. They claim Caplan and Park, as advisers to OH.io, conspired with Timashev.
Caplan, Park and Dutchess LLC filed a separate motion to dismiss the suit, claiming they had nothing to do with the plaintiffs’ “malfeasances” or “subsequent terminations.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Rex Elliott said in a statement that motions of this nature are a routine part of the legal process.
“We believe the allegations outlined in the complaint are well-founded, and we remain confident in the merits of our clients’ claims,” he said in the statement. “We look forward to the matter proceeding in court and being decided based on the facts and the documentary record.”
What is OH.io?
The venture is advertised as a platform that helps grow several AI startups under one umbrella, positioning itself as a hub that could draw global attention to Columbus by attracting at least 100 AI startups to the region over the next five years, according to a LinkedIn post from The Columbus Region.
OH.io is postponing its entertainment and tech festival in the wake of layoffs and the pending lawsuit, per prior Dispatch reporting. Originally slated for October 2026 to draw national and global attention to Columbus by uniting founders, investors and industry leaders, the festival is now under consideration for 2027 at the earliest.
Before the defendants filed a formal response in court, the company indirectly addressed the lawsuit via LinkedIn.
Two weeks ago, the company announced that Alex Husted, son of U.S. Sen. Jon Husted and an OH.io general partner, had been named interim managing director.
“Unfortunately, we had to part ways with prior management as we investigate potential financial improprieties,” the post states.
In a separate post not long after, the company said it had “made the difficult decision to restructure” after learning that Metcalf and Schumann had “approved helicopter rides, Waldorf Astoria stays, and an exclusive club membership, among other extravagances.”
“OH.io is a performance venture built to scale 100 AI companies, not support executive perks,” the post states. “The organization is moving forward with integrity.”
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Billionaire AI tech founder says fired workers spent lavishly in lawsuit rebuttal
Reporting by Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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