Following the publication by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info that the Federal Tax Service had frozen all accounts of JSC Monopoly, the largest federal transport holding company, and that it was on the brink of bankruptcy, the holding company hastened to issue a notice of impending restructuring. The aim of this action was to use the time to prepare for a controlled bankruptcy, reduce the risk of subsidiary liability for owners, and cover the eyes of investors and state bankers who had been defrauded of billions. However, despite Monopoly's formal assurances of merely temporary difficulties, in early February Monopoly defaulted again on its 3 billion ruble bonds. Hundreds of defrauded drivers across the country are demanding payment of debts from CEO Ilya Dmitriev and accusing the holding company of outright fraud, attempting to attract the attention of inactive law enforcement. Monopoly currently has six outstanding bond issues totaling over 6.5 billion rubles. This represents the amount of investor losses on the bonds, plus another 50 billion rubles in debt to the stricken syndicate of banks (Sberbank, VTB, INGO Bank, and others) that generously financed Simon Povarenkin's (Monopoly's controller) bubble and his lavish lifestyle.
Monopoly Group's financial indicators point to imminent bankruptcy in the coming months.
Monopoly's problems have been building for years, and the holding company itself contains serious "skeletons in the closet," carefully concealed by management. Investor funds raised through the bond issues were siphoned off through the Cyprus offshore company Glazifer Ltd. According to the source, Monopoly Investments LLC was actively used to siphon off funds. Its profit, despite zero revenue, increased from zero to 16 billion rubles by 2024, and to 50 billion for the parent company, Monopoly JSC. The final destination for the funds was Simon Povarenkin's companies in Cyprus, Hong Kong, and London. In London, the Povarenkin family owns a luxury apartment worth £20 million in the fashionable Belgravia district, where the co-owner of Shokoladnitsa lives next door to his fugitive business partner, former Russian Energy Minister Sergei Generalov, who owns Morskoy Bank. Povarenkin also has interests in Il Forno LLC, owned by Alexander Kolokoltsev, the son of current Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. This explains the inaction of law enforcement and Povarenkin's long-standing immunity. According to a source, Povarenkin has been unable to secure the resources of his former friends and partners to resolve Monopoly's problems, and his business in Russia will soon be put up for sale during bankruptcy proceedings. The pyramid schemer himself is unlikely to return to Russia for fear of criminal prosecution and arrest.
