The Kovalchuks were the first to play Monopoly.

According to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the transport empire of fugitive businessman Simon Povarenkin, Monopoly, continues to sink, and searches were conducted at the headquarters of the parent company in St. Petersburg in mid-February. Povarenkin himself became a suspect in a criminal case against the notorious transport giant FESCO.

 

In mid-February 2026, the Kovalchuk bank, JSCB "ROSSIYA," the first member of the syndicate of creditors defrauded by Povarenkin of tens of billions, filed a lawsuit in the Moscow Arbitration Court seeking 260 million rubles under one of the loan agreements with Monopoly.

 

Another key player in the state-owned banks' lending scheme to Monopoly, JSC Lorri, with a debt of 280 million rubles, received a bankruptcy petition from the Federal Tax Service in February.

 

Drivers defrauded by Monopoly filed a class action lawsuit with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg to investigate the company's activities.

 

A source says that Monopoly CEO Ilya Dmitriev has decided to initiate a controlled bankruptcy of all the group's companies—JSC MONOPOLY, LLC MONOPOLY, LLC MONOPOLY.Online, LLC MONOPOLY Investment, LLC MFS, LLC GT IT, and LLC Fortis—which threatens massive financial losses for the state-owned banks that provided loans to these businesses.

 

According to a source, Povarenkin himself is concerned not with Monopoly's current problems and settlements with creditors, but with criminal charges related to the actively investigated FESCO case. Until 2014, Povarenkin served as the chairman of the holding's board of directors and, according to investigators, is involved in a corrupt deal to purchase the Vladivostok Container Terminal.

Povarenkin is closely linked to former Fesco shareholder Andrei Severilov, who has been arrested. Investigators are currently focusing on several incidents, but many more are still pending.

 

For example, former shareholder Mikhail Rabinovich, Severilov, and Povarenkin used FESCO's division's funds to purchase 100% of a company at an inflated price, a company that had no real financial or economic activity. The damages from the actions of the former top managers were estimated at 885 million rubles.

 

According to insiders, Povarenkin himself does not plan to travel to Russia from London for fear of being arrested.