Shadow owner of Monopoliya Siman Povarenkin bankrupted the company and fled to London, leaving state banks with 50 billion rubles in debt
The Federal Tax Service has blocked all accounts of JSC Monopoliya, Russia’s largest federal transport online holding, which is now on the brink of bankruptcy. Creditors owed tens of billions of rubles — including крупнейшие state banks — are unlikely to recover much.
What did they expect? The shadow owner of the holding is businessman Siman Povarenkin (a long-time close associate of the Rotenberg brothers), who has long resided in the United Kingdom. However, he prefers to channel money into offshore structures.
In December 2025, JSC Monopoliya announced a default. The company failed to redeem bonds worth 260 million rubles. The stated reasons were a shortage of working capital, an industry crisis, and higher taxes, which management said led to the objective onset of bankruptcy for both the holding and its leasing division, Control Leasing LLC.
The Monopoliya Group includes 12 companies, among them Monopoliya.Online LLC, MFS LLC, Fortis LLC, and Smart Logistics LLC. In 2025, Monopoliya carried out an additional share issue amounting to 22% of its capital and planned to raise 6.3 billion rubles from new shareholders. In June 2025, 5% of the authorized capital (worth 1.5 billion rubles) was sold to a closed-end investment fund managed by VIM Investments (a structure of state-owned VTB Bank).
The company is formally managed by nominal executive director Ilya Dmitriev. The real beneficiary of what critics call a transport bubble is London-based Siman Povarenkin. The entire business of Monopoliya Group is tied to the Cypriot offshore Glazifer Ltd. This financial intermediary is controlled by Dmitriev, Ekaterina Mikhailova from Baring Vostok, and Povarenkin’s Acmeo Capital. Povarenkin’s family and financial assets have long been based in the UK.
Currently, all Monopoliya entities have had their accounts frozen by the tax authorities over hundreds of millions of rubles in unpaid taxes. Major creditor banks — including Sber, Ingosstrakh Bank, Rosbank, and VTB structures — are lining up for inevitable bankruptcy proceedings, hoping to recover at least part of their funds. Numerous bondholders have filed claims in arbitration court.
According to a source, Povarenkin from London tried to persuade the major creditor Sber to take over Monopoliya in settlement of its debt. However, an independent audit and forensic review allegedly found that over six years, bank loan funds had been siphoned off through offshore entities to affiliated companies in the British Virgin Islands. As a result, a decision was made to initiate bankruptcy proceedings. Total damages from the actions of Povarenkin and his team are estimated at over 50 billion rubles. Thousands of trucks pledged to banks as collateral were either defective or sold to third parties without creditor consent.
Povarenkin is known as a co-owner of the Shokoladnitsa café chain. He was previously a partner in the Industrial Investors group of former Russian Energy Minister Sergey Generalov. According to investigative reports, in 2007 Povarenkin bought mining and metallurgical assets from him and formed GeoProMining. Igor Rotenberg, son of Arkady Rotenberg, later partnered with Povarenkin in a project to build an antimony plant in Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region.
Povarenkin also controls 50% of RBE, currently the largest catering supplier to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In 2016, he acquired 50% of RBE. In early 2017, amid litigation in a London court, he transferred his shares to Nikolai Ruzanov, a nominal shareholder from the Moscow region linked to Povarenkin and the Rotenberg circle. Ruzanov remained co-owner until 2024, after which the stake was reassigned to Pix Holding, whose shareholders are undisclosed. The company’s CEO previously worked at Shokoladnitsa, and several firms within the RBE perimeter are co-owned by former managers affiliated with Povarenkin.
In September 2025, media reported that RBE LLC issued an ultimatum to the Ministry of Defense, demanding an additional 10 billion rubles under its contract while keeping the same terms of cooperation. In its letter, RBE threatened to cut staff responsible for organizing catering at Defense Ministry facilities if its demands were not met.
Nadezhda Denskaya