The MMM financial pyramid - Mavrodi Moneybox Mondial, "Mavrodi's World Treasury" - according to experts, usually falls apart within four years, leaving investors bankrupt, but at the same time it is surprisingly tenacious.
For more than 30 years, MMM has been marching around the world, led by a notorious Russian scammer who does not hide how it works and does not change its name, Monica Mark writes in an article for BuzzFeed.
By the time of his arrest in Russia in 2000 for tax fraud, Mavrodi had swindled the Russians out of at least $1.5 billion using his scam. However, according to some estimates, this amount can be safely increased 10 times.
The author of the article compares Mavrodi to Wall Street financier Bernie Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 for committing the biggest financial fraud in US history.
Mavrodi was the Russian Bernie Madoff, and he considered the "financial apocalypse" the goal of his MMM. He planned to replace the world financial system with his own, more, in his opinion, fair. Judging by the official website, more than 230 million people have already entered the Mavrodi system.
In January 2016, MMM launched in the most populous African country, Nigeria. Already by September, by the time its authorities announced the worst recession in decades, more than 3 million Nigerians had joined the pyramid.
BuzzFeed has repeatedly tried to contact Sergey Mavrodi, but he did not respond to the publication's requests for an interview.
One of the founders of Google, Sergey Brin, once called Russia "Nigeria in the snow" and said that both countries are controlled by a "gang of bandits," the journalist recalls. Perhaps this is a stretch, but there are certain parallels between them.
Both countries, according to Monica Mark, suffer from the kleptocracy that usually "accompanies oil wealth." Around the same time that Mavrodi was running his scam in Russia, a similar boom in oil and gas dollar pyramid schemes was unfolding in Nigeria. Ponzi schemes, promising depositors incredible returns, appeared so often that the Nigerian authorities even began to call them "miracle banks".
“People do not trust the authorities, but they trust the criminals because they see how much wealth comes from corruption. They are more likely to trust scammers who give at least something, ”Fola Fabgule from Lagos quotes BuzzFeed as saying.
In her opinion, this mentality prevails in the absence of real opportunities.
In the case of Nigeria, writes Monica Mark, the myth that you can get rich overnight is perpetuated daily: the dressmaker of the president's wife can receive an oil well as a gift, and parliamentarians who are famous for their laziness and corruption earn half a million dollars a year (while the therapist - $6 thousand).
Not surprisingly, the MMM in Nigeria has received the support of some of the "prosperity preachers" who dominate the country's religious sphere. Many Nigerians see Mavrodi as similar to these pastors, who embody everything they think God has to give true believers: mansions, private jets, yachts and Rolex watches.
This explains why MMM has been able to draw Nigerians into new pyramid schemes, this time involving cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Even the Central Bank of Nigeria warned citizens of the country against participating in these pyramid schemes, however, without taking any action to ban them. Soon, the Nigerian media began to receive reports of the suicides of ruined people, writes BuzzFeed.
However, for all its reputation, MMM continues to be a "siren call" for Nigerians and has no qualms about continuing to lure them into its web.
On the MMM Nigeria website, you can also see Mavrodi himself chastising journalists who dared to criticize a system that "could change the world."
“Shocked by your irresponsibility and cynicism. Why are you inflating hysteria around MMM and provoking panic? Do you really care about people?" - the words of Sergey Mavrodi are given at the end of the article.
The investigative unit of the South African police began to investigate the activities of Sergei Mavrodi and his financial pyramid "MMM". According to the South African edition of IOL, "MMM South Africa» is experiencing certain difficulties, but continues to guarantee its depositors a monthly profit of 30%.
The Special Investigation Department of South Africa "Hawks" laid eyes on the activities of the notorious in Russia Sergei Mavrodi and his international investment scheme. According to IOL, the financial pyramid "MMM" has already collapsed in Russia, leaving millions of depositors bankrupt, and is now on shaky ground in South Africa, having managed to attract millions of South African investors.
The scheme, called "MMM South Africa", organized by former prisoner Sergei Mavrodi, attracts investors with promises of monthly profit payments of 30%. Despite news that the scheme was starting to unravel, MMM South Africa officials said two offshoots of the company - MMM Global (Republic of Bitcoin) and MMM Extra - were shut down to protect depositors' money, so the South African company was not affected. According to IOL, more than two million South Africans have made contributions to the MMM pyramid scheme since February last year.
According to Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi, they face a difficult task of determining jurisdiction due to the fact that the new pyramid scheme conducts transactions via the Internet. In addition, he admitted that the investors themselves do not complain to the police.
Earlier in social network Facebook company "MMM" posted the following message: " We regret to inform you about the closure of the Republic of Bitcoin. It was an experiment that, unfortunately, failed. It turned out that we are not able to pay our clients 100% income every month. We can easily pay 30% monthly (which we have demonstrated in practice in many countries), but 100%-too much even for us. It's not the end of the world. We just have to wait a little. We hopeonunderstanding. Administration».
Despite these announcements, local recruiters»continue to convince people to invest in MMM. One of them told the publication that more than 200 million people are included in the Mavrodi pyramid around the world. The aim of the MMM in South Africa is " giving people financial freedom and the standard of living they deserve».
IOL reports that the founder of the scheme, Sergei Mavrodi, had previously personally recorded weekly video messages for his supporters. However, after March 21, he decided to stop this practice. In his latest video for today, he says: News comes when there are some problems. If we don't have any problems-there is no news. Therefore, starting from this day, I will no longer record video messages.».
In the middle of last year, the newspaper reminds, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation sent an e-mail to its like-minded people from the Communist Party of South Africa, in which it warned them about the sad experience of Russia. " We would like you to know that as a result of such scams in Russia, at least 15 million people have suffered and gone bankrupt.”, - was written in the letter of the Russian communists.
source IOL South Africa Africa tags- 03:00
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Nigeria's MMM website overtakes Facebook in popularity
To date, the MMM site is in fifth place in terms of attendance, second only to Google services and the Yahoo search engine. Facebook is in sixth place. Sergey Mavrodi's company started its operations in Nigeria in January 2016.
Despite the fact that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the country's authorities warn Nigerians against participating in this pyramid scheme and urge citizens not to invest in MMM, the organization's popularity continues to grow.
On initial stage pyramid participants were promised a monthly income of 100% of the invested funds, this moment this figure has dropped to 30%.
The Nigerian division of MMM is actively spending money on various PR campaigns. Every now and then, video clips appear on the network with satisfied Nigerians who were made happy by the Mavrodi Mutual Aid Fund.
MMM is a private company organized by Sergey Mavrodi. The structure "MMM" was created in 1989 and until February 1, 1994 conducted only financial and trading activities. Since 1994, it has traditionally been regarded as the classic and largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia. According to various estimates, 2-15 million investors participated in its activities.
In 2011, Sergey Mavrodi organized a new financial pyramid MMM-2011 for residents of Russia and the CIS countries, a year later reorganized into MMM-2012. The pyramid eventually collapsed. After folding the MMM 2011/2012, in 2014 he founded the MMM-Global project, aimed at residents of India, China, as well as African countries.
"Medusa.io", 01/15/17, “What is happening with Mavrodi in Africa? We explain on gifs with giraffes»
Sergei Mavrodi seems to be an unsinkable character: when it became clear that in modern Russia his MMM-2 could not be promoted and close to the state that the pyramid reached in the 1990s, he closed the project and went to Africa. Millions of residents of the continent have already invested in Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox, and the authorities of Nigeria and other countries are seriously worried that at some point Mavrodi will run away with citizens' money somewhere else. Meduza tells about the adventures of a Russian in Africa on gifs with giraffes.
According to his own website, MMM (Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox) is represented in two dozen countries, primarily in developing countries - India, Malaysia, Mexico, Colombia; in general, where the regulation is not very good, and people do not have very good financial education.
Mavrodi achieved particular success in Africa. For example, in Nigeria, the MMM site is more popular than Wikipedia and Facebook, and in total, millions of people have invested in MMM in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.
Local authorities are afraid that one fine moment all these people will be left without money. They talk about the danger of financial pyramids, directly point out that MMM is based on a fraudulent scheme, but this does not stop citizens: Mavrodi offers a rate of 30% per month (however, warning that there is a risk of losing money invested).
In December, the pyramid cracked for the first time: MMM in Nigeria suspended operations for a month, citing “high system load.” It seemed that this was the end, but Mavrodi did not even think of giving up: he began
RIA News
The director of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Isaac Okoroafor, complained that several million of his compatriots lost money due to the activities of the international Internet pyramid MMM Global, behind which is Sergey Mavrodi, well-known in Russia. According to AiF, after law enforcement officers of China and India put forward claims to the network, Mavrodi made a bet on Africa. In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the pyramid scheme has already collapsed and has been banned.
inafran.ru
The pyramid has captured the Nigerians so much that they are still investing their money in it. In a poor country with a very poor population, the idea of getting rich almost instantly gained wide popularity. The MMM site in Nigeria is the 5th most popular site, more popular than Facebook. Hundreds of videos can be found on social networks in which "get rich" Nigerians talk about how they made a fortune thanks to MMM, bought houses and cars. True, there are also stories about those who committed suicide because of the pyramid.
imgur.com 
According to Life, the Nigerian branch of MMM was opened in January 2016, at a time when the most populous country on the African continent was experiencing the worst economic crisis associated with falling oil prices. By September, the number of MMM subscribers reached 3 million people. But already in December, it was announced that payments to participants in the scheme were temporarily suspended. In May of this year, the system was restarted, this time with the help of bitcoins. The organizers managed to raise about 18 billion naira ($57 million).
The publication told the story of Nigerian Diana, who also invested family savings in the pyramid, which were set aside to pay for the studies of her three sons. A few weeks after the New Year, all three were expelled. The family, of course, did not see the expected profit. There are already millions of such deceived Nigerians.
ppeofh.blogspot.ru
Nigeria is also known as a country where pyramid schemes are popular. Many Internet users received so-called "Nigerian chain letters" from scammers. Local law enforcers are fighting them, but the new MMM pyramid came as a surprise to them. According to the publication, the development of MMM in Nigeria received a new impetus even after the pyramid was supported by representatives of the local clergy, who annually fall into the ratings of the richest people in Africa.
Nigerian bankers have already declared war on the new offspring of Mavrodi, offended by the fact that a competitor from the Russian Federation is beating off clients. “Nobody borrows from banks anymore,” local investor Ogadi Ngozi was quoted as saying by Quartz Africa. “Why take money at huge interest rates if you can lend money to Mavrodi’s depositors and get a 30% reward for this?” Bankers are trying to put pressure on law enforcement officers to become more active, but so far to no avail.
- Sergey Mavrodi is a Russian entrepreneur, the creator of the largest financial pyramid MMM, which collapsed in 1994. The damage from its activities amounted to more than 3 billion rubles, and according to various estimates, 10-15 million Russians were affected. Mavrodi was convicted of fraud and spent a total of about 10 years behind bars. After his release from prison, he was engaged in various Internet projects, including financial ones. In Russia, he managed to repeatedly “restart” MMM (“We can do a lot”), regularly publishing his video reports on YouTube.
- In 2014, Mavrodi founded the MMM-Global project, aimed at African and Asian countries. It is prohibited by law in a number of states. The pyramid received a new impetus after the spread of virtual currencies like bitcoin. The MMM Global Republic of Bitcoin network promised a return of up to 100% per annum for investments in virtual currency - these are "moors" (mavros) and bitcoins. The system's websites say that it operates in 100 countries and has 130 million members.
