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Sergey Mavrodi ©
Andrey Stenin / RIA Novosti
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Infamous Russian investor and swindler Sergey Mavrodi who was
convicted of fraud in Russia has successfully launched a new online pyramid
scheme – this time in South Africa. The website of Mavrodi’s project, MMM, in South
Africa promises that its participants can earn 30 percent per month and claims
that MMM is not a financial pyramid, but a “social financial network.” MMM describes itself as a
“community of ordinary people, selflessly helping each other, a kind of the
Global Fund of mutual aid”.
“This is the first sprout
of something new in the modern soulless and ruthless world of greed and hard
cash. The goal here is not the money. The goal is to destroy the world's unjust
financial system,” says the website.
RT report continues:
MMM describes the system
as a “technical basic program, which helps millions of participants worldwide
to find those who need help, and those who are ready to provide help for free”.
To create a personal
account people must donate a sum of money which would allegedly be paid to an
existing user who had made a donation request. For the given money participants
are granted with a number of “Mavros ” – MMM digital currency – equivalent to
the sum which was donated.
It is claimed that twice
a week the system pays interest on users’ Mavros accounts – up to 30 percent
per month. Users can request an ever-increasing sum of money equivalent to the
number of Mavros they have.
In his weekly online
address to South Africa Mavrodi positively assessed the current developments of
MMM in the country.
“Everything is wonderful
in South Africa. The dynamics of the development are high. The participants and
managers are active… Everybody is paid,” he said.
MMM claims that South
Africa is just one of many countries in which the pyramid scheme operates. The
website reports about MMM activities in Russia, Ukraine, India, Indonesia and
other countries. It also had a presentation in Maseru, Lesotho, on August 1.
The MMM South Africa page
in Facebook has more than 22,000 likes showing that the scheme is popular.
Sergey Mavrodi is known
for creating the biggest finance pyramid in Russia which collapsed in 1994
leaving thousands (according to some unofficial estimates – millions) of people
without their money. According to further estimates, MMM clients lost over
$100,000 million.
After the collapse of
MMM, which was a classic Ponzi scheme, Mavrodi disappeared. He was found and
arrested in Moscow in 2003. In 2007 he was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison but
was released having spent all the time between his arrest and judicial verdict
in prison.
After his release Mavrodi
created a number of financial pyramids such as MMM-2011 and MMM-2012. Both of
them collapsed shortly afterwards.
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