MMM (Ponzi scheme company)

Founded 1989

Headquarters Russia

МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s.[1][2] By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion. The exact figures are not known even to the founders.

History
MMM was established in 1989 by Sergei Mavrodi,[2] his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova. The name of the company was taken from the first letters of the three founders' surnames.

Initially, the company imported computers and office equipment. In January 1992, tax police accused MMM of tax evasion, leading to the collapse of MMM-bank, and causing the company to have difficulty obtaining financing to support its operations. Faced with difficulties in funding its foreign trade, the company switched to the financial sector. It offered American stocks to Russian investors, but met with little success. Later, MMM-Invest was created for the purpose of collecting vouchers during privatisation. This effort was similarly unsuccessful.[citation needed]

MMM created its successful Ponzi scheme in 1994. The company started attracting money from private investors, promising annual returns of up to one thousand percent. It is unclear whether a Ponzi scheme was Mavrodi's initial intention, inasmuch as such extravagant returns might have been possible during the Russian hyperinflation in such commerce as import-export.

MMM grew rapidly. In February 1994, the company reported dividends of 1,000%, and started an aggressive TV ad campaign. Since the shares were not quoted on any stock exchange and the company itself determined the share price, it maintained a steady price growth of thousands of percent annually, leading the public to believe its shares were a safe and profitable investment.

An important factor in the scheme's success was word of mouth, but most of the company's success came from its extremely aggressive ad campaign, which appealed to the general public by using "ordinary" characters that viewers could identify with. The most famous of them, a "folk hero" of early 1994, was Lyonya Golubkov. Another notable marketing effort was a giveaway of free Metro trips to all Moscow citizens on a particular day. MMM also was one of the first well-known companies in Russia with a logotype and slogans ("Flying from shadow to the light" and others).

At its peak the company was taking in more than 100 billion rubles (about 50 million USD) each day from the sale of its shares to the public. Thus, the cashflow turnover at the MMM central office in Moscow was so high that it could not be estimated. The management started to count money in roomfuls (1 roomful of money, 2 roomfuls of money, etc.).

The success of MMM in attracting investors led to the creation of other similar companies, including Tibet, Chara, Khoper-Invest, Selenga, Telemarket, and Germes. All of these companies were characterised by aggressive television advertising and extremely high promised rates of return. One company promised annual returns of 30,000%.

On July 22, 1994, the police closed the offices of MMM for tax evasion. For a few days the company attempted to continue the scheme, but soon ceased operations. At that point, Invest-Consulting, one of the company's subsidiaries, owed more than 50 billion rubles in taxes (USD 26 million), and MMM itself owed between 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles to the investors (from USD 50 million to USD 1.5 billion). In the aftermath at least 50 investors, having lost all of their money, committed suicide.

Several organisations of "deceived investors" made efforts to recover their lost investments, but Sergei Mavrodi manipulated their indignation and directed it at the government. In August 1994 Mavrodi was arrested for tax evasion. However, he was soon elected to the Russian State Duma, with the support of the "deceived investors". He argued that the government, not MMM, was responsible for people losing their money, and promised to initiate a pay-back program. The amount ultimately paid back was minuscule compared to the amount owed.

In October 1995, the Duma cancelled Mavrodi's right to immunity as a deputy. In 1996, he tried to run for Russia's presidency, but most of the signatures he received were rejected. MMM declared bankruptcy on September 22, 1997.

While it was believed that Sergei Mavrodi left Russia and moved to the United States, it is possible that he stayed in Moscow, using his money to change apartments regularly and employ a group of former special agents. With the help of a distant relative he started Stock Generation Ltd., another pyramid scheme based around trading non-existent companies' stocks in a form of the "stock exchange game" on the company's site, stockgeneration.com. Despite a bold-letter warning on the main page that the site was not a real stock exchange, between 20,000 and 275,000 people, according to various estimates, fell for the promised 200% returns and lost their money. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, losses of victims were at least USD 5.5 million.

Mavrodi was found and arrested in 2003. While in custody, Mavrodi was given until January 31, 2006 to read the documents in his fraud case against him (The criminal case consisted of 650 volumes, each 250-270 pages long). At the end of April 2007, Mavrodi was convicted of fraud, and given a sentence of four and a half years. Since he had already spent over four years in custody, he was released less than a month later, on May 22, 2007. He later went on to creating yet another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011.

The MMM scandal led to increased regulation of the Russian stock market, but the legacy of the fraud led many to become extremely suspicious of any joint stock companies.

In 2015 MMM began operating in South Africa with the same business model as MMM-2011, claiming a "30% per month" return through a "social financial network".[3] The group was identified as a possible pyramid scheme by the National Consumer Commission and accounts of clients were later frozen by Capitec Bank.[4] In response to mounting criticism and official investigations by state authorities in 2016 supporters of the South African MMM scheme staged a protest march in Johannesburg.[5]

In 2016, MMM launched a website targeting the Nigerian audience.

In January 2016 the Chinese government banned MMM on the grounds that it is a pyramid scheme, (Ponzi scheme), and it is not registered in the country (and as a fraudulent scheme cannot be registered).

Are you done?

Op I got paid today stop hating. Mmm pays

.

phew, I was eagerly looking for someone that has been duped, I'm not a fan of schemes like this but all the people that were with me on this have joined and they are really making it and I am considering joining, after all, you've got to give before you can receive and money is meant to go round and not to remain in one place.
I've also come to realise that those that make it in life are either the lucky ones or the hard working ones.
sometimes you've got to take some calculated risks with your peers in order not to envy them later when things begin to work out well in their lives. that you failed today does not mean that you will fail tomorrow.

by the way, from what I understand, you don't depend on anybody to get help, if someone is assign To Help and the person refuses, another person would be assigned to help you immediately.

my concern is simple that it will make making money so simple but risky, in a nutshell, it is still better than forex. as long as the scheme is on, you will never lose.

divinelove:
Op I got paid today stop hating. Mmm pays

Hey. Easy friend. Op ain't hating on ur pay. If u making a pay it's cool, but that doesn't stops it from being a PONZI SCHEME

Clap for yourself.

Rubbish.

Same copy and paste everywhere no new story.

Na wa ooooo

Meanwhile, MMM paid me N 668, 000 on my N500, 000 today. MMM will keep paying me till I opt out willingly.

Who fear don epp?

mycar:
phew, I was eagerly looking for someone that has been duped, I'm not a fan of schemes like this but all the people that were with me on this have joined and they are really making it and I am considering joining, after all, you've got to give before you can receive and money is meant to go round and not to remain in one place.
I've also come to realise that those that make it in life are either the lucky ones or the hard working ones.
sometimes you've got to take some calculated risks with your peers in order not to envy them later when things begin to work out well in their lives. that you failed today does not mean that you will fail tomorrow.

my man you deserve one bottle by the time dollar equals to 700 naira op will pack to the village

Some times I wonder how some Nigerians behave , imagine someone that's so pessimistic in nature , narrow minded person describing MMM as fraudulent. Today I got payed, MMM is real !! If U care to join please click on this link http:///?I=fnwakanma@yahoo.com

Some times I wonder how some Nigerians behave , imagine someone that's so pessimistic in nature , narrow minded person describing MMM as fraudulent. Today I got payed, MMM is real !! If U care to join please click on this link http:///?I=fnwakanma@yahoo.com

Please if U don't mind click on this link and find out if MMM is real or not http:///?I=fnwakanma@yahoo.com.
And you can as well find out more about MMM on the link above.

mmm-nigeria.net/?I=fnwakanma@yahoo.com

What an ingenious scheme! It's like taking from paul to pay peter. Hypothetically, when about 10million "pauls" must have pledged to provide help totalling the sum of N1trillion, the system will begin the process of crashing with the aid of tax evasion clampdown. Then the founder(s) would put the blame on the government for the crash, the unfortunate investors lose their investment.


Well, the scheme is for low wit, lazy bone fellas looking for easy way of making money.

The father(the founder) receives help(money) from his 3 children. The 3 children receive help from the 15 grandchildren. The 15 grandchildren receive help from the 50 greatgrandchildren. Then comes tax evasion clampdown, which is what the father(the founder) is expecting to leverage on in crashing the system. At that point, the 50 greatgrandchildren would be directed to provide help(money) to the father(the founder). Then the system crashes.

Tragic!

matrix199:
What an ingenious scheme! It's like taking from paul to pay peter. Hypothetically, when about 10million "pauls" must have pledged to provide help totalling the sum of N1trillion, the system will begin the process of crashing with the aid of tax evasion clampdown. Then the founder(s) would put the blame on the government for the crash, the unfortunate investors lose their investment.


Well, the scheme is for low wit, lazy bone fellas looking for easy way of making money.

The father(the founder) receives help(money) from his 3 children. The 3 children receive help from the 15 grandchildren. The 15 grandchildren receive help from the 50 greatgrandchildren. Then comes tax evasion clampdown, which is what the father(the founder) is expecting to leverage on in crashing the system. At that point, the 50 greatgrandchildren would be directed to provide help(money) to the father(the founder). Then the system crashes.

Tragic!

In the meantime, MMM is solving the money problems of a lot of people.

This is just a confusionist scheme

Some are getting their money with benefit and they are smiling.

But some will definitely suffer for it and by that time they would cry.

divinelove:
Op I got paid today stop hating. Mmm pays

Loooool.....I pity you. All warnings are falling on deaf ears now, una no go hear. MMM is not new. It is a scam, and a scam is clever and cunning otherwise gullible greedy folks wont fall for it.

Nfchi73:
Some times I wonder how some Nigerians behave , imagine someone that's so pessimistic in nature , narrow minded person describing MMM as fraudulent. Today I got payed, MMM is real !! If U care to join please click on this link http:///?I=fnwakanma@yahoo.com

I wish I can give u a nice wacking so that u can wake up from this scam! A scam by nature is designed to be lucrative, so that gullible greedy folks can fall for it. MMM is not new. Everybody is warning u now but u feel u are smart. But eventually it will end in tears and that time u can blame no one but yourself!

A conspiracy scheme designed to rob the last entry investors of their money at one point in time, and share a percentage of the loot amongst the lazy bone investors, who are also actors playing the roles of convincing new entry investors about the scheme. That makes everyone in the chain of MMM network a passive fraudster, a passive thief, because he's going to get a share from the pre-determined fraud.

Hypertension LOADING

blackpanda:


Loooool.....I pity you. All warnings are falling on deaf ears now, una no go hear. MMM is not new. It is a scam, and a scam is clever and cunning otherwise gullible greedy folks wont fall for it.

If everybody were that wise, the scheme won't have worked so well for the originators all these years.

Let them continue. It's spare cash after all. At least that's what they say to cover up a potential loss and unwise investment.

Op and every anti mmm preacher I have one question for you. You mean you love us so much you care about us loosing our money . It's my money and I do what I like with it, why not face front and use that time to help your family members who you have never dashed 1k in your life. Nonsense.

i just got 98k after donating 60k....


MMM PAYS
Chat me on whatsapp to find out how.... 07069241272

but the maths isn't right... if you donated 60k , with 30% interest should you be getting 98k?

These people are scared of joining Mmm but at the same time jealous of people taking the risk. This is why they are doing everything humanly possible to crash mmm.. Please if you are scared,don't scare people in it; its devilish. They are already aware of the danger involved.

jay2pee:
i just got 98k after donating 60k....



MMM PAYS

Chat me on whatsapp to find out how....
07069241272

but the maths isn't right... if you donated 60k , with 30% interest should you be getting 98k?

All this bankers go de form smart. We use our spare cash to do mmm I started with 50k now am above a hundred and somtin my initial 50k is back in my bnk account am using my profit now if e crash today I no loose. Infact na d money awon boys take de follow up. U see life is a risk itself even going to wrk everyday na risk so oga op park well. Wetin guys take pay rent and de parkage. Better chop now wey men de chop o

Anybody who listens to anti-mmm preachers and makes judgement based on thatn is not fit to be called an adult. MMM is not by force but by choice. After all guys who play bets and lost have severally been warned in the past but would that stop them from not trying their luck, perhaps it might be their lucky day. Would you tell a man that has not been paid salaries for months and have mouth to feed not take hard decisions even if such decision are termed scam. When you have been pushed to the wall and you have no where to go thats when you will know that life is hard. Most people shouting mmm is scam still collect money from their parents or are in good employemts and dont know what is to be in lack means. We all have choices, some chose to do runs, some chose yahoo yahoo, some chose forex, some chose stocks, some chose real estate, some chose informal trading, some chose haulage, some chose real estate while some chose mmm. It would not be fair on mavorians to pick them out and wish for their downfall, after all they are only less than a million out of 180 million nigerians . So what is the problem here, did they steal your money or did they sleep with your wife. We have several issues in our country that needs attention and someone will leave that and concern himself on how his neighbour is trying to survive. Is it not foolishness. Am not supporting mmm neither am I against it but we should allow mavorians to be aferall they have the rights to donate to each other as enshrined in our constitution