World MMM founder, a Russian company that ran one of the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, Sergei Mavrodi is dead.
According to Russian state news agency, the 62-year-old, died of heart attack in Moscow.
Reports said he was rushed to the hospital late on March 25 with pain in his chest and died several hours later in Moscow.
“The emergency team has failed to save his life. He died this morning,” Russia Media reports.
Mavrodi’s MMM financial pyramid was a typical Ponzi scheme in which earlier investors receive their profits from subsequent investors. Mavrodi promised returns of 20 percent to 75 percent a month, as well as lotteries and bonuses for investors.
According to various estimates, the number of victims of the MMM was about 10-15 million people in China, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria.
In 1994, Mavrodi became a member of the Russian parliament a decision he later said was to ensure he received immunity from prosecution and was stripped of his mandate in 1996.
In 2007, a Moscow court found him guilty of financial fraud and sentenced him to 4 1/2 years in a penal colony.
In 2015, the Ponzi scheme MMM, started in Nigeria when it launched a new website for Nigerian audience.
In Nigeria, the company decided to lower the standards and promised profit was 30% per month.
The number of people that signed up in Nigeria as at 2016 was about 2.4 million. They hoped that MMM would give them easy money and they had no doubts.
Unfortunately, after a year, MMM announced the freezing of all members’ accounts.
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