This is Sergei Mavrodi

He was the man behind the popular pyramid scheme called MMM. He founded MMM in 1989.

• In 1997 he declared bankruptcy and fled with people’s money. There was no trace of him until his arrest in 2003.
• In 2011 he resurfaced with another version of the scheme he had called MMM Global

The scheme spread across countries. It was launched in China, India, South Africa, Zimbabwe.

In November 2015, the ‘plague” hit Nigeria.

It promised a 30% return on investments, everyone became an entrepreneur. People invested their life savings.

Funds reserved for building houses were invested in MMM, marriages were postponed as the saved money had to be invested. Students used their school fees to invest. People took loans from the bank, sold their lands just to invest. Just like gambling, it was an addiction.

MMM- Nigeria became a strong community

Then came the apocalypse.

In December 2016, one year after its operation in Nigeria with more than three million active investors, the account of all investors were frozen.

It was very close to Christmas and people had invested so much with the hope of using the return to enjoy their Christmas. He perfectly targeted this period. Sergei Mavrodi froze all the accounts.

5 to 40 million people have lost about $10 billion to MMM one study reported.

He passed away in 2018.