The founder of MMM, Sergei Mavrodi, has died

The founder of the MMM financial pyramid, businessman Sergei Mavrodi, died in Moscow at the age of 63.

On the night of Monday he was hospitalized from the bus stop. A random passerby called him an ambulance, Mavrodi complained of weakness and pain in his heart, writes Air force.

Information about the death of Mavrodi confirmed RBC source in the Interior Ministry.

Sergei Mavrodi was the founder of the notorious company "MMM". It is considered the classic and largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia in terms of the number of victims and damage.

"MMM" in Russia and the USA

MMM was established as a cooperative in 1989 year and was transformed into a joint stock company in October 1992.

The name that later became famous was an abbreviation of the initial letters of the names of the founders - brothers Sergey and Vyacheslav Mavrodi and Olga Melnikova.

Melnikova and Vyacheslav Mavrodi were needed only because three founders were required for registration under the laws of that time.

The sole owner and organizer of the case, which has grown into one of the most ambitious financial frauds of all time, was software engineer Sergey Mavrodi from the beginning to the end.

In 1996, Mavrodi nominated his candidacy for the presidency of Russia, but was not registered by the Central Election Commission because of the forgery of a large part of the signatures. After that, he stopped appearing in public, writes TASS.

In 1998, he and his cousin Oksana Pavlyuchenko launched the financial pyramid via the Internet. Stock Generationwhich was focused on the american market. From her by the time of the collapse in 2000, a total of about 20 thousands of US citizens were affected.

Money from the air

At first, MMM sold imported office equipment. On February 1, 1994, shares of MMM JSC with a nominal value of one thousand rubles (about 65 cents at the then exchange rate) went on sale for free.

Officially, MMM was an ordinary joint-stock company that promised to pay dividends in a year.

Mavrodi promised the owners of the shares at the first request to redeem them at a price that he determined himself. The price has grown steadily.

The MMM stock price and forecast for the next two weeks began to be published daily in the media, and soon began to arouse no less interest among the public than the dollar exchange rate.

“MMM” was not involved in the production or even resale of anything, but was a classic financial pyramid.

The calculation was based on the fact that with a constant increase in the stock price, the holders would not be in a hurry to convert them into cash.

The collapse of MMM

In 1994, the Antimonopoly Committee demanded that television channels stop broadcasting MMM advertising. A few days later, the tax inspectorate presented one of Mavrodi’s subsidiaries, Invest Consulting, with a claim for 49,9 billion rubles and demanded immediate repayment of the debt.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai said that MMM had problems in relations with the state and warned of its likely imminent collapse.

On July 28, early in the morning, depositors rushed to the MMM head office, but the issuance of money was almost immediately stopped and the doors were locked.

At 11 a.m., Mavrodi announced that due to the current circumstances, the MMM share price was being reduced to its original thousand rubles, but promised that it would soon return to its previous level.

“We, unlike the state, have never deceived you. And we will never deceive you!” he said in a statement to the media.

The money was not returned to anyone, the fate of the money collected by Mavrodi is unknown.

The further fate of Mavrodi

On August 3, the founder of MMM was arrested on charges of fraud. On August 19, a demonstration of many thousands took place near the Moscow White House demanding his release.

On October 30, with the support of the initiative group “Union for the Protection of Shareholders and Depositors of MMM JSC,” Mavrodi won the by-elections to the State Duma in the Mytishchi district of Moscow and was released from prison.

He did not appear at any meeting of the parliament.

JSC MMM was officially declared bankrupt on September 22, 1997.

On December 17, 1997, Mavrodi was put on the All-Russian wanted list, and about a year later - on the international wanted list.

31 January 2003, Mavrodi was detained in Moscow and sentenced for fraud to four and a half years in prison in 2007. At the time of sentencing, he had already served almost the entire term in the SIZO.

On May 22, 2007, the founder of MMM, who had served his sentence, was met at the prison gates by about 50 journalists and a dozen loyal fans.

Sergei Mavrodi is the author of the books “Temptation” (2008), “PiraMMMida” (2011), “Son of Lucifer” (2011), “Temptation-2” (2012). “PiraMMMida” served as the basis for the film of the same name, directed by Eldar Salavatov in 2011. The main character of the film, Sergei Mamontov, in whom the features of Mavrodi are easily discernible, was played by Alexey Serebryakov.

It was reported that Mavrodi was married, his wife was called Elena Mavrodi (maiden name - Pavlyuchenko). Some media outlets wrote that the couple had a daughter, but her name was not mentioned.

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