I don’t know what it is about Nigeria and the MMM Global Ponzi scheme, but for some reason locally scam refuses to die out.

Despite having collapsed three times beginning last December and resulting in an estimated $57 million dollars in losses, MMM Nigeria continues.

Criminal action has been taken against at least one MMM Nigeria affiliate, however ringleader(s) have long since fled the country.

The current iteration of MMM Nigeria bills itself as “MMM Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

There’s even a Google Play approved app MMM Nigeria participants can use to track how much money they’re stealing.

The MMM Federal Republic of Nigeria website meanwhile is more of the same.

A perpetual 100% monthly ROI is offered, with dozens of gullible idiots testifying they’ve received infinity money from MMM Nigeria as promised.

In an attempt to prevent more losses when this version inevitably collapses, Nigerian authorities plan to lean on the banking sector.

Following an interactive session between the Senate Committee on Cyber Crime and “key players” in the Nigerian financial sector, Vice Chairman Foster Ogola announced

all commercial banks in the country used by operatives of the Ponzi scheme popularly known as MMM (Mavrodi Mondial Movement), will soon be exposed and made to face appropriate sanctions.

Ogola said that the move will serve as a way of preventing such fraud reoccurring, adding that an international expert in unearthing cyberspace and banking crimes is already in the country at the invitation of the Senate committee.

The expert the committee has retained is not named. Nonetheless, if banks elsewhere in the world are able to detect suspicious activity and flag accounts for seizure, surely banks in Nigeria can be held to the same standard?

We need to secure our cyberspace and financial sector against all forms of crimes or frauds as seen with the MMM operators who came in collaborations with insiders, expressly entered into the banking system, duped and bolted out.

“We have to stop anything meant to defraud us from getting or hacking into our digital system and the first step now, is to first expose all the banks involved in the MMM fraud.

Personally while this might help finally putting a stop to MMM Global, I see it as more of a preventative measure going forward.

Outside of one criminal case (only brought about after victims filed a complaint), Nigerian authorities don’t seem interested in pursuing MMM Global’s Nigerian net-winners.

Outing banks who foster MMM Global affiliate accounts will have a limited impact.

MMM Global for the longest time has solicited investment in bitcoin, which, at least for those stealing the most money, are likely to be laundered through channels outside of Nigeria.

Going after local banks could prevent new investors and those at the bottom from transferring more money into the scam, but the incentive for those running the show needs to be dealt with.

Elsewhere in the world that’s jail time, with Nigeria ideally being no different.

Even with top earners having fled the country, there are still those remaining in Nigeria to continue promotion.

Start there and continue to make arrests and freeze bank accounts until the system collapses on itself.

I can’t speak to the caliber of the expert Nigerian authorities are relying on, but hopefully he or she guides them along a similar course of action.