Did Russian Ponzi legislation trigger MMM Global collapse?
Whenever you see Russia as the top source of traffic to a questionable MLM opportunity, it’s usually a safe bet it’s a scam.
That might sound harsh, but Russia isn’t really known for Ponzi regulation – and for years the country has been a hotbed for online scams.
Looking to change that, Russian parliament recently adopted a bill ‘that would introduce criminal liability for organizing large Ponzi schemes‘.
As the MLM underbelly reels from the collapse of MMM Global, we question whether this new legislation might have had something to do with it.
Sergey Mavrodi, owner and operator of MMM Global, is Russian. His current whereabouts are unknown, but it’s extremely likely that Mavrodi orchestrated the MMM Global Ponzi scheme from somewhere in Russia.
Russia’s new Ponzi bill, adopted by the lower house of parliament on March 10th,
stipulates criminal liability for Ponzi scheme organizers for obtaining more than 1.5 million rubles ($21,300) in assets belonging to individuals and companies.
Such crimes would be punished with fines of up to 1.5 million rubles, up to 5 years of community service or up to 6 years in prison.
On March 20th Mavrodi informed MMM Global investors there would be no more news updates published to the MMM Global website. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
On March 30th, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the new Ponzi bill into legislation.
It appears Russian authorities may have been holding off targeting Ponzi schemes until the new bill passed. There are purportedly 200 Ponzi and pyramid scheme investigations currently open in Russia.
In 2015, the police completed investigation into more than 20 criminal cases on Ponzi schemes and forwarded them to courts.
As owner and operator of the largest MLM cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme to date, what’s the bet at least one of those investigations is focused on MMM Global and Mavrodi?
Having already been convicted of Ponzi fraud in Russia, Mavrodi is no stranger to Russian authorities. In 2007 he was sentenced to four and a half years prison.
Upon release, Mavrodi went right back to Ponzi scamming and launched MMM-2011. After that collapsed in 2012, he came up with MMM Global.
If authorities are genuinely interested in making use of Russia’s new Ponzi legislation, personally I think it’s only a matter of time before Mavrodi is again apprehended. Although realistically that might be a bit of a wait yet.
Mavrodi’s last arrest in 2003 was preceded by six years on the run, following the collapse of the original MMM Ponzi scheme in 1997.
Stay tuned…
Poor guy. Mavrodi was hoping to keep his earnings below the 1.5 million rubles threshold to avoid triggering the ponzi alarm.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop the financial apocalypse from getting out of control with all the money pouring in from the gullible masses.
He’s very likely sipping on mai tais on some Thailand beach with some of the stolen money he stashed.
For the last few weeks virtually all the money had been going to China. Now there is a rumor of some other countries who have their own system (third world) joining up with the west. We can pretty much guess what is going to happen again if that does happen.
This is not a random 1 -1 system but is controlled and directed from within.
One person said… I have friends in China and know first hand what happened there – there was panic and thousands of members did huge GH requests – all at the expense of countries like USA, uk and Europe.
China was being given priority in the hope that once paid there would be some goodwill and Provide helps in return. Failed experiment.
Apparently Chinese people are very careful with money and the rumor of Bitcoin Republic failing sent it crashing.
hello, all guys is there any new update on sergei mavrodi?
any russian person is theer who knows what’s goin on in russia?
i am from india and i did invest in mmm india in local currency,
well, system is still running but there is no more provice help and all get help is in pending mode.
in february – 2016 admin paid all pending get help in BITCOIN..
I have no news on Mavrodi (dead?) but according to FB, MMM Global South Africa is allegedly attempting a restart, unconfirmed reports (lies?) of small GH’s being filled.
Don’t waste your time getting hopes up, only to be disappointed or stolen from again, learn and move on. And stay away from ANY Bitcoin mining “investments” in India, they are ALL scams.