MMM Nigeria suspends payouts for the rest of December
The disaster that is the Nigerian MLM underbelly scene continues, with news today MMM Nigeria has suspended withdrawals.
Yes, you’re reading that right. The same week Sergey Mavrodi purportedly goaded the Nigerian government about an MMM Nigeria collapse, it appears MMM Nigeria has… well, collapsed.
Earlier this week in an open letter purportedly penned by Mavrodi, he directly addressed warnings by the Nigerian government about MMM Nigeria collapsing.
As for your statement that “everything will collapse soon”.
The system has been working in Nigeria for a year, and according to your estimates, the total number of members now is about 3 million people. In Nigeria the population is approximately 195 million. Can you calculate? Will it be “soon”? :-))
Turns out “soon” was inside of a week, with MMM Nigeria affiliates unable to withdraw funds effective immediately.
Rather than acknowledge the Ponzi scheme has collapsed, an announcement to MMM Nigeria affiliates blames media coverage for the decision;
One-Month Freezing of Confirmed Mavros
Dear members! As usual, in the New Year season the System is experiencing heavy workload. Moreover, it has to deal with the constant frenzy provoked by the authorities in the mass media.
It is typical of Ponzi schemes to explode around the holiday season. Existing investor withdrawal request increase while new investment drops off.
The things are still going well; the participants feel calm; everyone gets paid – as you can see, there haven’t been any payment delays or other problems yet – but!.. it is better to avoid taking risk.:-))
Moreover, there are almost three weeks left to the New Year.
Hence, on the basis of the above mentioned, from now on all confirmed Mavro will be frozen for a month.
The move is similar to what happened with MMM Zimbabwe.
In an effort to stave off the inevitable collapse, MMM Zimbabwe froze affiliate withdrawals in August.
In September the scheme reopened, however affiliate withdrawal requests were slashed by 80% (20 cents on every dollar in a withdraw request was honored).
This lasted about three weeks, before the scheme collapsed altogether. Losses in Zimbabwe are estimated to be in the thousands.
If MMM Nigeria reopens in January, the same fate as MMM Zimbabwe before it awaits (and MMM South Africa before that).
Ponzi schemes need new funds to pay off existing investors, and nothing kills off new investment faster than announcing to the world you’ve run out of money.
Mavrodi claims there are some three million investors in MMM Nigeria. What effect their cumulative losses might have on the already failing Nigerian economy remains to be seen.
Thanks for the heads up Tim. Was in the middle of putting this together when you left your comment.
the nigerian economic and financial crimes commission [EFCC] has been in a war of words of sorts on twitter, with MMM nigeria participants who are blaming the agency for not stopping the scam.
the EFCC is refusing blame because they have warned nigerians not to invest in ponzi schemes like MMM :
another affiliate twittered:
uh, is the EFCC in nigeria a single person? the responses of a govt authority like the EFCC seem strangely ‘personal’ in nature!
if ponzi schemes are proliferating in nigeria due to poverty and distrust of the govt, maybe the EFCC needs to communicate with citizens in an authoritative and professional manner.
meanwhile, mavrodi makes fun of the govt and then laughs all the way to the bank!
vanguardngr.com/2016/12/mmm-nigeria-warned-efcc-taunts-nigerians-ponzi-scheme-freezes-participants-accounts/
while MMM nigeria has suspended payouts for a month, promoters who are called ‘guiders’ are encouraging people to invest more:
this makes it obvious that if enough people don’t pay into MMM this month, the scheme is going to collapse in nigeria and is not coming back.
247nigerianewsupdate.co/2016/12/mmm-nigeria-has-not-and-will-not-crash.html
well, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency [LASEMA] has twittered a more professional response to fears of suicides in the wake of MMM nigeria freezing payouts:
hope people are not stupid to jump off bridges over ponzi losses. money will come and go, life is invaluable.
Ah, the classic
“Leave our scam alone!”
*collapse*
“OMGWTFBBQ WHY DIDN’T YOU DO ANYTHING?!?”
I’m fed up with Nigerians myself personally (you guys don’t see the half of it). I can only imagine what the regulators are going through.
Why is Mavrodi not in prison yet?
rumor has it that mavrodi lives in hiding in russia. i find it difficult to believe that he can operate secretly from russia for such a prolonged period.
maybe he’s greasing palms in russia for protection?
Yes, he is probably hiding within Russia. He never traveled out of it since 1994.
He does not have a travel passport. Using fake passport to leave is also unlikely since he is wanted in Russia and his face is familiar to the whole country.
He possibly might leave somehow in a disguise or in cargo, but knowing him and his solitary lifestyle , I bet he does not want to.
It was strange how his videos for MMM updates stopped so abruptly, in March this year, I think?
It’s not like MMM needs him in person to run, it’s a fairly simple system which can be administered by others.
I tend to think he’s dead, probably in the foundations of a dam somewhere. Obviously there is and will never be evidence of that, the Mavrodi Magic Money Myth is too valuable.
There are such rumours, but about two-three weeks ago he appeared in the form of a prerecorded video on Channel Five (Russian TV channel broadcasting from Saint-Petersburg), explaining the situation about his web series and blocking of his YouTube channel by Google.
@tmfp
Not strange, they stopped when MMM Global collapsed.
Bit hard to front “everything is fine, everything is wonderful” weekly videos when you’ve run out of money.
The ugly side of, greed, naivety and ponzi world consequence while the 12.5% break even or are “winners.”
firstclassgist.com.ng/2016/12/man-ingest-insecticide-following.html?m=1
Kenya the next African scam haven?
thenet.ng/2016/12/after-milking-nigeria-dry-mmm-guiders-invade-kenya/
Come on Africa, get your shit together. How many times do you have to fall for the same scam?
Do they not have the internet in these countries?
MMM mentioned on BBC:
bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38340457
the [temporary?] collapse of MMM nigeria has led to a media debate in nigeria, about whether this scheme is good/bad for nigeria.
participants are saying that MMM has helped many nigerians pay their bills, donate to charitable causes and MMM transactions have kept the banks flush with funds.
they allege banks have now run out of money and are allowing only 50% withdrawals due to paucity of funds. they are blaming the media and banks for causing the collapse of MMM by constant badmouthing.
mavronewsng.com/mmm-nigeria-wonderful-media/
on the other side of the debate are the rational voices who are warning about how funds are being sucked out of an already poor country by this foreign ponzi scheme.
instead of contributing to the growth of the nation through work, innovation and entrepreneurship, people waste their time hoping to get rich via destructive ponzi schemes. this is a nice article outlining this argument:
adelakbusiness.com/2016/12/26/the-truth-about-mmm-nigeria/
it’s easy to see which side has the winning argument, and it’s easy to see why people ignore the right arguments – because people are lazy and looking for quick fixes.