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Where did MMM money go after Mavrodi's arrest?

Who benefited from MMM's arrests

Alexander Kolbasov, the former Acting Manager of MMM2011, has begun writing the book "Objectively about MMM", and also continues to publish interesting articles - stories about important past stages of the grandiose system, the so-called mutual benefit fund, called "MMM".

The prehistory of the article is as follows: several members of the global MMM system have been arrested in India for several weeks now, pickets of MMM supporters for their release have been going on...

What is hidden under the screen of arrests in MMM?

Recently writing an article about planned arrests in India, I was asked the question: "Can you elaborate on what kind of arrests are we talking about?". At first, the posing of the question confused me - “What kind?” - I thought, "naturally Indian", but then I undertook to analyze the issue.

Indeed, there were several arrests, and behind each of them lay a certain meaning and benefit. As we all remember, the very first precedent happened in 1994, when Sergei Panteleevich was accused of tax evasion and placed in custody.

The next important episode was the arrest of MMM activists in Belarus and Moldova, as well as the imprisonment of Mavrodi for 5 days. The third time this situation has developed already in 2013 in India. What can these events have in common, you reasonably ask?

One of the well-known tricks of magicians is distraction. The magician focuses the audience's eyes on an object or action that diverts attention to itself and the audience concentrates on it. All for the sake of diverting attention from another most important process.

Further, the illusionist "leads" the thoughts of the audience in such a way that they begin to believe that they know how it all works and what it is all about. At the final stage, the audience is shown that their decision is not true and the audience remains even more stunned by this "miracle".

But this is a stage and people consciously go to get new sensations. In reality and in everyday life, this technique is manifested in the fact that when posing a question, we find one answer that we consider correct for ourselves, and then it becomes difficult for us to consider other alternatives.

In the summer of 2011, after organizing a rally at Chistye Prudy, which took place on June 16, Sergey Panteleevich asked me to prepare documents for transfer to the Prefecture of the Central Administrative District, for holding a cultural event in the form of a concert.

Having collected all the necessary documents on the appointed day, I went to the deputy. prefect for approval of the event. Upon entering the office, a lovely lady of 50 welcomed me cordially, saying from the doorway that she was glad to see a representative of MMM, since she herself was a holder of tickets and shares.

To this, I began to talk about the program for the return of old deposits, that there are shares of Gazprom in the bins, and it is only a matter of time when we can cash them out and distribute money to all MMM-94 depositors.

Without listening to the end of my fiery speech, she said that in 1994 she was familiar with the management of the company and a few days before the arrest of Sergei Mavrodi she handed over all the tickets and shares, so she is not at all offended, but on the contrary, she even remembers those times with joy.

I sometimes heard similar words from major political functionaries: about connections, about the fact that a few days before the fall in prices they successfully cashed out their Mauritius, according to this deputy. Prefect I was not surprised.

During my business trips to the cities of Russia, I discussed this topic very closely twice with the heads of MMM branches in 1994 in the Bryansk Region and the Krasnodar Territory.

The history of office closures was about the same. When the day X came, depositors stormed the office from one side, and from the back entrance, the office management threw bags of banknotes into trunks and car interiors.

“And that's just what I had in my office,” the director continued. In terms of emotionality, the narration was similar to memories of the heroic deeds of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War during school lessons of courage.

From a large-scale point of view, the picture looked as follows - almost any person who had access to the finances of the Joint Stock Company had an interest in the arrest of Sergei Panteleevich, starting from the head of the branch in the county town N, who had access to the vault, ending with people on whom shares of various companies put up for sale during privatization.

The same applies to the famous 17 KAMAZ trucks that took money out of the central office, but are you sure that these were the security forces, and not employees of the company? According to the heads of offices in 1994, by the end of the summer, the interests of hundreds of people converged, and the arrest itself was exposed as a screen and a distraction from the massive looting of a successfully operating pyramid.

Subsidiaries began to go bankrupt on short notice or change names. The largest company turned out to be MMM-Invest CIF, which still exists, but under the name of OAO IC Rus-Invest, and Alexander Bychkov manages it for two decades. At that moment, as now, Sergey Panteleevich turned out to be a victim of surrounding circumstances.

A similar situation was repeated in the MMM-2011 system. The company for the arrest of the creator of the system and the accumulation of funds was preparing for several months.

Sergei Panteleevich had a bailiff Sergei Baryshev, who was appointed to collect debts in civil suits, in order to win over Mavrodi, he instantly believed in the idea of ​​a financial apocalypse and even became a contributor to MMM-2011.

3 months before his arrest, he brought about 300 writ of execution for signature, which, in case of non-payment, threatened with a fine or arrest for up to 15 days. In view of the gullibility of Sergei Panteleevich, the leader of the system without looking signed all the sheets, agreeing to their execution, and put them in a box.

Exactly three months later, the period allotted for the execution of the judgment expired. Bailiffs arrived at Mavrodi's apartment and asked to go to court with them to resolve the issue on writ of execution. When the head of security tried to contact Baryshev, the subscriber was out of the coverage area of ​​the network. As it turned out later, it was at this time that he had a 45-day vacation.

In parallel with this, the Belarusian scenario was developed to increase destabilization in the system. Despite all the excuses and warnings from the administration of the system, in the Republic of Belarus, one of the structures actively encouraged activities to open offices and an advertising company.

But leaflets urging people to come to the office for consultations were stuck not just anywhere, but in the most prominent places, such as boards in front of police stations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB. Such clearly defiant actions could not go unpunished, which happened in March 2012.

Then the indignation of the participants and the desire to help them was enormous, but for some reason pickets and rallies in support were forbidden, they were ordered to speak only well about the state of affairs, and all this was limited to writing letters to the pre-trial detention center.

Treasury accounts at MMM

After the calm regime was canceled, the dynamics of the system began to float: a week is positive, a week is negative, a week is positive, a week is negative.

At that time, one of my functions was to collect information on the dynamics in the system from managers, at the urgent request of Felix, in order to avoid leakage of instability in the system, I was deprived of this function, after some time, also on the recommendation of Felix, due to the objectivity of the data, the so-called treasury accounts.

On these newly created MMM treasury accounts funds were accumulated from all ten thousand, and here confusion began, because of all these manipulations, it was almost impossible to track the movement of funds, which was required to achieve the goal.

In July 2012, several leaders in Moldova were taken into custody, some of them were released within a week, some were held for more than a month, information about this is carefully concealed, the foreign department under the leadership of Boris Verbitsky refuses to allocate funds to solve the problem, delaying the process and referring to some stocks in the US and Hong Kong.

In turn, a group of activists and I collect and distribute voluntary assistance. These attempts are condemned by the KRO, as they can harm the image of the system, and then Sergei Panteleevich is proposed to form a stabilizing fund for the occurrence of critical situations.

Naturally, having such rich experience in diverting attention with arrests, it was difficult to resist repeating the operation in India, which was done by Alexei Muratov.

Economist. Experience in leadership positions in the manufacturing industry. Date: May 26, 2019. Reading time 9 min.

Ksenia Konovalova

More than 15 million Russians suffered in the MMM financial pyramid, 50 people committed suicide. The trial heard testimony from 10,000 defrauded depositors. The organizer of the scam managed to invest part of the money in profitable shares and withdraw it abroad. Where the 30 tons of cash banknotes withdrawn from the account disappeared remains unknown. Sergei Mavrodi received 4.5 years for fraud, but the victims were not compensated for the damage, the damage was estimated at between $110 million and $80 billion. The repeated attempt of the great strategist in 2012 to create an Internet pyramid also ended in failure. In 2018, Mavrodi died.

25 years ago, the infamous MMM pyramid collapsed. Almost every 10th Russian was involved in a fraudulent scheme. 15 million victims, dozens of suicides, indignant crowds of investors demanding the release of the schemer - this is the result of the end of the activities of the company of Sergei Mavrodi. How did it happen that a tenth of the country believed the scammer, and "Mavrodiki" became an "alternative currency"? Why do people easily part not only with their savings, but also with their last pennies? No less interesting, where did the money of the deceived depositors go? After all, the swindler led a reclusive life to the last and positioned himself as an unmercenary.

Foundation of the company

The founders of JSC "MMM", registered in the Leninsky district of Moscow in 1989, were:

• Sergei Mavrodi - according to various sources, either a half-educated genius, or a great mathematician and programmer;
• Vyacheslav Mavrodi - the brother of the schemer;
• Olga Melnikova.

It is by the first letters of the names of the founders that the company got its name "MMM". However, in the future, its leader denied any interference by third parties in decision-making, Mavrodi insisted that he personally conducted the entire business.

Initially, the company was engaged in the resale of computer equipment, and even in 1990 it was recognized as a market leader. It was this situation that prompted Sergey to think about issuing shares on the market, which was the first step towards building a “global pyramid”.

The essence of the fraudulent scheme

By the time the first shares were issued, the Mavrodi company was already quite popular among the inhabitants of Moscow thanks to the advertising campaign “One day of free travel in the subway”, held on July 31, 1991. To pay for it, the businessman spent almost $ 1 million.

Therefore, when the first MMM shares appeared, they quickly found their owners. The 991,000 securities that went public on February 1, 1994 sold like hot cakes. A week later, the second stage of sales "with bilateral quotes" started. Papers were sold according to the principle “today more expensive than yesterday”. Only quotes were set by Mavrodi himself. Rates were constantly increasing, and in a week the growth in the value of shares could reach 100%.

However, the businessman failed to print the second batch of shares - the government did not allow the issue. The schemer's decision was brilliant. Coupons go on sale, popularly called "Mavrodiki".

These were not, as such, securities, but the tickets had all degrees of protection, including watermarks.

Interesting fact! MMM tickets were printed at enterprises that issue dollars

Mavrodi even suggested simply recoloring $100 bills so as not to spend money on issuing their own coupons.

“... It makes no sense to spend money on printing your own papers if the US government has already done everything. The green dollar is American, and the red one is mine,” – S. Mavrodi

100 tickets, outwardly resembling a Soviet chervonets with the image of a schemer in the center, were equated to 1 share.

Have you or your relatives invested in MMM?

The rise and fall of the pyramid

The popularity of MMM grew incredibly. Tickets were bought not only by ordinary citizens, even large firms preferred to invest in “Mavrodiki”, and not in a weakened ruble. Some companies even gave wages to employees in tickets. Few people thought that this false currency is not supported by anything and sooner or later the source of unjustified profit will dry up.

A competent PR campaign in the press and on television also played an important role. The advertising hero Lenya Golubkov became more popular than President Yeltsin.

As a result, according to various sources, from 10 to 15 million people became the owners of false securities. The profit of "MMM" only in Moscow was estimated per day at 50 million dollars.

“In the rooms with money roamed all and sundry. Come and take as much as you want. Moreover, no one knows exactly how much that money is. They would only notice if the level dropped, say, to “half a room”, - S. Mavrodi

Problems arose when, in July 1994, lines began to line up for profit. The MMM management was well aware that sooner or later the situation would become critical. Therefore, in order to stabilize the situation, it was decided to lower the value of the shares to their nominal value - 1,000 rubles, that is, 125 times. But such news and the lack of money at the payout points led to riots.

To calm the people, rumors were immediately launched that the company was closed on Yeltsin's personal order, and 14 KAMAZ trucks with money were sent to the capital to settle accounts with depositors. In addition, the swindler stated that in the future the value of the shares would grow 2 times faster. The riots were brought to an end. But on August 4, Sergei Mavrodi was detained, which was the impetus for new unrest.

Later, the schemer regretted that he had not directed the distraught crowd to the Kremlin.

In total, the history of the MMM pyramid lasted only six months - from February 1, 1994 (the moment the sale of shares began) to August 4, 1994 (the date Mavrodi was arrested). But during this time, on a fraudulent scheme, the swindler managed to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from the people, according to rough estimates.

Punishment of the Grand Schemer

The first detention of Mavrodi did not lead to a well-deserved sentence. The accusations of concealing profits and tax evasion could not be proved. Moreover, in October 1994, the swindler is nominated and becomes a deputy. He practically moves to the seat of the State Duma from the dock.

But literally a year later, he loses his deputy mandate due to absenteeism and, accordingly, immunity. In 1996, he even planned to run for president, but the CEC did not allow this, recognizing the signatures as fake.

Only in September 1997, the MMM company was declared bankrupt, and a year later the prosecutor's office resumed the fraud case. However, by this time the great strategist managed to escape, which was the reason for putting him on the international wanted list.

Interesting fact! All 5 years Mavrodi was hiding in an apartment on Frunzenskaya embankment in Moscow

He was detained in his own apartment on January 31, 2003. At first, the case was treated as tax evasion, and only after the statute of limitations was recognized was a charge of fraud brought.

In total, the process lasted until April 28, 2007. For more than 4 years, the testimony of 10,000 victims has been heard. The swindler was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, but a month later he was released from prison, as he had already spent almost the entire term in the isolation ward.

The investigation estimated the damage from MMM's activities at $110 million. It was not possible to calculate the number of victims, since the "shareholders" were not registered anywhere. It is customary to talk about 15 million depositors, of which 50 committed suicide. However, according to the Association of Investors, Mavrodi earned 70-80 billion dollars, respectively, and the number of victims is many times greater. The court in 2007 recognized the damage in the amount of 4.5 billion rubles.

Where did the MMM money go?

In fact, the schemer Mavrodi did not suffer a well-deserved punishment, and investors lost billions. No claims were made for damages. And the swindler himself led a rather modest, sometimes reclusive life. Logically, the question arises, where did the MMM money go? There are several versions that surfaced during the consideration of the criminal case:

1. At the time of the first arrest, 17 cars of banknotes were taken out of the head office. The confiscation was carried out by "men in black".
2. Mavrodi managed to invest part of the money in the shares of Rosneft, Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz, Norilsk Nickel, UAZ. However, it was not possible to seize these shares, despite repeated demands. According to bailiffs, the new owners of these papers bring an annual profit of at least 200 billion rubles.
3. Part of the funds was withdrawn to foreign accounts - the exact amount is not indicated.
4. 145 billion rubles (30 tons of banknotes) in 1995 was withdrawn from the accounts of the National Pension Bank (former Edelweiss Bank, before that MMM-Bank). The further fate of this sum remains unknown.

And to the question of the judge, what Mavrodi personally took out of business for himself, the swindler answered:

“Listen! What kind of business?! With this kind of deed, there is a completely different level of motivation. Not money. I was a wealthy person even before this whole story. So getting involved in all this for the sake of some money was absolutely not worth it. ”

But even this story taught nothing to those who want to make quick money. In 2011, a new project "MMM-2011" appeared, which was later renamed "MMM-2012". The pyramid worked only virtually on the Web and was quickly covered up for fraud.

In 2016, he opened branches in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, Japan, Thailand, China. In addition, people who knew Mavrodi from their work in the Duma spoke about the plans of a brilliant swindler to make an Internet currency. Perhaps virtual money is also the fruit of the activity of a combinator programmer. But we will never know this, Sergei Mavrodi died in March 2018 at the age of 63.

For details about the fate of the financial pyramid "MMM", see the documentary "Money":

Education: Higher economics, specialization - management in the industrial sector (Kramatorsk Institute of Economics and Humanities).
May 26, 2019 .

"... And I ask you to compensate for the moral damage caused by the actions of Mavrodi in the amount of two thousand rubles ..." - the woman patiently, in an even beaded handwriting, completes the statement.

Do you think they will pay? I ask, looking over her shoulder.

Yes, what is there! the applicant waves her hand. - So many thresholds have already been beaten, so many spears have been broken off! .. Little hope.

So why are you writing?

Yes, just in case. Let it be...

The same applicants, who do not really hope for success, constantly crowd in the lobby of the building of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Basically, these are women of retirement age, most of them are residents of the Moscow region.

Having learned about the arrest of Sergei Mavrodi, the creator of the most scandalous financial "pyramid" "MMM", Sergei Mavrodi, who was hiding for a long time, the deceived investors again take crumpled tickets with a portrait of Sergei Mavrodi, the founding father of the domestic "pyramid construction", from the stash holders. They remember how they defended long queues in the three-letter office in order to return the hard-earned savings entrusted to her, and how everyone remained with their ... fake, unsecured pieces of paper.

And recently, crowds of angry MMM depositors almost stormed the entrances of the Investigative Committee. This time the crush was no longer for money or "pyramid" shares. Reproduced samples and forms of applications to the court for compensation for material and moral damage were sold like hot cakes. Some grannies, having received the coveted form, stood in line for the second time, so that, having taken another one, they immediately ... sold it to newcomers. For those who didn't want to stand in line. One cunning and craftsman was selling forms, quickly reproduced by him on a copier. And especially enterprising ones tried to foist "wrappers" "MMM" on each other, assigning the "debts" of the company. The spirit of Mavrodi hovered over the crowd again...

Immediately, after we announced that we were accepting applications from the affected MMM depositors, the hype began, - says Colonel of Justice Viktor Vaschenko. - Of course, we expected a large influx of victims. But to such! The number of people was so great that they blocked the entire street.

A queue formed. On the first day alone, according to our calculations, at least two thousand people showed up. And after all, these are only residents of Moscow and the Moscow region! No less affected by the country's most famous "pyramid" in other regions of Russia. Therefore, the amount of work on the "Mavrodi case" is enormous. Applicants, most likely, will be at least two hundred thousand. If in the old "pyramid" cases the number of victims interviewed could be limited to a few thousand, and the remaining affected depositors could subsequently independently apply to the court for damages, now we need to cover everyone. This is what the new Code of Criminal Procedure prescribes. If the depositor's statement does not appear in the case, his train has left. The court no longer recognizes him as a victim and will not accept the claim.

According to Vashchenko, 3,950 victims were interrogated before the hype with statements. The new applicants will be handled by an investigative team consisting of ten investigators and four operatives. If the group is not increased, then the case will drag on for a very long time. Because each of the investigators will have to invite at least another twenty thousand investors for a conversation!

In general, the real number of victims is much higher, it can reach two to three million people.

But not all of them are ready to go to court today. Investigators conditionally divide the affected depositors into three categories. The first includes those who invested money among the first and managed to win significantly, and this gain exceeds the damage suffered by them subsequently. To the second - investors who have lost insignificant money, and to the third - those who have been "warmed up" by really substantial sums. Among today's applicants there are representatives of all three categories.

At the suggestion of some media engaged in so-called "investigations" on the subject of where the "gold of the party" is buried, many of the victims are sure that the investigators' safes are literally bursting with money confiscated from Mavrodi. And in order to get back your hard-earned rubles, you just need to pity the harsh representatives of the law as much as possible. Otherwise, it won't.

Vashchenko says that recently an old woman came to see him, who told a heartbreaking story that she once sold an apartment and a summer house in order to invest all the proceeds in MMM. As a result, she was left without means of subsistence and without housing. For seven years she has been living with her sister who sheltered her.

Of course, humanly, these people are very sorry, - says Vashchenko. “Many of them have put all their possessions on the line for dubious profit. But every time we have to patiently explain to them that some payments for the damage caused will begin no earlier than the time the trial takes place.

To date, law enforcement agencies have seized a significant part of Sergei Mavrodi's property: eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars, seven hundred and ninety thousand German marks, about seven million rubles, and also seized property worth about one hundred thousand dollars. The investigation also found foreign accounts, which, according to preliminary data, belong to the former head of MMM JSC. We have already sent a number of investigative orders to a number of countries near and far abroad. If the information is confirmed, let's hope that we will be able to return this money to the country. In any case, the affected investors can count on the possibility of receiving at least some percentage of the capital they have lost.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the creation of various kinds of check-investment funds and other "organizations with limited criminal liability". However, society to this day is looking for an answer to the age-old Russian question "who is to blame?", which entails an almost rhetorical "where were the police looking?"

In the case of Mavrodi and his "pyramidal" offspring MMM, there are not only questions, but also direct accusations of the inaction of operational and investigative bodies. Why, having arrested the most famous swindler seven years ago, did the authorities set Mavrodi free? Why not something to think about? But no one asks such a question, for example, why in 1994 the State Property Committee allowed OJSC "MMM" to issue one thousand share certificates and nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand "tickets" "MMM" - practically unsecured pieces of paper, and even "to bearer"? And who, by the way, thought about how many of these pieces of paper were actually issued?

In the period of the post-Soviet NEP, the slogan "take as much as you can carry" uttered from high tribunes was taken too literally. And then the legislation, outdated in the new economic conditions, did not keep pace with the change of scenery.

Mavrodi was lucky, - Vashchenko is convinced. - And there were three reasons for that. First of all, vaguely written legislation, difficult to apply in those conditions. After all, most of Mavrodi's colleagues in the "workshop" quite convincingly argued that the bankruptcy of their investment firms is an objective process. Then the concept of "commercial risk" became very popular. It's like in that joke about the old horse that fell before reaching the finish line. Well, those who bet on it - sorry. Well, she couldn't...

Many of the investment companies that have signs of "pyramids" were created in most cases as a distraction, created small enterprises or partially invested the money they collected from investors in some kind of business. Some even paid some taxes. The same Mavrodi, starting his business in Volgograd, where in 1990 he registered MMM LLP, first made money on commerce. But already in 1995, when evidence appeared that the Moscow company he had created on the basis of a small cooperative was receiving money out of thin air, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on the fact of fraud on a large scale.

Mavrodi was arrested, but he did not stay long in the pre-trial detention center: the terms of pre-trial detention had expired. In addition, the investors robbed by him began to organize demonstrations demanding the immediate release of their "benefactor". And this was the second, albeit beyond common sense, reason for Mavrodi's "luck". Well, and the third, probably, is that at that time there was no definite political will of the leadership of our country, which was supposed to put an end to the "pyramid" movement at the legislative level.

It is not surprising that in the muddy waters of legislative uncertainty and conscientious delusion of citizens who drank democracy, Mavrodi managed to become a deputy of the State Duma. With the money of his depositors and with the help of their votes, the swindler who had just left the pre-trial detention center bought himself parliamentary immunity. At the same time, he did not stop forging money, for which he was soon deprived of parliamentary powers.

And in early 1997, the new Criminal Code finally came into force, which included a whole series of articles on economic crime. It was at this time, apparently realizing that the smell of fried, Mavrodi disappeared, disappeared in an unknown direction. His criminal case was suspended.

Now the pioneer of the "pyramid" business, Sergei Mavrodi, will already be in the last ranks of those who have to pay for the costs of the "wild" business. Long before him, the heads of such large financial pyramids as Hermes-Finance, Khoper-Invest, Russian House of Selenga, Chara-Bank, Vlastilina and many others had already been in the dock. These criminal cases were investigated for a very long time. First of all, this was due to the large volume of work on interviewing victims. Nevertheless, the investigating authorities completed and passed through the courts eighty criminal cases on the activities of the "pyramids". Fifty more are currently under consideration. Fifty-four cases were suspended due to the search for the accused and forty-five due to the failure to identify the perpetrators. It would seem that our society, taught by the bitter experience of "pyramid building", should have long since grown out of the beautifully pleasant fantasies of Russian folk tales about pies jumping into the mouth, and other freebies that rain down from the sky on the head of Ivan the Fool and others like him, for a long time it's time to turn to the classics, so as not to sit with nothing in vain waiting for a new goldfish. But for some reason this doesn't happen. Young and nimble followers of Mavrodi, having creatively developed and legally secured the profitable idea of ​​fooling citizens, hospitably opened the doors of new "business clubs". And in the "pyramids of the new wave", as it is not strange, crowds of people again reached out. To hand over "voluntary contributions" in exchange for promises of a refund with huge interest. And, of course, new criminal cases went to the investigating authorities.

The Chertanovsky Intermunicipal Court of Moscow has already convicted Vyacheslav Mavrodi, the younger brother of the famous founder of MMM. Following in the footsteps of the elder, he created organizations with very eloquent names - "MMM-96" and "MMM-97", as well as a kind of "System of voluntary donations". Through these financial structures, funds were received from the population under the guise of voluntary donations on a return basis with subsequent payment on deposits. Neither of these, of course, happened. The head of the renewed "MMM" was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. The damage inflicted on the depositors deceived by him amounted to more than three billion eight hundred million non-denominated rubles. However (who would have thought!) a huge crowd of depositors gathered near the courthouse, who disagreed with the verdict and demanded "Freedom for Mavrodi!".

How many times have they told the world...

And in the building of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, victims are still crowding.

I once also invested in "Tibet", - says one of the applicants to her friend in misfortune. - And won something. Made it in time. Now, if only a little earlier I had the "tickets" I had to exchange for real money! After all, the representative of Mavrodi was sitting at our enterprise, on the floor below ...

And what money did he collect! It's necessary! They say they were taken out in cars, - another responds.

And I saw how they took it out. Trucks. These, - a third intervenes, pointing for some reason to the guards at the entrance, - these were taken out. Masks with eye holes...

Of course, one cannot but sympathize with these middle-aged women, who receive more than modest pensions, have already been deceived more than once by financial "pyramids" and the state with its predatory monetary "reforms" and vouchers. But didn't they demand with their votes in the elections the immediate release of the swindler Mavrodi, who were ready to tear the policemen to pieces? And didn't they send him to power with their votes in the elections? Few of them were completely unaware of the fact that gambling for money is fraught with ruin. And that then there was clearly a dishonest game. The thirst for a quick freebie has deprived them of the ability to think, and now they are shouting: "Where did the police look?"

Law enforcement agencies again proved to be extreme. Once again they have to deal with the consequences of mass fooling. In fact, the "builders of Egyptian structures" still continue to collect their fraudulent tribute from disadvantaged citizens. Because the work of numerous operational and investigative units on criminal cases related to the "pyramid" swindle is paid from the pocket of taxpayers. The same deceived depositors. But, alas, judging by the huge wave of such cases, it seems that their number is not going to decrease. Despite numerous warnings, citizens step on the same rake again and again. MMM - manic maurodimania - a very contagious disease of society, like the flu, has serious relapses and complications.

Alena Novikova
After the collapse of the most scandalous financial pyramid "MMM", its creator Sergei Mavrodi was hiding in Sweden for some time. After moving to Greece, he registered a new kind of financial pyramid there - the Stockgeneration Internet exchange. The creator of another scam offered users to buy shares of virtual enterprises, so that after some time, when a large number of investors accumulate, they could sell them twice as much. And so on, until the "pyramid" collapses.

Three hundred thirty-five thousand people became victims of Stockgeneration.com, who invested five and a half million dollars in this scam. When the "pyramid" collapsed, as expected, a federal court in Boston refused to recognize the claims of the US Securities Commission, considering the "exchange" some kind of "commercial game."

Mavrodi returned to Russia and lived in the capital in rented apartments under the strictest secrecy, practically without leaving home. He was guarded by the guards he hired. But in the end, the famous "pyramid builder" was nevertheless detained in one of these apartments on Frunzenskaya Embankment. During the search, investigators found Sergei Mavrodi's passport with his photograph, but in the name of Yuri Zaitsev, a resident of St. Petersburg. After the examination, the charge of fraud brought against Mavrodi earlier can also be added to the charge of forging documents.

According to experts, the damage caused by the head of the firm "MMM" to the deceived investors is about one hundred billion non-denominated rubles. For committing fraud that caused damage on an especially large scale, Sergei Mavrodi faces a sentence of up to ten years in prison.

The creator of the MMM pyramid and the prophet of the "financial apocalypse" left a billion official debts - doctors check the circumstances of death

This morning in Moscow, the most legendary businessman of the 90s, the creator of MMM Sergey Mavrodi, unexpectedly died. So far, the main version is a heart attack, but doctors perform an autopsy just in case. About why Mavrodi was afraid of the Kremlin, whether he was the uncrowned king of an alternative state, whether he had high patrons and how many people suffered from the financial pyramids he built - in the material "BUSINESS Online".

Sergei Mavrodi died in a completely different way than multimillionaires usually die - not on his own yacht or villa surrounded by glamorous beauties, but at a bus stop surrounded by a "passerby" Photo: ITAR-TASS / Maxim Shemetov

“THE DOCTORS WERE FOR SOMETHING CONCERNED BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS DEATH”

62 year old Sergey Mavrodi he died in a completely different way than multimillionaires usually die - not on his own yacht or villa surrounded by glamorous beauties, but at a bus stop surrounded by a “passerby”. This passerby, according to media reports, called the creator of the legendary MMM an ambulance when he complained of weakness and pain in his heart. Mavrodi died already in the hospital at 6:40 am on March 26 from a "massive heart attack" - this information was spread by the Mash Telegram channel.

However, there is much that is unclear here. What did Sergei Panteleevich do at the bus stop in the dead of night: was he waiting for the bus or was he just walking by? Which hospital was the ambulance taking him to? Two clinics appear in the press: the name of Botkin and number 67 (both are located near the place where Mavrodi became ill). At the same time, according to other information, the businessman was hospitalized from the apartment on Komsomolsky Prospekt, where he lived. “For some reason, the doctors were alarmed by the circumstances of his death, his body was sent to the judicial morgue for an autopsy,” the Mash channel reports, adding that the death of Mavrodi was ascertained by the doctors of the Botkin hospital, and not the 67th.

Nothing more is known about his death so far. Official condolences are not received in connection with the death of a businessman, and this is understandable: for the authorities, he was an opponent and a criminal who led her by the nose for a long time, but still served his time in places of detention. Disputes about the inheritance of Mavrodi are also not heard: all that remains of the largest businessman of the 90s is debts in the amount of a billion rubles. According to the UFSSP website for Moscow, most of the debt obligations date back to 2008.

"I'M ASKED:" WAS IT WELL IN THE UNION? NOT, THIS IS VERY BAD"

Bilateral heart disease in Mavrodi was diagnosed in childhood, and in general he grew up as a very sickly boy. Doctors, they say, even whispered to parents that their son might not live to adulthood. Now such children are usually teased by “nerds”: a big-lipped, slightly ridiculous guy in huge heavy glasses, comes from an ordinary family (father, half-Greek and half-Ukrainian, is an installer; mother, Russian, is an economist). Nevertheless, Sergei turned out to be extremely viable. At school, he impressed teachers and peers with his phenomenal memory, won competitions in mathematics and physics, and studied drawing. Later, as a student, he compensated for his physical weakness with sambo lessons and achieved the title of Candidate Master of Masters, which was a rarity for a frail young man with a weak heart.

Nevertheless, he could not be attributed to the prosperous Soviet youth. Mavrodi was neither a Komsomol activist, nor a builder of the BAM, nor a person from the cover of the Kommunist magazine. Rather, he was a slob with criminal (at that time) inclinations. And life in the then USSR was clearly divided into two unequal, parallel realities: light and shadow. In the first, the decrepit Central Committee ruled, Pioneer Dawns and health resorts of successful five-year plans sounded, and in the second, dissidents, swindlers, fortune-tellers, sorcerers and underground millionaires, hardly compatible with each other, quietly reigned. In relation to the Soviet officialdom, this, of course, was an anti-world, and at some point young Mavrodi began to be drawn into its funnel. He became a farce.

In 1972, Sergei entered the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics - the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, where by that time the Department of Artificial Intelligence was already operating. From today's standpoint, this was a very promising direction. But student Mavrodi found it much more promising to make copies of audio and video materials and then sell them from under the counter. It is clear that the Beatles were well quoted, Vysotsky was in great demand, there was also a demand for “blatnyak”. It was also profitable to play poker for money, and Sergey Panteleevich was fond of this for some time. At the institute, he studied casually, skipped lectures. Nevertheless, he graduated from the university, went to work at the research institute (in some biographical sources it is called closed), but he only lasted as an engineer for three years. By the beginning of the 80s, Mavrodi was no longer working at a "super-secret" scientific institute, but as a watchman in the subway.

“Sometimes people ask me: “Was it good in the Union?” Sergey Panteleevich admitted in an interview. - Not. Badly. Very bad. Although there I was in relative prosperity, but here, in today's Russia, I have nothing but continuous troubles and misfortunes: I was also wanted, hell knows how long I wandered around rented apartments; and later in prison. There I had for some reason a constant feeling that I was in prison. On PZh, moreover. And there is no way out. The hopelessness is somehow complete and oppressive. Dullness, dullness, dullness... Low-paying jobs? Well, yes, he was. Janitor, basically. But then it was not easy. Well, you don’t work yourself, you negotiate with someone so that your site is cleaned for you. After a while, there are envious people... (Although, it would seem, what kind of "envious people" are there?! What the hell is there to envy?) In short, I had to change my place of work all the time. In the meantime, you will find the next one ... Unemployed for several months. The district police officer begins to drag himself along ... Guards, in a word! When I remember, I shudder.

The last place of work really was - a night watchman at the Sviblovo metro station. But I already worked there. I was tired of wandering from place to place by that time. And yes, it was getting tough. The district police officer was already hinting in no uncertain terms ... And just the hundred and first kilometer - che-there! - yaked. So honestly, I came every three days and sat all night alone in an empty office. Well! Silence, peace. Sitting and reading a book...

The underground business with the sale of pirated videos flourished by that time, so that in 1983 law enforcement agencies first drew attention to him and detained him for illegal business. Since there was no legal business in the USSR as a class, Mavrodi's fate seemed a foregone conclusion, but after 10 days he was released without any special consequences - they say they took pity on the young and stupid. And just two years later, he came to power in the Kremlin Mikhail Gorbachev and opened wide the doors to yesterday's Soviet "anti-world": the time of cooperatives, stalls and "trunks" began - in general, the era of the initial accumulation of capital.

About how even the experienced inhabitants of the "anti-world" were shocked by the freedom that rushed from everywhere, the author of these lines was told by the once famous "criminal authority" named Shark. Everything turned upside down: neither the army nor the police, in fact, no longer existed, but almost every "authoritative" businessman had his own army of well-trained, trained and well-armed bodyguards who took an active part in politics (for example, in In 1991, during the coup, such private armies defended the White House along with enthusiastic Democratic activists). Under these conditions, in 1989, the MMM cooperative appeared, whose name was due to the merger of three "M": the names of Mavrodi himself, his brother Vyacheslav and wife of the latter Olga Melnikova. Several other structures of the same name later spun off from this cooperative, the main of which was a financial pyramid with fifteen million investors.

Subsequently, Mavrodi denied having high patrons, but it was hard to believe in his assurances. And much smaller businesses in the 1990s were easily trampled on at the start. What could protect Mavrodi with his not at all brutal appearance - what kind of safe-conduct? Did the mere knowledge of sambo frighten the formidable racketeers of that time so much that they did not dare to challenge Sergey Panteleevich's pyramid with fifteen million shareholders at the base? Or was it not just that young Mavrodi was released in 1983, and his possible connections with "influential people" in the competent authorities began at that time?

“ANOTHER MONTH OR ANOTHER AND THE COUNTRY WOULD HAVE NO GOVERNMENT OR PRESIDENT, BUT THERE WOULD BE ONE MAVRODI”

Further biography of Sergei Mavrodi is on the surface. The whole country in the 90s yearned for a miracle and instant enrichment - from vouchers, stalls, Turkish and Chinese "clothes" imported from abroad. Therefore, yesterday's engineer-physicist only correctly guessed the direction of the blow - he offered the millions of former Soviet citizens left without salaries and pensions to earn quickly and a lot. And Russia, which before that believed in Yeltsin, Kashpirovsky and Chumak, also easily believed in Mavrodi and made him a fortune in just six months.

“MMM lasted only six months - not a year, as almost everyone is sure without exception! - later said the founder of the financial pyramid. - That is, everything was achieved by me in just six months. On February 1, 1994, the shares went on sale, and on August 3, I was arrested. During this time, the price of shares-tickets increased 127 times, and at the time of my arrest I controlled about a third of the country's budget.

For MMM, the loudest advertising campaign of that time was organized - a 16-episode advertising series about Lena Golubkov (performed by actor Vladimir Permyakov), successfully aired on central TV channels. In the very first episode, Lenya invested in MMM, and in just two weeks he received twice his initial investment. Further, from series to series, he rapidly grew rich: he bought his wife boots, a fur coat, furniture, a car, and finally a house. It was a dream come true, tracing on the American or Ostap Bender's dream: a simple guy Lenya Golubkov with the "appearance of Sharikov" in front of millions of enchanted spectators turned into a very respectable gentleman, easily walking around Los Angeles and San Francisco. To his brother, who reproached him for making money without doing anything, Lenya answered with a phrase that has since become an aphorism: "I'm not a freeloader, I'm a partner."

The number of those affected by the actions of the MMM in 1994 was estimated by experts in different ways: from 10,000 depositors who suffered the most significant damage from the collapse of the pyramid, to 10-15 million. Actor Permyakov and his colleagues in the advertising mini-series were not included in this mournful martyrology: as Vladimir Sergeevich himself later admitted, they were paid $ 200-250 per shooting day. About two years ago, the author of these lines accidentally met Permyakov in the Crimea: he was cheerful, philosophically disposed, and willingly shared scripts he had composed at his leisure. In 2011, Permyakov appeared for the last time in an advertisement for the revived MMM with a sigh that “the excavator still had to be sold.” This was the only screen evidence of the collapse that befell the fictional Lenya Golubkov.

The actions of MMM and its creator were suspended for violation of tax laws. Mavrodi ended up in prison, but even from there he managed to run for the State Duma. Having received the status of a candidate for deputies and having been released, Sergei Panteleevich easily won the elections. He is usually credited with the refusal of the deputy salary and all deputy privileges: benefits, dachas, company cars. All that the founder of MMM needed was parliamentary immunity, and he achieved it.

During these years, Mavrodi was not just the owner of a network campaign, but the uncrowned king of a separate state that dared to argue with the Russian government itself. According to him, Sergei Panteleevich was repeatedly invited to the negotiations in the Kremlin, but he always ignored these invitations. But the portraits of Mavrodi flaunt on the so-called MMM tickets, made like banknotes. This once again reminds of the empire he created in six months, where yesterday's farce was everything for his subjects - a god and a president. He even threatens the authorities to hold a national referendum and raise the issue of no confidence in the Kremlin. And the inhabitants of the Kremlin seem to take this threat seriously: they, like millions of investors, believe in the great potential of this man.

“Another month or two - and there would be neither a government nor a president in the country, but there would be only one Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi,” the owner of MMM assured in his interviews, broadcasting what the investigators told him. - The one and only. As for the state. The state is concrete people. Who make decisions. And they give orders. In this case, this is Chernomyrdin and his entire gop company. And the state is just a screen behind which it is very convenient to hide. Something kind of faceless. And irresponsible. Yes, not the state, but some specific freaks. Which then derban of the country arranged. All this grabbing. And MMM bothered them. The emergence of an independent and uncontrolled player with virtually unlimited funds.

By the way, in the 2011 feature film PiraMMMida (director Eldar Salavatov) Mavrodi is presented in this way: as a principled fighter against the deceitful and anti-people Yeltsin regime. And the fact that Sergei Panteleevich in this film is played by the star of Leviathan, an actor Alexey Serebryakov, makes this image even more convincing. Nevertheless, Mavrodi could not stand the fight with the Leviathan. He was not allowed to run for president (although he was already collecting signatures for his presidential campaign), and instead they drove him underground.

Already in October 1995, State Duma deputies terminated his deputy powers ahead of schedule, after which the entrepreneur went to the bottom. He is put on the national wanted list, and a year later, on the international wanted list. Even Interpol is joining the search for the "villain" Mavrodi. Rumor has it that the creator of MMM hid in Scandinavia or Greece, or hid with one of his high patrons on Rublyovka. In reality, as it turned out later, until the winter of 2003 he lived locked up in a rented apartment in Moscow and even managed to create a virtual Stock Generation (SG) stock exchange from there, registered in one of the Caribbean countries. This was already a Mavrodian blow to the Yankees and Europeans: about 275 thousand citizens of the United States and Western Europe suffered from the actions of the SG.

In 2007, Mavrodi finally went to jail for a long time, having received 4.5 years for fraud. Nevertheless, already in 2011, when the government weakened again, and the opposition gathered thousands of rallies on Bolotnaya, the entrepreneur again declares himself by creating MMM-2011. He also retains political ambitions: he even wanted to run for the last presidential election in 2018, as he once did in the 90s. Of course, he was not allowed to submit an application or collect signatures. Another week will pass, and Mavrodi's obituaries will appear in the press.

“I HAVE TO RUN, BUT HE STAYED IN THE APARTMENT, WENT FISHING, WRITTEN BOOKS”

How was Mavrodi remembered - a financial genius, a fighter for justice or a global speculator, and whether he can be considered a herald of bitcoin and other financial pyramids, BUSINESS Online asked its experts to comment.

Eldar Salavatov- director of the film about Mavrodi "PiraMMMida":

- Personally, I did not communicate with Sergei Mavrodi, but I shot the film, because I was offered to make this movie. He didn't leave right away. At this time, I was finishing my previous film, it didn’t work out right away, then they agreed to take on another director. Then we broke up with him and returned to my candidacy, by which time I had already completed my film. Mavrodi did not seek to communicate with him, sometimes personal contact interferes with the project. So this is my creative imagination. Consider that we made a film according to his script. However, Mavrodi sold the rights to this story. On the eve of filming, he was no longer sure that the story he saw would be. Of course, if he was a guy who only cares about money, he would be happy. But Mavrodi, as a powerful creative unit, did not accept this project. The continuation of the story was considered, because Mavrodi created a powerful American pyramid in the late 90s on the Internet. But the market has changed, it did not come to the continuation. If PiraMMMida had been released in the 2000s, it would have been a big box office success. But by the time our film was released, the cinema had turned into Tushino Market. Incomprehensible producers came out with obscure comedies and killed the desire to watch our movies. The original script was closer to the life story of Mavrodi, but when I read it, I said that no one would watch such a movie. I guess I was the initiator of the changes in the script, because it was non-commercial.

You know, there was a philosopher Skovoroda, on whose tombstone the inscription was engraved: "The world caught me, but did not catch me." If we consider the life of Mavrodi in a philosophical sense, then we can say that he had a lot of money, but he did not use it. They were not interested in him. He was interested in inventing structures like mathematics. When the pyramid collapsed, it was necessary to run. Many would have done just that. And Mavrodi stayed in the apartment, went fishing, wrote books. In this sense, the world could not catch him; from this point of view, his life is successful. Although there are so many examples when people left with stolen money for London. Mavrodi went against the current.

The entire state system, any system built with money is the same pyramid as Mavrodi's. The film is about just that. Therefore, when you turn on the TV, every second person is the successor of the “Mavrodi case”.

Jan Art- Vice President of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia:

- Of course, I remember Sergei Mavrodi as a fraudster. Although the person is talented and charismatic. The pyramid was the largest in Russia, but the American Glen Turner created the pyramid long before that. I note that Mavrodi made the greatest contribution to the development of financial literacy of the Russian population. True, the training was paid. As a Catholic, I believe that anything immoral is not a success. Rather, Mavrodi achieved the opposite.

Mavrodi is not a forerunner of bitcoin. Once again, I repeat that the first inventor of the financial pyramid was Glen Turner. As for the effect of cryptocurrencies, there is nothing like a pyramid in it. This is a huge bubble, albeit with a hype, but still a technology. And Mavrodi gave out empty paper, like Turner in his time.

Roman Bakanov— Media critic, Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism of the Higher School of Journalism and Media Communications of KFU:

- Advertising MMM - this is practically one of our first series, it was played day and night. I myself show this advertisement to students in class. This is a series that humanized the characters on the screen. Why did people go to Mavrodi? Because people recognized themselves! Excavator driver Lenya Golubkov, lonely Marina Sergeevna, who does not trust anyone, students, pensioners. It's the same series. This is our answer to "Just Mary", "The rich also cry", "Santa Barbara" and so on.

We say "financial pyramid", but we understand MMM, but how many pyramids were there then! "MMM" has become a household word.

Let's remember the first half of the 1990s, when people were promised that everyone would be shareholders, that everyone would live well. Who doesn't want a good life? Mavrodi gave people great hope, but he shamelessly took this hope away from them, knocked it out from under their feet. He is a brilliant, untalented swindler who fooled the people and returned in 2011 with a new MMM. And people believed again!

Minsk resident Vladimir Smirnov "burned out" on the financial pyramid "MMM" for seven thousand dollars in equivalent, but he does not regret anything, calling that period an interesting life experience. Sputnik talked to one of the thousands of defrauded depositors.

On Monday it became known that the creator of the largest financial pyramid Sergei Mavrodi. According to preliminary data, the businessman had a heart attack.

Belarusians remember the time when "MMM" was gaining momentum, and they themselves believed in getting rich quick.

TV advertising

JSC "MMM" was founded in 1992 by Sergei Mavrodi. According to various estimates, from 2 to 15 million investors participated in its activities. The damage inflicted on them by the company exceeded 110 million Russian rubles.

Vladimir Smirnov became a MMM contributor in 1993. Then, he recalls, only the deaf did not hear about the financial pyramid. An advertisement for the Mavrodi company with "not a freeloader, but a partner" Lenya Golubkov was on television for days on end.

“The excitement was great, and I also decided to invest. I was young, I wanted to somehow spin,” recalls the source of the agency.

One could become a MMM contributor by visiting the central office of the organization. He was in Moscow, on the Warsaw highway.

Central office "MMM" on Warsaw highway

The office organized the sale of "maurodiks" - special shares with a face value of a thousand rubles. On the "bills", as Vladimir now remembers, they depicted the founder of the pyramid - Mavrodi.

"One "Mavrodic" cost a thousand rubles, and then the dollar was three thousand rubles. So consider how much the membership cost," says Smirnov.

There were no restrictions. As much as you want, buy as many "Maurodiks". Having acquired them, a person automatically became a contributor.

“There were those who, out of greed, took a lot of Mavrodikov, and then ended up with papers. I initially invested the equivalent of a thousand dollars,” the Minsk resident notes.

Money bags

Vladimir stayed at MMM until its liquidation in 1994. During this time, I managed to invest money several times and bail out good dividends.

“I remember how I invested a thousand dollars, two months later I received three,” says the Minsker.

“People really won there. They just had to stop in time and take the money,” he adds.

In August 1994, Sergei Mavrodi was arrested "for tax evasion". OMON officers stormed to take his central office. And depositors gathered near the building, who began to demand that tax officials stop their “arbitrariness” or return their savings.

© Sputnik / Vladimir Fedorenko

Investors JSC "MMM"

Smirnov also came to Moscow. He then invested seven thousand dollars in MMM.

“I remember a big panic: there were a lot of people near the office. I had to take a queue,” recalls the contributor.

© Sputnik / Yuri Abramochkin

Unauthorized rally of "MMM" depositors

In a panic, the organizers of the pyramid, in front of the audience, hastily carried out the loot from the building. Vladimir personally saw how at first the money was carried in bags, and later three KAMAZ vehicles were driven to the office.

"Kickback" for the guard

In this situation, people tried in every way to get their money back. They persuaded the guards, who agreed to help them, but for a certain amount.

“The guards or the top of the pyramid agreed to give the person 70%, but appropriated the remaining 30% for themselves. Such was the “kickback,” the Minsk resident notes.

But, according to him, for this it was necessary to have acquaintances. Vladimir did not have such opportunities, so he returned to Minsk with nothing.

The man admits that he does not regret anything, because it has become an interesting adventure for him. He decided to take a risk, like many investors. The time was not easy, I hoped for a miracle.

"It was an interesting time. What to regret? Others lost even more," says the shareholder.

In 2003, Mavrodi was charged under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on an especially large scale"), he was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison.