Sergey Mavrodi and his family. At the premiere of the film Pyrammmida, Alexei Mitrofanov did not believe the script. "fascists were intelligent people"
Mavrodi is known far beyond the borders of Russia. The founder of the largest financial pyramid in the history of our country, MMM, is treated differently today. Some call him a brilliant entrepreneur, others call him a swindler who embezzled the money of millions of people. Despite such opposite assessments, the biography of Mavrodi still does not cease to interest society. Sergei's personal life deserves special attention, because his legal wife was a fashion model and winner of beauty contests Elena Pavlyuchenko.
Family wife Mavrodi
Pavlyuchenko Elena Alexandrovna was born in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye on June 7, 1969. The girl's mother worked as an engineer, her father was a candidate of technical sciences, and headed a laboratory at the Research Institute of Titanium. Later, the Pavlyuchenko couple had another daughter, who was named Oksana.
School years
Lena Pavlyuchenko grew up as a quiet and uncommunicative child. She was an ordinary girl with pigtails and stood out among her classmates except for her more attractive appearance. Pavlyuchenko studied at secondary school No. 92 in the city of Zaporozhye. In the junior and middle grades, Lena had good academic performance, but before leaving school, triples began to appear in her diary. The girl's favorite subjects were literature and history, but she did not like physical education. In her free time, the future wife of Mavrodi attended a music school and a theater studio.
Participation in a beauty contest
After graduating from school, Lena entered the philological faculty of the Zaporozhye Pedagogical Institute in absentia, which she later left, and at the same time got a job as a nanny in a kindergarten. In 1989, the girl, who by that time had turned into a real beauty, decided to take part in the Miss Zaporozhye contest. Pavlyuchenko, who had studied at a theater studio behind her, managed to present herself favorably and easily made it to the top ten finalists. According to eyewitnesses, Elena had the most expensive outfits at the competition. It was rumored that she was the protégé of a wealthy and influential man, but his name was not disclosed. The girl was accompanied to the competition by her mother. She tried to pressure the jury to award the victory to her daughter. However, despite all her efforts, the first place was taken by another contestant. Elena got the title of "Vice-Miss".
Elena Pavlyuchenko was angry with the loss and decided to take revenge on the organizers and participants of the competition. She raised a loud scandal, stating that during the performance, precious earrings disappeared from her dressing room, and wrote a statement to the police. Everyone who was related to the competition was searched and summoned to law enforcement agencies for interrogation, but they could not find the jewelry. It was obvious that no one had stolen the girl's earrings, but everyone who was suspected of kidnapping had to endure an unpleasant humiliation then. Elena's mother could not calm down for a long time because of her daughter's loss and even tried to challenge the results of the competition through the courts.
Moving to the capital, acquaintance with Mavrodi
In the early 90s, Elena came to conquer Moscow and appeared in Yuri Nikolaev's popular TV contest "Morning Star". The jury included Sergei Mavrodi, who was smitten on the spot by the beauty and talent of the young Zaporizhian woman. The founder of the financial pyramid at that time was engaged in the selection of photo models for MMM advertising and invited Lena to take part in the filming. Soon Pavlyuchenko becomes the face of the company and the bride of the rich Mavrodi. Especially for his beloved, the millionaire organized international beauty contests, in which she became the winner. Having won many titles, Lena headed the MMM-models modeling agency founded by Sergey.
Family life
According to the memoirs of Pavlyuchenko herself, they were in no hurry to register relations with Mavrodi and got married only in October 1993, when he began to have serious problems with the law. However, even after the registration of marriage, they did not much resemble ordinary spouses. Sergei Mavrodi lived separately from his young wife and met her from time to time. In one of his interviews, he said that he had no idea how to live with a woman in the same apartment.
Soon after the wedding, the newly minted Mrs. Mavrodi began to lead one of the MMM departments, receiving a huge salary for her work. But that was not her main mission. When Sergei, hiding from criminal responsibility, led the life of a recluse, Elena provided him with a connection with all the necessary people and followed the flow of money. Rumor has it that it was she who handed over her husband to law enforcement agencies in exchange for their promise to close their eyes to the sins that followed her. And they were connected not only with the activities of the wife of the "financial genius" in MMM.
Baby kidnapping case
In March 2001, 32-year-old Elena Pavlyuchenko-Mavrodi was detained in the capital on suspicion of kidnapping a newborn child who was being treated there. A one and a half month old baby was taken out of the building by an employee of the clinic and handed over to two ladies who were in a Nissan parked nearby. As it turned out later, one of the women in the car was Elena Mavrodi, and the other was her 38-year-old friend in the modeling business. It was for the latter that the baby was intended.
Research Institute employees suspected that they were preparing to kidnap a baby, so they were on the alert. Noticing how the attending physician took her little patient out into the street without permission and handed him over to unknown women, they raised the alarm. Soon the Nissan was stopped, and its passengers were taken to the police station. It turned out that Pavlyuchenko's barren girlfriend planned to illegally adopt the baby. Elena, who had connections at the research institute, volunteered to help her and organized the entire operation. However, during the investigation, Elena's friend changed her testimony and stated that she took the baby out of the research institute for only a few hours in order to show her lover and force him to marry her. The suspects so confused the investigation that as a result they were not charged with anything, and the criminal case was closed due to lack of evidence.
Balloting for the State Duma
The child kidnapping scandal is not the only dark spot in the biography of the wife of the creator of MMM. In the second half of the 90s, Elena Pavlyuchenko tried to make a political career. Mavrodi's wife ran 3 times for the State Duma, but twice her candidacy was withdrawn on the eve of voting due to vote bribery, and the last time she could not get the required number of votes.
Life after divorce
The marriage of Elena Pavlyuchenko with Mavrodi lasted until 2005. Having divorced her husband, she changed her name and appearance and disappeared from the media. According to people who know Sergei, his ex-wife and her mother live today in their own house in the suburbs. She is engaged in the father of which Mavrodi is, and does not give interviews.
The younger sister and her connections with Mavrodi
If Elena was Sergey's wife, then her own sister Oksana Pavlyuchenko is his companion in creating financial scams. Arriving in Moscow after her sister, the girl graduated from the Plekhanov Institute, having received a specialty. All the time while Oksana studied in the capital, she lived at the expense of her sister's husband. In the late 90s, together with Mavrodi, an enterprising girl organized a virtual exchange on the Internet, to which visitors transferred substantial amounts.
Having existed for some time, the exchange disappeared without a trace. In 2000, Oksana and Sergey were put on the wanted list by Interpol, but after the US court decided that the scam created by the scammers was an ordinary computer game in which there could be losers and winners, the case was closed. Having escaped the deserved punishment, Pavlyuchenko Jr. got married and stayed in Moscow. She is not hiding from anyone, but, like her older sister Elena, she categorically refuses to communicate with the media.
In contact with
Classmates
On March 26, 2018, Sergey Mavrodi, the creator of the financial pyramid “MMM”, died at the age of 63 in the capital’s hospital No. 67.
Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi was born on August 11, 1955 in the city of Moscow in the family of an installer Panteley Andreevich and an economist Valentina Fedorovna Mavrodi.
In 1978, he graduated from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering (now the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, part of the National Research University Higher School of Economics).
After graduating from the university, Mavrodi worked for several years in one of the closed metropolitan research institutes, from which he resigned in 1981. Then he began to secretly produce and sell audio recordings, officially working as a night watchman in the subway. In 1983, he was detained on charges of speculation, as a punishment he was sentenced to administrative arrest for 10 days.
In 1988, together with his younger brother Vyacheslav and his girlfriend Marina Muravyova, he created the MMM cooperative (the name is made up of the first letters of the names of the creators). Initially, the cooperative was engaged in the trade of imported office equipment, thanks to active advertising in 1991 it was the leader in Russia in this area. November 5, 1991 "MMM" registered its own commercial bank (liquidated in 1994).
In early 1992, the State Tax Service suspected MMM of tax evasion. Sergey Mavrodi abandoned the trading business and on October 20, 1992 registered a voucher investment fund OJSC (open joint stock company) MMM-Invest, and then other structures (JSC MMM, CJSC MMM-Funds, etc.). In February 1993, he began accepting privatization checks (vouchers) from people all over the country, promising depositors a 1,000% annual windfall. Practically "MMM" functioned as a financial pyramid: incomes to old investors were paid at the expense of entrance fees of new ones. Despite this, part of the money was invested in real assets: minority stakes were acquired in AvtoVAZ, the Tomsk petrochemical plant, and others.
Sergey Mavrodi attracted investors with active advertising in the media and high-profile promotions, for example, he sponsored the City Day in Moscow in 1994. The main character of the cycle of television commercials was the quickly getting rich “man of the people” Lenya Golubkov, whose role was played by actor Vladimir Permyakov.
The peak of fame "MMM" reached by the end of 1993: the shares of "MMM" and additionally issued by Mavrodi "tickets" quickly rose in price, their quotes were published in national newspapers and on television.
At the end of July 1994, MMM was again accused of tax evasion in the amount of 49.9 billion rubles. On July 29, Sergei Mavrodi announced a 127-fold decrease in the value of shares, from 127 to 1,000 rubles. This led to a panic of investors and further depreciation of MMM securities. The exact amount of damage caused to the Russian economy by the activities of MMM was not announced.
On August 4, 1994, OMON stormed the main office of MMM in the capital, the company's cash desk was arrested, and Sergei Mavrodi was taken into custody on charges of tax evasion. At the same time, many of the investors spoke out in his defense, because they were sure that the state, as well as representatives of law enforcement agencies, were to blame for the collapse of MMM. In fact, this testified to the collapse of the pyramid, but the company was officially liquidated only in 1997. In total, according to various estimates, from 10 to 15 million Russians invested in MMM, the damage in 2007 was estimated at 110 million rubles. (about $4 million). The stakes in AvtoVAZ and other companies purchased by MMM were returned to the state.
In 1994-1995, Sergei Mavrodi was a deputy of the State Duma of the 1st convocation. In September 1994, he was nominated by an initiative group of citizens, after which he was released from arrest. At the by-elections on October 30, 1994, he was elected in the Mytishchi single-mandate district (Moscow region) to replace the deputy Andrei Aizderdzis, who was killed in April 1994. Mavrodi did not enter the Duma factions, remaining an independent deputy. He was a member of the International Affairs Committee.
In 1994, together with political technologists Andrei Bogdanov (in 2008, a candidate in the presidential elections in Russia) and Valentin Poluektov, he founded the People's Capital Party. It did not take part in the Duma elections of 1995 and was soon liquidated.
On April 7, 1995, the State Duma, at the request of the Prosecutor General of Russia, attempted to deprive Sergei Mavrodi of parliamentary immunity in connection with the initiation of another criminal case against him on the fact of financial fraud. But 17 votes were not enough to remove the immunity (“for” 283 parliamentarians voted against the required minimum of 300 votes). On October 6, 1995, the deputy powers of Sergei Mavrodi were terminated ahead of schedule due to "neglect of deputy duties and engaging in commercial activities." But the criminal case against him was then suspended.
In 1996, Mavrodi put forward his candidacy for the post of President of Russia, but was not registered by the Central Election Commission due to the forgery of most of the signatures. After that, Sergei Mavrodi stopped appearing in public.
In 1998, together with his cousin Oksana Pavlyuchenko, he launched a financial pyramid via the Internet, which was called Stock Generation and was focused on the American market. By the time it crashed in 2000, a total of approximately 20,000 Americans had been affected.
In December 1997, the criminal case against Sergei Mavrodi was reopened, the creator of MMM was put on the international wanted list. On January 31, 2003, he was detained in his apartment in the capital. It turned out that the last time he lived on a fake passport in the name of Yuri Zaitsev.
On December 2, 2003, the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow sentenced Sergei Mavrodi under article 325 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Theft or damage of documents”) to 13 months in prison.
The tax evasion case in 2007 was closed due to the statute of limitations.
On April 28, 2007, the Chertanovsky Court of Moscow found Sergey Mavrodi guilty in the case of fraud (clause 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He was sentenced to 4.5 years in a penal colony, as well as a fine of 10,000 rubles. In addition, the court ordered him to pay 20 million rubles. defrauded depositors (in total, more than 10,000 people were recognized as victims). At the time of the sentencing, Sergei Mavrodi was in custody for 4 years and 5 months, respectively, on May 22, 2007 he was released.
In November 2008, the chief bailiff of Russia noted that due to the sale of property, Sergei Mavrodi was able to gain about 18 million rubles.
January 25, 2011 Sergei Mavrodi in his blog announced the founding of a new project - "MMM-2011" (this time the name stands for "We can do a lot"). The project again functioned as a financial pyramid: Mavrodi promised investors up to 100% per annum, however, unlike MMM in the 1990s, the system worked only through the Net, without a single center and accounts. Investors transferred funds directly to the “ten's managers” of the system, they also kept records. Mavrodi himself stated that he did not receive income from MMM-2011 and directly said that the project was a financial pyramid. No charges were brought against him by the Russian authorities.
On February 3, 2011, the Federal Antimonopoly Service reported that the MMM-2011 scheme had signs of fraud. On February 16, 2011, access to Sergei Mavrodi's website was banned by the decision of the Central Court of Volgograd, subsequently blocking was maintained by courts in other Russian regions.
In the spring of 2012, the influx of newcomers to “MMM-2011” no longer provided payments to old investors, they began to take money from the pyramid. On May 24, 2012, Sergei Mavrodi announced the “reorganization” of the pyramid, having founded MMM-2012, which worked according to the same scheme. The system began to work, except for Russia, in other CIS countries. Shortly thereafter, Mavrodi founded a number of other pyramids under the MMM brand, mainly working in the CIS countries, and then in Africa and Southeast Asia, while he himself practically stepped aside from project management.
Estimates of the number of affected investors of all these pyramid schemes in Russia and other countries of the world have not been published. Last year, the number of Nigerian investors in the failed African pyramid scheme MMM Global was estimated at 3 million people. At the end of the year before last, MMM Global launched a personal cryptocurrency - Mavro. The cost of its unit as of March 26 this year is $0.08.
On September 16, 2012, at the founding congress of the MMM political party, he was elected chairman of the association. But the Russian Ministry of Justice did not register the party.
Sergey Mavrodi is the author of the books “Temptation” (2008), “PiraMMMida” (2011), “Son of Lucifer” (2011), “Temptation-2” (2012). "PiraMMMida" formed the basis of the film of the same name, directed by Eldar Salavatov in 2011. The main character of the tape - Sergei Mamontov, in which the features of Mavrodi are easily visible, was played by Alexei Serebryakov.
It was noted that Mavrodi was married, his wife was called Elena Mavrodi (maiden name - Pavlyuchenko). Some media reported that the couple has a daughter, but her name is unknown.
Sergey Mavrodi is a Russian entrepreneur, founder of the MMM joint-stock company, which is considered the largest Russian financial pyramid in history. In the second half of the 2000s, Sergei Panteleevich became interested in literature, and also wrote scripts for films.
Sergey was born in Moscow in 1955 in the family of Panteley Andreevich, who worked as an electrician, and Valentina Fedorovna, an enterprise economist. The newborn was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease and the parents were prepared that the boy would not live to adulthood.
During his school years, Serezha demonstrated phenomenal memory capabilities. The boy quickly and accurately memorized information. Mavrodi was more inclined towards the exact sciences and repeatedly won the Olympiads in physics and mathematics.
In parallel with the secondary school, Sergei also graduated from the Children's Art School named after Prechistenka, and also achieved success in sambo, becoming the champion of Moscow in the absolute weight category, although at that time he himself weighed only 60 kilograms.
Sergei Mavrodi dreamed of entering the famous Baumovka, but failed in the entrance exams, so he went to study at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering. The young man rarely appeared at lectures, as he quickly lost interest in studying, and was later expelled.
Financial pyramid "MMM"
In the wake of the fashion of Soviet entrepreneurship, Sergei Mavrodi opened the MMM cooperative in 1989, which included dozens of commercial structures. The founders of the company were Sergey Mavrodi, brother Vyacheslav and his brother's wife, Olga Melnikova. The name of the cooperative included the first letters of the names of the founders. The most profitable and most famous of the firms was the joint-stock company MMM, which turned out to be the largest Russian financial pyramid in history. 15 million people were involved in the activities of the company.
In the early 90s, MMM securities began to enter the market, and in just six months the value of each share increased 127 times! It was a hitherto unheard-of profit result due to the huge amount of advertising. It's funny, but Mavrodi managed his own company exclusively by phone.
Soon Sergei was arrested on suspicion of tax evasion, but two months later he was released. Wanting to avoid a similar situation in the future, Mavrodi became a deputy of the State Duma, never hiding that he goes into politics solely for the sake of parliamentary immunity. Having won the elections, the businessman never appeared at a meeting of the Duma, but at the same time, Mavrodi did not enjoy the financial advantages and benefits of a parliamentarian. Sergei did not receive a deputy's salary, did not use an official car, apartment or dacha.
In 1996, by a unanimous decision of other deputies, Sergei Mavrodi lost his mandate, after which the investigation against the entrepreneur was resumed. Only now the charge was not just tax evasion, but also fraud. MMM was declared bankrupt, and the president was put on the state and even international wanted list.
But even Interpol could not stop the purposeful Mavrodi, who, hiding from everyone, created a new financial pyramid "Stock Generation" on the Internet and designed it as a gambling game. Now Europeans and Americans have suffered from the activities of the entrepreneur. After the disclosure of the crime, the entrepreneur was hiding for 8 years. In the future, Mavrodi admitted that he had his own security service, at least not inferior in level to those who were looking for Sergei.
After Mavrodi's arrest, the criminal case amounted to 610 volumes, and the damage caused to depositors was estimated at $110 million. But independent experts consider this figure to be extremely underestimated. The damage was no less than a billion and even amounted to several tens of billions of dollars.
After serving his term, Sergey Panteleevich created a new pyramid "MMM-2011", and then, which quickly went bankrupt.
Books and films
In order to occupy himself with something while in prison, Sergei Mavrodi began to write a novel, which was published without editing under the title "Son of Lucifer". Also, a collection of short stories "Temptation" was published, which is a continuation of the novel, as well as the second part - "Temptation 2".
In the same years, the works "Prison Diaries" and "Carcer" were written, as well as collections of poems.
Movies were made based on several books by Mavrodi. So, the entrepreneur remade the story "PiraMMMida" into a script, in which he described his own biography. The role of Sergei himself in the film was played by an actor. In 2014, the thriller The River was released, and the horror film Mary, also based on the story of Mavrodi, was shot in Canada.
At the end of 2015, the Internet show of the Zombie series started, for which Sergey Mavrodi wrote the script and music.
On behalf of Sergei Mavrodi, there is only one official website where the entrepreneur posts video messages to users. From his own page, Mavrodi warns investors about the existence of MMM sites, which are opened by scammers who have nothing to do with him.
Personal life
In 1993, Sergei Mavrodi married fashion model Elena Pavlyuchenko, the winner of several beauty contests of various sizes.
According to acquaintances, Sergei and Elena had an unconventional understanding of family life: the spouses lived in different apartments and came to each other only to spend time together.
Already in prison, Sergei insisted on a divorce, because he did not want to spoil his wife's personal life. Later, the entrepreneur found out that Elena was pregnant and in 2006 gave birth to a daughter whom Mavrodi himself never saw.
last years of life
Sergei Mavrodi led a solitary life. The entrepreneur preferred fishing or reading books to communicating with people. Sergei deliberately settled away from civilization and was not interested in the news. Photos of Mavrodi did not get into the media, as the entrepreneur did not seek publicity.
Even during the heyday of MMM, the life of an entrepreneur was not pretentious. Sergei managed with the minimum amount of furniture necessary for human existence.
The star of a financial genius or just a swindler flashed on the horizon again in 2014, when Mavrodi launched a pyramid scheme based on virtual currency, while 74% of Russians officially recognized Mavrodi as a criminal and only 17% as a talent. The entrepreneur promised investors a 100% payback. But following the firm "MMM", which officially closed only in 2015, the activity of the pyramid was also suspended.
In 2016, Sergei Mavrodi became famous for another scam: the entrepreneur posted messages about the financial collapse on African Internet resources and invited residents of South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria to invest in MMM. The familiar scheme worked.
The popularity of Mavrodi's channel on YotTube videohoting went through the roof and became the first on the southern continent in terms of attendance, surpassing even Facebook in terms of performance. As a result, 10 million depositors were entrusted with their own savings to the Russian businessman, who were also deceived. By the end of the year in South Africa, the pyramid ceased to exist, and in 2017 the same fate awaited the Nigerians. Angry citizens staged rallies, but the government could not help.
In the Russian media space in 2017, Sergei Mavrodi launched a new series "Antimir", and in 2018 Sergei Mavrodi promised to nominate his own candidacy for, which never happened.
Condition assessment
The fortune of Sergei Mavrodi already in the first months of the existence of MMM reached several million rubles (by 1998 this amount had grown to the mark of 100 million pre-devaluation rubles). Mavrodi preferred not to talk about the state of affairs in recent years.
Death
On March 26, 2018, the media reported on. According to the latest information, Sergei Panteleevich died in the morning from a massive heart attack. He became ill right at the bus stop, where passers-by called an ambulance.
Name: Sergey Mavrodi
Age: 69 years old
Place of Birth: Moscow
Place of death: Moscow
Activity: Entrepreneur, founder of MMM JSC
Family status: divorced
Sergei Mavrodi - biography
This man in horn-rimmed glasses and a worn shirt was called differently: a brilliant manager, the greatest swindler, and even the future president of Russia. He himself loved being compared with Lucifer: they say, both tempted many souls...
The era of the "dashing nineties" was remembered by people as a time of criminal lawlessness, total poverty and financial pyramids. Everything here was like in a fairy tale about Pinocchio: you need to take the money and wait until there are more of them. The largest "tree" under which people "buried" money was called "MMM".
The Moscow family of Mavrodi did not stand out in any way: his father was an electrician, his mother was an economist at a factory. Their unusual surname, which many mistook for Jewish, is of Greek origin and means "dark" in translation. It is difficult to say how much this affected the children, but the eldest son Sergei believed that he had an invisible connection with the Prince of Darkness himself.
Immediately after his birth, the doctors "delighted" the parents: the baby has a heart defect, there are almost no chances to live to adulthood. But the years passed, and Serezha did not experience any health problems. Moreover, he practiced sambo and, according to him, became the champion of Moscow among youth. His memory was phenomenal, but numerous concussions worsened it to an average level.
Nevertheless, Sergei studied well, he even won the prize in mathematics Olympiads. After school, I decided to go to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, but failed the entrance exam in physics. He entered the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering, the Faculty of Applied Mathematics. However, learning, like everyone else, was not in the nature of Mavrodi. Already in his first year, he began to skip classes, and only a talent for mathematics saved him from expulsion.
Having received a diploma, Mavrodi, by distribution, ended up in a closed research institute. Work in the "mailbox" was not to their liking. After working for the prescribed three years, Sergei quit and, in order not to attract the attention of law enforcement agencies, got a job as a watchman in the subway. And he made money on copying pirated videos. In 1983, 28-year-old Mavrodi was detained for the first time. But a day later, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On excesses" was issued, and he was released.
Perestroika was a time of great hope. But the cautious Mavrodi was in no hurry to legalize the business. Only in 1989 did he decide to officially register the MMM cooperative.
The field of activity of "MMM" was originally listed as a trade in computers and office equipment, and then advertising, exchange activities and even operations with vouchers. It was the voucher business that prompted Mavrodi to think about creating a financial pyramid. Of course, he was not a pioneer in this matter: the first to test this scheme was Carlo Ponzi in 1919 in the USA. Profit for the initial investors is determined by the deposits of later clients. The scheme works as long as new people contribute their money, from which they pay dividends to previous investors.
At the end of 1993, MMM issued almost a million shares with a par value of 1,000 rubles. They went on sale on February 1, 1994. At first, tickets were bought carefully, but Sergey poured money into advertising - and away we go. The video with Lenya Golubkov and his phrase “I am not a freeloader, I am a partner” has become a milestone.
Every week, Mavrodi announced an increase in the share price. For six months, the cost of paper has grown 127 times! It is not surprising that people rushed to buy Mavrodi's tickets. Cash from the regions was brought by bus. According to experts, Mavrodi received $50 million daily.
The frightened Ministry of Finance did not give permission for the second issue of shares, but it did not issue shares, but MMM tickets, which were not securities. On the tickets, by analogy with Soviet banknotes, there was a portrait of Mavrodi. He became the richest man in Russia, and his "MMM" accumulated a third of the country's cash. Everyone invested in MMM - janitors, workers, thieves in law and even KGB generals.
MMM has become a nationwide problem. Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin swore at the security forces, demanding "at least do something before everything bursts." But they just shrugged. And Mavrodi was already eager to launch the same pyramid in the USA, for which he bought a Cray Research Super Server 6400 supercomputer. In Russia, by August 1994, MMM had 15 million contributors - more than the number of members of all parties combined. The businessman began to blackmail the government: he threatened that he would hold a referendum on no confidence in the authorities. It got to the point that in the new 1994, instead of the president, he congratulated the country on the New Year.
The personal life of the businessman also developed well. At the TV contest "Morning Star", where he was a member of the jury, Sergey liked the novice model Elena Pavlyuchenko. He invited her to a restaurant and, showering her with gifts, made her his mistress. Especially for Pavlyuchenko, Mavrodi organized a number of beauty contests, where she became the winner. They registered their marriage in 1993, but lived in different apartments. They met when Mavrodi himself wanted: it was not in his rules to live in the same apartment with a woman.
It is unlikely that the activities of "MMM" continued without the participation of high officials. And yet, on August 4, 1994, the OMON, together with the tax authorities, stormed Mavrodi's central office on Varshavskoye Highway. Several KAMAZ trucks of cash were taken out of the building, but according to the inventory, only 4 billion rubles passed, which is more than 690 thousand dollars at the then exchange rate.
Two weeks later, the depositors came to the Government House and demanded that Mavrodi be released. After all, he promised to return everything! Failing to achieve release, the initiative group nominated the swindler for deputies. Soon people elected him to parliament, and parliamentary immunity gave him freedom. Having written a refusal from the deputy salary, apartment and benefits,
Mavrodi never attended a meeting of the State Duma. A year later, he was deprived of his mandate, and the security forces resumed the criminal case. Sergei went underground and continued to do business, already on the Internet. This time, the victims of the fraudster were residents of the United States and Western Europe, who played the Stock Generation (SG) virtual exchange.
The businessman was detained only in 2003. They say that his wife handed him over to the security forces in exchange for a quiet life. Sergey did not blame her for anything and even filed for a divorce so as not to burden her with claims from depositors. The daughter, whom Elena gave birth in 2006, recognized as his own.
Only in 2006, Mavrodi's case came to court. He was charged with $110 million in fraud, even though experts said MMM had raised more than a billion dollars. The verdict is 4.5 years, which the convict served at the investigation stage. At the gates of the prison, Sergei was met by journalists and investors, but he ignored both.
Having gone free, the tempter set to the old: "MMM-2011", "MMM-2012", but the former success did not happen. Then he turned his attention to Ukraine. Then there was Africa, where Mavrodi cheated several million people. At the same time, he never looked like a billionaire. He seemed to be interested in money only as an opportunity to occupy his mind with numbers. Where his huge fortune, no one knew.
On the night of March 26, 2018, 62-year-old Mavrodi sat down at a bus stop from unbearable chest pain. A passer-by called an ambulance, but the doctors failed to save the life of the great strategist. After him, only the old parental "three rubles", an aquarium and books remained. They buried Sergei Panteleevich in a closed coffin, with the money of former investors.
The wife of the late Sergei Mavrodi for 12 years of marriage secured a comfortable life. The wife of the founder of MMM Elena was 12 years old, from 1993 to 2005. According to rumors, she changed her name and appearance after the divorce. What became of her is not known for certain. According to one source, Elena remarried. According to others, he lives with his mother and daughter from Sergei Mavrodi in a house in the suburbs. She will turn 49 this summer.
Elena is from Ukrainian Zaporozhye, her maiden name is Pavlyuchenko. Her family was simple. Mom worked as an engineer, father was a candidate of technical sciences, headed a laboratory at the Titanium Research Institute. Elena studied in absentia at the philological faculty of the pedagogical institute and worked as a nanny in a kindergarten.
In 1989, a 20-year-old girl took part in the Zaporozhye beauty contest, where she made a scandal. Lena stood out from the rest of the girls, there were rumors around her about a relationship with an influential patron. Even then, for the sake of success, she was ready for a lot. One of the contest jury members Valentin Druzhinin recalls.
In those years, the population of Zaporozhye lived in poverty, so the contestants dressed discreetly, but Elena Pavlyuchenko immediately stunned with expensive outfits. It was rumored that Elena found a non-local sponsor. Her mother tried to put pressure on the jury, and Elena was cunning with might and main. We decided to give the Audience Choice Award to the one who gets the loudest applause from the audience. Elena led a support group who gave her a standing ovation. As a result, Pavlyuchenko became "Vice-Miss". And - made us a scandal. She filed a complaint with the police that her jewelry had been stolen from her dressing room. Everyone was called in for questioning. Jewelry was not found. We are still convinced that this scandal was started in retaliation for the loss.
Elena met her future husband in Moscow. In the early 90s, Elena came to conquer the capital and appeared in Yuri Nikolaev's popular TV contest "Morning Star". Sergei Mavrodi was on its jury. A spectacular, self-confident girl charmed the entrepreneur. He conducted a casting of models for advertising MMM and invited Elena to take part in the filming. Soon the girl became the face of the company, she was called the "Queen" MMM "". The couple started dating.
Especially for her beloved, Mavrodi organized international beauty contests, in which she won. Elena won many titles and headed the MMM-model modeling agency founded by Sergey. According to Elena, they were in no hurry to register a marriage and lived separately. “We were just friends for a long time, we decided to register a relationship after the criminal prosecution began for Serezha ... We were not like ordinary lovers.” In an interview, Mavrodi said that he could not imagine how it is possible to live with a woman in the same apartment.
A number of scandals are associated with the name of Elena. Her name appeared in the case of the kidnapping of a baby from the Research Institute of Pediatrics, who was being treated there. The child was taken out of the building by an employee of the clinic and handed over to the women sitting in a car parked nearby. Employees of the research institute raised the alarm, noticing that the baby was not there. The car with the kidnappers was stopped, they were taken to the police. As it turned out, Elena's barren friend planned to illegally adopt the baby. Mavrodi's wife had connections at the research institute, and she volunteered to help organize the kidnapping. During the investigation, the suspects changed their testimony and so confused the investigation that the case had to be closed.
The scandal with the attempted kidnapping of a child is not the only dark spot in the biography of Elena Mavrodi. In the second half of the 90s, she tried to make a career in politics. The woman ran three times for deputies of the State Duma, but was never able to achieve what she wanted. Twice the candidacy was withdrawn on the eve of voting due to bribery of voters, and on the third time she did not get the required number of votes.
A person from Mavrodi's entourage said that in the MMM scam, Elena acted as a gray eminence, representing people with great connections. When Sergei was hiding from criminal responsibility, Elena served as an intermediary in his affairs and followed the flow of money. According to rumors, it was she who handed over her husband to law enforcement agencies in exchange for "absolution".