Yury Chikhanchin, the Director of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service in Russia warned about the future collapse of the MMM Pyramid Scheme of Sergei Mavrodi in China. Mr. Chikhanchin explained the risks at the conference "Risks and Challenges for the economies of the BRICS", wrote TASS.

Yury Chikhanchin commented:

"From the media, we know that MMM, with Sergei Mavrodi in charge, is currently expanding its activity in China. Russia has witnessed the collapse of a similar system by Mavrodi in the past, and thousands of defrauded investors still cannot recover their money until this day. I'm afraid our Chinese friends will face the same outcome."

According to Mr. Chikhanchin, the low level of financial literacy within the population often leads to the growth of economic crimes and frauds. However, he believes that this is a problem not only for developing countries but also for mature economies.

MMM also works in Indonesia, South Africa, India, Bangladesh, and Ukraine. On August 1, Sergei Mavrodi held a presentation of MMM in the Kingdom of Lesotho, South Africa.

Yury Chikhanchin

Fool me twice

MMM China presents itself as a "community of ordinary people who selflessly help each other" and not as an "investment fund with higher stakes" which it used to be in Russia, wrote TASS. The organization promises 30% profit per month as new fund investors send bitcoins as a means of "mutual assistance" to those who became the members of the pyramid before them.

Previously Sergei Mavrodi stated in the interview to Finance Today’s Izabella Kaminska that he is the man behind the Bitcoinrally in the beginning of November. She's not the only one, as there are some other experts who suppose that the recent Bitcoin price fluctuation could be caused by MMM activity in China.

Yury Chikhanchin from Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service is not the only person to warn citizens of China and other countries targeted by MMM about the dangers coming from this “transparent” Ponzi scheme. Bobby Lee, the CEO at BTCC issued a warning to his customers and bitcoin investors that BTCC is in no way affiliated with such schemes.

Some people don't change

MMM company founded by Mavrodi has been recognized as one of the largest pyramid schemes in Russia. According to experts it had about 10-15 million depositors in 1989-1994. After the company's collapse in February 1994, at least 50 people who deposited their money in MMM have committed suicide. The investigation recognized more than 10 thousand people to be the victims of this Ponzi scheme company, but according to some experts the number of defrauded investors is actually closer to 10 million.

Mavrodi tried to escape the investigation but was caught in Moscow with a fake ID and arrested in January 2003. In April 2007, the court found him guilty of fraud and sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison.

Cointelegraph recommends everyone to stay away from MMM Global, a suspected scam company being run by a known convict.