Image caption Flowers are brought to the grave of Mavrodi even three months after the funeral
The founder of MMM, Sergei Mavrodi, who died in March 2018, was surrounded by lower caliber combinators. They continue to make money in his name. On the wreckage of the MMM, the BBC Russian service found new pyramids, geopolitical projects and people spreading the myth that Mavrodi is alive.
Mavrodi's followers create cryptocurrencies and use fake sites to promote them, as well as Twitter, which allegedly belonged to the deceased himself. With the help of the myth of the living Mavrodi, they are trying to instill the idea that participation in new projects will make it possible to get rich in the same wonderful way as in the days of MMM. Who are these people and how does it work?
Mavrodi and bitcoin
Here is perhaps the most striking example of how these people falsify reality.
On June 29, 2018, a text [pdf] signed by Satoshi Nakamoto appeared online. This is the creator of bitcoin, but who is behind this name is unknown. The text contained a lot of colorful, but long-known details of the origin of the world's main cryptocurrency.
In Ukraine, the followers of Mavrodi developed a vigorous activity. One of the main figures is Denis Pushilin, the same one who now heads the parliament in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
And in 2013, when people began to leave Mavrodi (and when the creator of E-Dinar Kolbasov left), Pushilin and Muratov created the Party of Liberation pyramid. And even earlier - a party called MMM, and such parties appeared not only in Ukraine. At the end of the same year, candidates from the party participated in by-elections to the Verkhovna Rada, Pushilin won 0.08% of the vote.
Image copyright KONSTANTIN SAZONCHIK / TASS Image caption Denis Pushilin: before MMM - an employee of a confectionery company, after - the head of the People's Council of the self-proclaimed DPR
In Russia, the founding congress of the MMM party was held in 2012 in Kursk. The party was not registered.
Another leader of the Liberation Party, a former United Russia deputy from the Smolensk region, Andrey Kramar, went to India to rescue the detainees. It was possible to resolve the issue with the help of Consul Roman Vorobyov: the lawyer hired by him secured bail. The Russians secretly left India before the trial, their documents, bank cards and personal belongings remained with the police.
Soon the case was closed, and Muratov was able to return to India. In 2014, Pushilin, Muratov and Kramar got back together in the self-proclaimed DPR. Pushilin - as the head of the people's council, Muratov and Kramar - as official representatives of the DPR abroad.
Image copyright Alexey Muratov archive Image caption Alexey Muratov (center) claims that more than 1 million Indians have become MMM participants. Now he develops Prizm cryptocurrency
At least two more representatives of the MMM in Ukraine, Vladimir Solovyanov and Maxim Petrukhin, became deputies in the DPR. The latter died in June 2014 - unknown people fired at least 15 bullets into his car. Pushilin said that he was supposed to be in the car, but at the last moment his plans changed.
In December 2014, director Kilin also visited Donetsk, where the leadership of the DPR arranged a screening of his film for children.
Murder in Kyiv
On August 23, 2016, the former deputy of the Vinnytsia City Council, Evgeny Demkin, witnessed a major accident in the center of Kyiv. "Man is mortal, but that's not so bad. It's bad that sometimes he is suddenly mortal," Demkin wrote on Facebook close to the text of Bulgakov's novel.
Demkin connected the Russian and Ukrainian branches of MMM. Together with Kolbasov and Muratov in 2012, he participated in a press conference at the central office of Interfax dedicated to the elections to the opposition Constitutional Court.
After the outbreak of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, MMM ceased operations in this country, and Demkin took up cryptocurrencies. He was also a member of the 5.10 party, whose leader Gennady Balashov is in Russia on charges of extremist statements.
Image copyright JUNG-YEON-JE/Getty Images Image caption Cryptocurrency becomes like a financial pyramid, when some investors begin to receive interest for attracting others
On September 5, 2016, Demkin went to a meeting with an unknown person at the Kyiv Regional Clinical Hospital. There, he planned to informally exchange $10,000 and fly to Thailand a few hours later.
The plans were violated by the killer, according to the description of the Ukrainian media, a tall, thin man of 40-50 years old. He hit the fleeing Demkin five times with a pistol. The killer took Demkin's purse with him, although most of the money remained with the businessman in his inner pocket.
Soon the killer was arrested, he turned out to be a Ukrainian soldier, whose name was not disclosed.
"This murder was presented as a robbery with the aim of robbery," Muratov told the BBC.
Demkin planned to meet Muratov after his arrival in Thailand. "We were going to hold CWT [movement] conferences together," Muratov said.
New political project
The name of Muratov's movement Change the World Together (CWT) refers to the old MMM slogan "Let's change the world together". According to him, the project is non-commercial.
“We are talking about the imperfection of the global financial system and offer an alternative decentralized financial system based on blockchain. We are also talking about the imperfection of the global market economy, offering a resource-oriented economy in return,” Muratov described the ideology of his project.
Simultaneously with blockchain technologies, conspiracy theories are being promoted on the CWT website - in particular, that vaccines cause autism in children.
Image caption In recent years, Mavrodi did not speak in public and moved around Moscow with difficulty: bailiffs had to withdraw debts of 1 billion rubles from him
CWT is the largest socio-political project on the wreckage of MMM. The Internet channel associated with it broadcasts from Kharkiv, and street actions are held in Ukraine, India and other countries.
In 2016, Ukrainian hackers published emails that could have been sent to the reception of Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, who oversees the DPR. From the published it followed that Muratov allegedly sent Surkov plans to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. The plans do not mention Muratov's movement, but there are references to the "existing agent network."
"Nobody has ever broken my correspondence. The media have a practice of wishful thinking in accordance with the guidelines of their editorial board," Muratov said on this occasion.
Unlike Kolbasov, he does not believe that Mavrodi is alive. “They say that Vanga predicted that a pyramid from Russia would pass around the world,” Muratov said in the end. “With the death of Sergei Mavrodi, many thought that this prediction was already in the past. But maybe everything is just beginning?”
At school, he won olympiads and was distinguished by a mathematical mindset.
In 1978 he graduated from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering (MIEM, now the A. N. Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics).
After graduating from the institute, he worked as an engineer-mathematician at a research institute, since 1980 - the head of a group of programmers. At the same time, he was engaged in private production and sale of sound and video recordings, illegal at that time.
In 1981 he retired from the research institute. He was listed in various positions: the last one was a night watchman in the subway.
In 1983, he was arrested for private business activities (sale of illegal video products), but thanks to the amnesty, he served only 10 days.
In 1989 he founded the MMM cooperative. On the basis of it, several dozen commercial structures were created, including OJSC MMM 1994, which became the largest financial pyramid in Russia.
Until 1991, the cooperative was mainly engaged in the trade of computers and office equipment. Then he began to collect money at high interest rates - up to 1000% per annum. The number of the company's investors was, according to various estimates, from 10 to 15 million people.
In August 1994, Sergei Mavrodi was arrested on charges of tax evasion from the income of the Invest-Consulting company he heads. While in custody, he stopped the activities of MMM 1994.
In September 1994, his candidacy was nominated for by-elections to the State Duma from the Mytishchi district of Moscow.
He was released in accordance with the electoral law, which requires equal conditions for all candidates.
In October 1994 he was elected to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the first convocation. His mandate began on January 18, 1995.
Sergei Mavrodi did not join any faction and, since his election to this post, he has never attended a single Duma session. On October 6, 1995, his deputy powers were terminated ahead of schedule.
After that, the investigative actions against Mavrodi were resumed, and one more was added to the previous accusations - fraud.
In 1995, he again ran for the Duma from the "People's Capital Party", lost the election.
In January 1996, a group of authorized representatives nominated Sergei Mavrodi as a candidate for the presidency of Russia, but the CEC rejected signature sheets in support of the candidate and refused registration.
In September 1997, the MMM company was declared bankrupt, and Sergei Mavrodi disappeared. In December 1997, he was first put on the national wanted list, and a year later on the international wanted list.
Being on the run in early 1998, Sergei Mavrodi created a new financial pyramid Stock Generation Ltd, which was a virtual exchange. The exchange has existed for about two years.
On January 31, 2003, Sergei Mavrodi was arrested in Moscow in a rented apartment. According to documents found in the apartment, Mavrodi lived in Moscow under the name of a certain Yuri Zaitsev. He was charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: "Fraud on an especially large scale" and "Organization of forgery of documents."
On December 2, 2003, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow found Mavrodi guilty of organizing a forgery of a passport and sentenced him to 13 months in prison.
In January 2004, the criminal case on the fact of tax evasion against Sergei Mavrodi was terminated due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
On April 28, 2007, the Chertanovsky Court of Moscow sentenced Sergei Mavrodi to 4.5 years in prison to be served in a penal colony. As an additional measure of punishment, the court established a fine of 10,000 rubles from Mavrodi in favor of the state. In addition, Mavrodi had to pay more than 20 million rubles to depositors.
While the investigation and trial lasted, he served almost the entire sentence imposed by the court. He was kept in a special block of the "Matrosskaya Tishina" pre-trial detention center and was released 25 days after the end of the verdict - on May 22, 2007.
On July 10, 2007, the Moscow City Court considered Mavrodi's appeal against the verdict. The court refused to rehabilitate and terminate the criminal case, leaving the sentence in force in terms of terms of imprisonment, but canceling the fine of 10 thousand rubles.
While in prison, Sergei Mavrodi was engaged in literary work. In 2008, his first book "Temptation" was published, which included 14 short stories. In total, the author has more than 200 of them. In addition, he wrote a novel and several plays. The book was published in a pilot edition of 7,000 copies.
In May 2008, Moscow bailiffs seized the sale of Mavrodi's first book in connection with the initiation of enforcement proceedings against him to pay debts to affected depositors.
In January 2011, Mavrodi again created the MMM-2011 pyramid, which collapsed a few months later. After that, "MMM-2012" was created.
Following the launch of the MMM-2012 project, Sergei Mavrodi announced the creation of the All-Russian Political Party MMM and announced that he himself became its chairman.
In May 2012, a criminal case was opened against Mavrodi again, he was hiding from the authorities.
At the end of January 2014, Sergei Mavrodi announced the introduction of currency "Mavro" (Mavro). In December 2017, his next pyramid collapsed.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
In the 1990s, Mavrodi became a symbol of rapid enrichment for some, and equally rapid impoverishment for others. A millionaire with Greek roots and the appearance of a school teacher, the hero of a tape about himself, the father of the comical TV character Leni Golubkov, a butterfly collector and a financial schemer, Mavrodi is one of the main symbols of the era of the “dashing 90s”.
Mavrodi created his own business - a financial pyramid, in which the investors who were at the top enriched themselves at the expense of others - thanks to phenomenal mathematical abilities. As his relatives and school teachers said, he discovered them at school age, when he solved the most complex equations and won victories in mathematical Olympiads. He also had a knack for complex card games and was an excellent poker player.
Thanks to the opportunities for private business that perestroika opened up, Mavrodi founded a cooperative called MMM in 1989, which grew into a financial empire in the 1990s. The shares issued by Mavrodi gained popularity among investors: due to the famous “Pavlovian” reform of 1991, and then the massive impoverishment of the population, during the years of reforms, people demanded simple solutions and quick enrichment
Understanding the psychology of people, Mavrodi launched an intrusive mass advertisement on central television, the main character of which was the ingenuous Golubkov, who was played by a little-known artist of the children's theater.
The advertisement, which sounded familiar to everyone, "Rio Rita", said that, having successfully invested his money in MMM shares, Lenya would "buy boots for his wife." The boots were followed by a car and an apartment, and a new character appeared in the commercials - Leni's brother, whom he also persuaded to invest in shares. Slogans “MMM has no problems” hung all over Moscow, and the company’s advertising was even on tickets in the metro - once Mavrodi even made the entrance to the subway free for citizens for one day.
The first investors of Mavrodi were really able to earn extra money, and some people really were able to buy a car and even an apartment, but over time, such people became less and less. In order for the pyramid to grow, Mavrodi had to attract more and more investors, among whom were not only the simple-minded "doves", but also military retirees and university professors who could barely make ends meet.
In the summer of 1994, the tax department took over Mavrodi - the businessman was arrested on charges of tax evasion. His apartment was stormed by police special forces, and Mavrodi himself was saving his collection of butterflies.
Despite the problems that many investors experienced, Mavrodi was an icon for them - they blocked the road to police UAZ vehicles with portraits of their idol in their hands and threatened to wrest him from the hands of the authorities.
Thanks to his immense popularity, Mavrodi, being in, was able to organize the collection of signatures in his support for nomination for deputies.
In 1994 he was elected MP as an independent MP. It was not possible to convict Mavrodi, and he was released from custody. Three years later, his pyramid was declared bankrupt.
After disappearing from view for many years after he ceased to be an MP, Mavrodi again turned to the construction of a pyramid in Russia in 2011.
However, having failed, he turned his attention to the countries of Asia and Africa, whose inhabitants were very gullible and such a method of taking money from the population could work.
In 2017, Mavrodi published a book of his memoirs “Temptation”, the main character of which, businessman Pautov, carried out even larger financial transactions than Mavrodi himself: “the number of Pautov’s investors, people who invested in his shares, was already in the millions. They were printed by all the Goznakov factories of the country...” — wrote the author.
In 2011, his story was filmed in the film "Pyrammida" - a free adaptation of Sergei Mavrodi's story "Pyramid". In the then Gazeta.Ru columnist Semyon Kvasha, he told that he regrets only one thing - that he did not convene a popular referendum on confidence in the authorities, whom he blamed for his own bankruptcy.
At the same time, he admitted that a person who “suddenly earned a lot of money inevitably feels complete inner emptiness and generally feels deceived.” “What, is that all? So why have I... all these years?.. And, most importantly, there is nothing more to strive for. All achieved! And what is it? Previously, he at least dreamed of something, lusted. And now there is nothing to dream about. Dead end. Vertex! On which, as it suddenly turned out, there are only bare stones and, in general, universal cold reigns. And then there is nowhere to go. Dolez!
Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi (born August 11, 1955, Moscow, RSFSR) is a Russian entrepreneur, founder of MMM JSC, which, through its activities, caused material damage to millions of its depositors in the mid-1990s (according to various estimates, from 10 to 15 million Human).
The personality of Sergei Mavrodi, as well as his activities, still cause extremely ambiguous assessments in various circles of society. By court verdict, he was recognized as a fraudster, but he is equally often called both a financial genius and an adventurer.
In this regard, the opinion of Mavrodi himself is curious: “Only the scale of the deeds is important. their absolute value. The sign doesn't matter. A minus can easily change to a plus, and vice versa. But zero never changes for anything.
In all ratings and polls, I was in the lead by a wide margin and should have won without a doubt. Moreover, the opponents were all leftists. (For some reason, no one wanted to exhibit with me in the same district.) On the eve of the elections, even an article in one of the local newspapers appeared with the headline: “Sensation! The swindler will again be in the State Duma!” And then suddenly it turned out that I got only half a percent of the votes and took the penultimate, it seems, place. Among a heap of unknown candidates. The next morning, the same newspaper came out with the headline: “Muscovites have seen the light!” Well, they went to bed with the intention of voting for me, but woke up and saw the light. All 500-something thousand. And what? It happens.
Mavrodi Sergey Panteleevich
The beginning of the biography
Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi was born on August 11, 1955 in Moscow in the family of an installer Panteley Andreevich Mavrodi (half Ukrainian, half Donetsk Greek) and economist Valentina Fedorovna (Russian, from near Vladimir).
In other words, half Russian, a quarter Ukrainian and a quarter Greek. By the way, the word "Mavrodi" means "black, dark" in Greek.
“And the maiden name of my ex-wife’s mother is Black. It's such an interesting coincidence."
He was born with a congenital bilateral heart disease, which is why doctors predicted that the boy would not live to be eighteen years old.
According to Mavrodi himself, as a child he had a phenomenal memory: “I could literally repeat any passage that was read aloud to me. But then, due to twelve concussions - I was a very restless child! - memory has deteriorated somewhat and from phenomenal has become just good. Well, thank God!"
He graduated from ten classes of secondary school No. 35 in Moscow, as well as the Children's Art School No. 1 named after. V. A. Serov on Prechistenka. During his studies, he showed outstanding abilities in mathematics and physics. Multiple winner of prestigious school competitions.
After graduating from school, Sergei Mavrodi entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1972. As the winner of numerous Olympiads, he had to pass only one exam for the top five - written physics, but due to a “stupid” arithmetic mistake, the entrant Mavrodi did not receive the highest score (he received only a three), after which he did not take further exams, but took the documents from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and entered the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics.
And the entire Duma immediately ran to me to change shares and tickets. All, in full force. All these deputies and deputies with their wives, mothers-in-law, brothers, matchmakers!.. Everything! Polls. And everyone swore eternal love to me: “Ah, Sergei Panteleevich! .. Yes, we! .. Yes, you! It was necessary for them, of course, not to change everything at once. And a little bit. On a leash, so to speak, to keep. On a short leash. But I thought, damn it: decent people!
Mavrodi Sergey Panteleevich
At the institute, he became interested in sambo and very quickly became a candidate for master of sports, without losing a single fight. (With a weight of 60 kg, he was the champion of Moscow in the absolute weight category.) He finished his sports career, "because for further growth it was already necessary to spend too much time."
However, there was another reason. “Excessive passion for martial arts is far from being as harmless as it seems. You become physically stronger, but weaker - in spirit. You get used to losing (at least in training). Know the limits of your abilities. An experienced (“beaten”) fighter will never fight several strong opponents at once. Because he knows exactly what it is. He prefers to retreat.
Fellow students subsequently characterized the mathematical abilities of Sergei Mavrodi as "fantastic". At that time, Mavrodi was the only first-year student in the history of MIEM who won the All-Institute Olympiads in Mathematics and Physics. However, he himself very quickly lost interest in studying and practically did not appear at the institute.
“We looked at absenteeism through our fingers. The faculty was considered extremely difficult, the Department of Mathematics at MIEM was then, for a number of reasons, the strongest, perhaps in general, among all Moscow universities, the level of teaching was very high, so it was assumed a priori that if a person does not go to lectures and seminars, he simply won't pass the exams. It turned out, however, that this is not entirely true. If I managed to get a lecture notes at least a couple of hours before the exam and have time to skim through it, then I passed the exam without problems. Unfortunately, it didn't always work out."
"What does freedom mean to you?" "It's like being able to breathe." Interview to BG magazine, 2010
In 1981 he left the institute and continued to develop his business. To avoid prosecution for parasitism, he was listed in various low-paid, time-consuming positions (the last one was a night watchman in the Moscow metro, Sviblovo station).
In 1983, for the first time, he was detained for a period of 10 days by the OBKhSS officers “for private business activities” (sale of illegal video recordings). During the period of arrest, when a decision was made to initiate a criminal case against him, a decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On excesses" was issued and Mavrodi was released.
Later he will say: "Fate needed me for great things."
Let one of the officials declare publicly that Sberbank is a scam. There won't be anything left of him tomorrow! And about "MMM" it was talked continuously for two weeks. On all channels and in all media. Everything, at the highest level, up to the prime minister and the president. And then they said: the pyramid collapsed! Yes, not the pyramid collapsed, but you ruined everything!
Mavrodi Sergey Panteleevich
MMM activities
In 1989, he founded the MMM cooperative, on the basis of which he created several dozen commercial structures, including the infamous JSC MMM, which became the largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia, from which, according to various estimates, from 10 to 15 million people.
Actually, the pyramid as such lasted only six months: on February 1, 1994, the shares went on sale, and on August 4, Mavrodi was arrested on charges of tax evasion from the income of the Invest-Consulting company he headed. In other words, all the results (15 million depositors, a third of the country's budget, a 127-fold increase in prices, etc., etc.) were achieved by him in just six months.
It should be especially noted that problems with the authorities began with Mavrodi almost immediately (already in April there was the first serious conflict with the tax authorities), so he had to act, in his own words, "in an aggressive environment."
Mavrodi managed MMM exclusively by phone. Personally advised the then head of the Department of Securities and Financial Market Bella Ilyinichna Zlatkis on how to create a GKO. Later he argued that “the authorities, as usual, did not understand anything and in their desire to get away from MMM at all costs and avoid obvious and obvious recognition by everyone, they made a number of fundamental mistakes. They threw the baby out with the water."
And who will not take - turn off the water. And who will not sign - we will not redeem the shares. Let the authorities buy you back. that you like so much
Mavrodi Sergey Panteleevich
Mavrodi from prison, by his decree, suspended the activities of the MMM and began collecting signatures for registration as a candidate for deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and two months later was registered by the Central Election Commission. In October of the same year, he was released from custody "in connection with a change in the preventive measure."
In fact, it is precisely in connection with the registration of a candidate for deputies.
“I don’t regret anything and only regret that I didn’t finish everything.”
Political activity
At the very beginning of the conflict with the authorities, Mavrodi officially, through the press, threatened them with a nationwide referendum (“on trust in the authorities”), saying that he would collect the necessary million signatures from his 10 million depositors in a week. In the future, he was repeatedly invited to the Kremlin "for negotiations", but consistently ignored all such invitations.
In an interview with Bolshoi Gorod, Mavrodi said that in August 1994, immediately after his arrest, he could "throw crowds on the Kremlin and unleash a civil war." But "did not want to buy freedom at the cost of blood." And further: “Maybe it was a mistake. I had to go all the way. It would not be worse than now for the country anyway.
On October 30, 1994, thanks to the support of the initiative group "Union for the Protection of Shareholders and Depositors of JSC MMM", Mavrodi was elected a deputy of the State Duma of Russia of the 1st convocation in the by-elections for the 109th Mytishchi single-mandate constituency of Moscow, gaining 29% of the votes, and received the mandate of the deceased deputy A.D. Aizderdzis.
It is interesting to note that throughout his entire election campaign, Mavrodi did not hide at all that he was going to the Duma solely for the sake of obtaining parliamentary immunity and spoke about this quite openly in almost all of his countless speeches and interviews.
From the moment of his election as a deputy of the State Duma, Mavrodi did not attend any of its meetings. On October 6, 1995, the Duma, at the suggestion of the Credentials Commission, prematurely terminated the powers of deputy Mavrodi, as he "neglected his duties as a deputy and continued to engage in commercial activities."
From November 1994, he was the chairman of the “People's Capital Party” (PNK) he created, in December 1995 he again ran for deputies of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation from this party, but he completely unexpectedly lost the elections to the new parliament, and scored less than half a percent of the votes and eventually took the penultimate place among two dozen unknown candidates.
Much later, Mavrodi will say in an interview that it was after this that he believed in miracles: “On the eve of the elections, in all ratings and polls, I was in the lead by a wide margin and should have undoubtedly won. Moreover, the competitors were all leftist. (For some reason, no one was eager to exhibit with me in the same district.) But in the end, he scored less than half a percent and took the penultimate place. So there are still miracles. At least in our country."
On January 10, 1996, the Central Election Commission registered authorized representatives of the initiative group that nominated Mavrodi as a candidate for the President of Russia, but later rejected a significant part of the signature sheets in support of the candidate and refused to register him.
Moreover, even a criminal case was initiated against Mavrodi for forging signature sheets, which, however, was later closed "for lack of corpus delicti." However, he was no longer able to participate in the elections.
Wanted
After the deprivation of Sergei Mavrodi's deputy mandate, investigative actions against him were resumed, and one more charge was added to the previous charges as part of the investigation into the activities of MMM - fraud.
On December 17, 1997, Sergei Mavrodi was first put on the national wanted list, and a year later, on the international wanted list. He was wanted by Interpol on the proposal of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
For more than five years, he carefully hid in rented apartments and lived locked up, and nothing was known about him until the winter of 2003. According to some reports, he lived in Scandinavia or Greece for a long time, but the media suggested that Mavrodi did not leave Moscow at all and never left Russia.
There was information that Mavrodi lived on the territory of one of the government dachas on the Rublevsky highway, namely in the village of Zhukovka-3 in the Moscow region. In any case, later it became known that, according to the criminal investigation department, the detainee had definitely been in Moscow for the last year before his arrest.
“Yes, I didn’t go anywhere! What am I, an idiot? Naturally, he lived on the next street. Where they will not look.
While on the run, on the international wanted list through Interpol, he created on the Internet (directly from the Moscow apartment on Frunzenskaya Embankment, where he was hiding) another pyramid, now a worldwide one - the Stock Generation (SG) virtual stock exchange, designed as a gambling game in one of the Caribbean countries. Only according to official data, the number of victims, in less than a year of operation, is about 275 thousand (mostly citizens of the United States and Western Europe.) According to unofficial data, millions.
According to Mavrodi himself, for 8 years he was helped to hide from the investigation by his own security service, “of the same level as the one that was looking for me,” that is, consisting of former intelligence officers, high-class specialists.
“In general, since 1983, the moment of my first detention, I have not been under investigation, on the wanted list or in prison ... yes, a month at most, it seems. Not more. More than thirty criminal cases after all! Everything fell apart at the end, "due to the lack of corpus delicti". Well, except for the last one. Of course."
Arrest and trial
On January 31, 2002, Mavrodi was arrested in Moscow, in a rented apartment on Frunzenskaya Embankment, by officers of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. During the arrest, he was found to have a fake passport in the name of citizen Yuri Zaitsev, a native of St. Petersburg. A little later, after his arrest, he was charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: "Organization of forgery of documents" and "Evasion of taxes and (or) fees from the organization." Thus, three criminal cases have already been initiated against the hiding businessman. Mavrodi himself said that he did not admit his guilt in any of the acts incriminated to him.
“About the passport in general chickens laugh. The door was broken for three hours. Yes, I could eat it during this time!
On September 15, 2003, a preliminary hearing in one of Mavrodi's criminal cases - the charge of using a fake passport - in the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow was almost immediately postponed indefinitely without setting a date for a subsequent hearing. According to lawyer Hakob Khachaturyan, his client, firstly, did not have time to get acquainted with the case materials, and secondly, this court decision may affect the verdict on the main charge - fraud. The total volume of materials of the criminal case is 600-900 volumes.
On October 5, 2003, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow began considering the case of the founder of the famous financial pyramid. Previously, he was charged under Art. 327, part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: "Organization of forgery of documents." Under current law, Sergei Mavrodi faces up to three years in prison.
On December 2, 2003, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow found Mavrodi guilty of organizing a forgery of a passport and sentenced him to one year and one month in prison. The Investigative Committee previously singled out this case as a separate proceeding from the main criminal case related to fraud in the framework of MMM activities.
On January 27, 2004, the Investigative Committee closed the criminal case on tax evasion against Russia's most famous "pyramid builder" due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for this category of crimes. At the same time, the investigators intended to take to court the main case on Mavrodi's charge of fraud on an especially large scale.
February 3, 2004 Mavrodi was charged with fraud. For almost two years - until January 31, 2006 - Mavrodi got acquainted with 650 volumes (250-270 pages each) of his criminal case, after which the court hearings on the main case began.
The deadline of January 31, 2006 was set as the deadline for completing the familiarization with the materials of the criminal case by the Tverskoy Court of Moscow on February 14, 2005. taking into account holidays and weekends, it turns out that way) is almost impossible, was rejected by the Moscow City Court.
On March 9, 2006, the main case of the former head of the MMM was sent to the Chertanovsky District Court of Moscow for consideration on the merits. On March 14, 2006, Mavrodi's case was submitted to the place of consideration. The founder of MMM was accused under Art. 159, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Fraud on a large scale and theft of other people's property through deceit and breach of trust." According to the prosecutor's office, the damage caused by MMM to millions of depositors is estimated at $110 million.
However, both experts and contributors have a completely different opinion on this matter. Let's say, according to the same Association of Investors, it is about $70-80 billion. Experts are more cautious in their estimates: "at least a billion."
During the debate of the parties, the public prosecutor in the case, the prosecutor Amalia Ustaeva, asked to sentence Mavrodi to five years in prison in a general regime colony, taking into account the personality of the defendant, the presence of mitigating circumstances (a minor dependent child), and also taking into account the opinion of a number of victims. In addition, she asked to satisfy the civil claims of the victims for compensation for material damage and leave without consideration the claims of those victims who did not appear at the hearing. “I ask you to satisfy those claims, the amounts of which were established by the preliminary investigation and which have not been changed by the victims,” Ustaeva said. More than 10 thousand victims are involved in the case.
On April 28, 2007, the Chertanovsky Court of Moscow sentenced Sergei Mavrodi to four years and six months in prison in a penal colony, but the founder of MMM had already served almost the entire term of his sentence in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center (in a special block, in FROM 99/1). As an additional measure of punishment, the court established a fine of 10,000 rubles from Mavrodi in favor of the state. However, later the Moscow City Court canceled this fine.
On May 8, Mavrodi's lawyer Olga Makarova said that, at the request of her client, a cassation appeal against the sentence had been filed with the Moscow City Court. Also, cassation appeals were filed earlier by some of the victims.
On May 22, the sentence expired. More than fifty representatives of Russian and foreign media gathered to capture the moment of the release; Investors same MMM - both supporters and opponents of Mavrodi - gathered just ten people. However, the released ex-head of MMM did not want to give any comments to journalists. At the moment when Mavrodi got into the jeep, an activist of the Young Russia movement threw a can of sour cream into the car.
“It's funny that I came out on May 22. Until the end of the year - exactly 223 days. And I was born on August 11th. 223rd day of the year...
Moreover, I couldn’t get out on May 22! Basically! Indeed, according to the law, the verdict comes into force only “upon consideration of the case by the cassation instance (in this case, the Moscow City Court) and the issuance of a ruling by it.” And at that time there was no consideration yet. That is, how I got out is completely incomprehensible. Mystic just some! Joke of fate. It seems that everyone, from the head of the special prison to the last prosecutor general, was suddenly seized by some kind of mass madness - and they let me out. I just don't see any other explanation.
And if perishing about coincidences to continue to speak. I, after all, lowered the prices for shares and tickets on July 29, as you know. August 11, by the way. According to the old style. Symbolic in a way. Phoenix! Second birth. From the ash! Not on purpose, anyway. It just happened. By chance. It seems to be. However, do they even exist in this world? Coincidence?
On May 22, 2008, at the presentation of his book "Temptation", bailiffs presented Mavrodi with writ of execution to recover money from him in favor of deceived depositors (now on civil claims). The total amount of lawsuits, as it was stated to journalists, "so far is about 300 million rubles, but they keep coming." The entire circulation of the book has been seized. A little later, Mavrodi's personal library (over 1.5 thousand volumes) was completely confiscated.
From an interview with Sergei Mavrodi to the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper: “Am I, as a private person, issuing shares and tickets? No, I released them as the president of the firm. And as such, he received everything that was his and served everything that was his. So why are civil suits being taken against me now? Can I be punished a million times over? Any, even the most terrible murderer and rapist - once, but me - a million? Or am I generally outlawed in this country?”
Family
In 1993-2005 he was married to a native of Ukraine, Elena Pavlyuchenko, the owner of many titles in various beauty contests (Miss Zaporozhye -92, Miss MMM -94, etc.).
However, Mavrodi never lived in the same apartment with his wife. As he himself later stated in an interview: “I can’t even imagine how you can live in the same apartment with a woman.”
Mavrodi also came up with a funny scheme of "managing his wife." The famous astrologer, whose predictions Elena implicitly believed, was in fact Mavrodi's man.
Today, Elena has changed her image and, according to rumors, lives in the Moscow region under a new surname, is a housewife and has a 14-year-old daughter.
“When I realized that I sat down for a long time (and for the first three years I was sure that I would get eternity), the question arose of what to do with my wife.
Many in this situation (and it is quite common in prison) behave like this. They announce to the wife on a date that, they say, dear, the term is shining for me, so ... You are free!
But this is hypocrisy. This is from the evil one. Psychological trap for a woman. She can’t tell you: “Yes, of course! I need you now for a hundred years! get out yourself, it was not a fig to get into. Unless, of course, she is not quite the last rubbish and bastard. (However, such and such people don’t even go on dates.) Naturally, she replies: “what are you! .. yes, how could you think! .. yes, I will never leave you! ..” and so on and so forth. It has exactly what is expected of it. Why, in fact, all this is said.
If you really want to let your wife go, you have to make the first move yourself. Take responsibility for yourself, and not shift it to a weak and unhappy woman. Which is already bad now.
Therefore, after about six months, without any warning, I simply filed for divorce and at the same time wrote a statement addressed to the head of the prison that I refuse to see my wife and ask her not to let me see me anymore. That's all. Life, alas, is a cruel thing.
The wife of the younger brother of Sergei Mavrodi Vyacheslav was Marina Muravyova, the current wife of the singer Oleg Gazmanov.
There is no information about the current situation of V.P. Mavrodi.
Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi - quotes
God! They gave you this money. The paper is cut. And nothing more. 
An interesting phenomenon. Completely inexplicable, but nevertheless present. Without a doubt. I myself have seen it many times in prison. Now, if tomorrow, God forbid, something happens to you (say, you end up in prison, pah-pah-pah, of course), then everyone you count on as yourself, all these childhood friends, etc., scatter on the same day. But they will help you, however. People you don’t notice at all now and from whom you least expect it. To one of my cellmates, for example, the head of the martial arts school, one student began to help, whom he had not noticed at all before, etc. And so it was with everyone. Practically. Why this happens - God knows. But - it happens.
Yes, people are evil. But be kind!
I have a completely clear and distinct inner ... conviction? NONE! Neither God nor Devil. I always make my own choice. Me and only me!
Excessive insight is suspicious. Everyone is judging for themselves. Only the villain is always on the alert and expects a dirty trick from everyone. A normal person is always taken by surprise by evil.
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.
Sergei 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, Sergey 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 the Mavrodi channel on YotTube videohoting went through the roof and became the first in 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.
