Pyramid syndrome

Investors of Mavrodi Jr. still refuse to consider themselves deceived

Yesterday, the Chertanovo Court of the capital began consideration of a criminal case against Vyacheslav Mavrodi, one of the founding brothers of the most famous Russian financial pyramid, MMM. Mavrodi appeared before the servants of Themis not for large-scale scams, but for illegal banking activities and trafficking in precious metals. It is interesting that a significant part of the investors in Vyacheslav Mavrodi’s structures refuse to admit that they are victims and demand the immediate release of the entrepreneur.

Investigators still cannot calculate how many people suffered from MMM and how much money they lost. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at least 22 thousand depositors have so far been identified who suffered losses of 50 million rubles. From unofficial data it follows that at different times several million people have encountered MMM and lost $100 million.

When by 1996 the joint-stock company practically ceased to exist, Vyacheslav Mavrodi, who held the position of vice president at MMM, created several other pyramids called the “System of Mutual Voluntary Donations” (SVDP) - MMM-96, MMM-97, etc. . The work scheme of these organizations differed little from its famous predecessor. People brought money there under the promise that 30% would be credited to them every month. True, Vyacheslav Mavrodi prudently used a trick - the SVDP did not have a legal entity and officially “donations” were made personally to the entrepreneur. Then Mavrodi had to make a “reverse donation” - return the money to the investor with interest. The principle of “mutual trust” assumed that neither the SVDP nor Vyacheslav Mavrodi bore any responsibility for the deposits.

This financial pyramid operated until 1998, when police officers raided the SVDP office and regarded Mavrodi’s actions as illegal banking activities (Article 127 of the Criminal Code). As the detectives calculated, the SVDP caused damage to investors amounting to 3.8 billion “old” rubles. And on August 28, 1999, investigators opened another case against Vyacheslav - on illegal trafficking in precious metals (Article 191 of the Criminal Code). According to representatives of the State Investigative Directorate, they were able to establish that in October 1997, Vyacheslav Mavrodi, bypassing the banks authorized to carry out transactions with precious metals, 55 times transferred gold bars worth 714 million “old” rubles to his investors as collateral. True, when all this became clear, the businessman had already gone on the run.

In the middle of last year, Mavrodi was detained at a safe house in Moscow by employees of the Main Directorate for Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As it turned out, the entrepreneur almost did not leave the premises for a year and a half - food was brought to him by acquaintances with whom he communicated, not trusting the phone, exclusively via the Internet. When Mavrodi decided to leave the shelter on business, he was accompanied by several specially hired guards. The detectives were led to the entrepreneur’s apartment by his girlfriend, who was under surveillance.

Mavrodi’s defenders consider their client innocent, arguing that examinations showed that he was not involved in illegal banking activities, and the SVDP, on the contrary, returned 14 billion rubles to some of MMM’s depositors. For some, their debts were even repaid in those same gold bars. His investors themselves are actively standing up for Vyacheslav Mavrodi. Investigators questioned more than half a thousand of them, and only 170 of them admitted that they were victims. The majority demand Mavrodi’s acquittal, assuring that upon his release, he will immediately repay all his debts. The main founder of MMM, Sergei Mavrodi, is still on the international wanted list through Interpol and, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs admits, there are no special hopes for his quick capture.

Alexander SHVAREV