A legendary Russian con artist dies

According to the newspaper Moskovsky Komosmolets, the infamous pyramid schemer Sergey Mavrodi died at a Moscow hospital in the early morning hours on Monday, March 26.

Who was Sergey Mavrodi?

In the early 1990s. Mavrodi ran the “MMM” joint stock company, conning millions of people out of their money, as Russians got a crash course in market economics. In August 1994, Mavrodi was arrested for tax evasion. While under arrest, he was elected to the State Duma, but in October 1995 the parliament stripped him of this office. The following year, he tried to run for president, but he wasn’t allowed to run.

MMM declared bankruptcy in 1997, and Mavrodi spent several years evading another arrest. In 2003, the police finally got him, and in 2007 he was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for fraud, including jail time already served. In 2011, Mavrodi unveiled a new project called “MMM 2011.” In three years, the organization ceased to exist in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

In 2014, an international chain of MMMs launched, becoming popular in Nigeria.