Controversial online Ponzi scheme MMM has finally announced its close of operations. This is a sequel to the death of its founder Sergei Mavrodi last month. The statement reads:
Dear Participants:
After much deliberation, we have made the conclusion that continuing the System operation, without our leader and ideological inspirer is impossible and makes no sense.
We all carried out the tasks he assigned to us since we had no doubt in his genius and rightness of the path he had chosen.
We are firmly aware of the fact that none of us has a full view of his conception’s profoundness and sequence of all the actions to achieve a final goal, declared in the “MMM’s Ideology”. Sergey Mavrodi’s broadmindedness scale is unprecedented.
Therefore any attempts to continue the System operation without him are bound to fail.
We respect him immeasurably and cannot afford to allow that our unskilled actions may cause profanation of his concepts.
In view of the above, with deep sadness, we have to announce the ultimate and irreversible MMM closure.
We also remind (as a matter of form) that all initially were fully aware of the risks and read the WARNING and confirmed that by checking the relevant box when registering.
Hoping for your understanding, Administration.
A visit by Nairametrics to the controversial site reveals the site has been taken down.
MMM was founded by Sergei Mavrodi, Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova in 1989 in Russia but collapsed in 1994 and was shut down by authorities.
It then moved to South Africa and several other countries before starting operations in Nigeria in January 2016.
What happens to depositors ?
MMM abruptly shut down in December 2016, with an estimated three million Nigerians losing their funds to the scheme. Despite several warnings by the Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission many families and individuals lost their cash to the scheme.
The statement made no mention of what would happen to investors. Operators of the scheme in December last year had hinted at launching a cryptocurrency.