Mavrodi was best known as the founder of the infamous Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM) ponzi scheme. A mutual fund scheme that started in November 2015 in Nigeria and took less than a year to become a key influencer in Nigeria’s vast informal economy through by guarantying returns of a whopping 30% per month on payments and other promotion offers.
The scheme kept to its promises for a while by working and so word spread quickly and between February and July 2016, the number of people that signed up to the ponzi scheme grew from a few hundred thousand to over two million people. Despite the Central Bank repeatedly warning Nigerians against committing funds to the scheme and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) launching an investigation into the scheme’s operations, Nigerians continued to join the platform.
Not until suddenly, in December 2016, MMM suspended its operations in Nigeria. Much to the consternation of many people who’d been hoping to withdraw funds to spend over the Christmas holidays, the company cited a “heavy workload on the system”, saying it was taking a short break and promised to return and be better.
But it never truly returned. The ponzi bubble burst at the worst possible time and left many Nigerians in despair at their lost “investments”. Some got on social media to complain while others counted their losses and moved on though with sorrow in their hearts.
Ever since then, nothing was heard from the founder not until March 25 when he died of Heart attack at the age of 63 in a Moscow hospital. However, Many Nigerians especially those who where cheated from his scheme believed that the heart attack that caused his death was as a result of the sorrow he sowed into people’s life after frauding them thus, he just reaped what he sowed.