From 2015:

Recently I came across a scam of even more alarming proportions. It is called “MMM Global Republic of Bitcoin.” See their Facebook page and their website. Those who follow Ponzi schemes will immediately recognize the name MMM. In the 1990s, Russian fraudster Sergey Mavrodi ran one of Russia’s largest Ponzai schemes with the same name. Savvy marketing and promises of 1000%+ returns suckered tens of thousands of people into investing their savings in Mavrodi’s scheme. By 1994, when MMM’s offices were closed due to tax evasion, Mavrodi owed his investors beween 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles (between tens of millions and billions of dollars). Mavrodi spent a few years in jail, but by 2011, he was responsible for at least two other pyramid schemes.

Now Mavrodi is back in business, bigger and badder than ever. This time he is using Bitcoin.

Mavrodi’s new scheme is exploding in popularity, especially in India, South Africa, and the Philippines. MMM Global Republic of Bitcoin bills itself as a “Global Fund of mutual aid.” Participants help each other with gifts of money, and in return they receive an equal amount of “Mavros.” (Think of it like an altcoin.) Mavros grow at a rate of 20% to 100% per month, depending on a participant’s engagement with social media. Once Mavros are “confirmed,” participants can “ask for help” from other users according to how many Mavros they have. Theoretically, if I donated $100 of bitcoin today, and every day I completed a task, like sharing MMM videos on Facebook or uploading testimonials to Youtube, I would have $200 worth of Mavro by the end of the month, and could then “request help” in that amount.

https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/mmm-global-republic-of-bitcoin-cryptos-next-scandal

And in 2016

Mavrodi’s MMM Global pyramid scheme collapses, unsurprisingly

Sergey Mavrodi, architect of the MMM Global pyramid scheme, has a habit of closing off his web-based addresses and messages with the assertion that he believes the “financial apocalypse is inevitable” and that “together we change the world!”

On Monday, that prediction was seemingly coming true, albeit not for the financial system as much as for Mavrodi’s own investors.

We’re yet to confirm with our own Mavrodi sources, but if internet reports are anything to go by it looks like Mavrodi’s latest scheme, the Bitcoin-based MMM Global scheme — dubbed a “mutual aid social network” — collapsed over the weekend, with thousands of investors (a lot of them in emerging markets) locked out of investment accounts they had been promised would yield them 100 per cent returns per month.

According to the reports, Mavrodi’s administrative department distributed this note to investors:



In its previous incarnations, the MMM scheme depended on its own parallel currency “the mavro” for storing and clearing value. The latest global MMM Global scheme, however, turned to bitcoin for both payments processing and value preservation. Mavrodi has in the past claimed that the MMM scheme has been a key influencer of the bitcoin price. So far the price of bitcoin appears to be unaffected.

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/04/11/2159088/mavrodis-mmm-global-pyramid-scheme-collapses-unsurprisingly/

[s]

Mudley313:
From 2015:

Recently I came across a scam of even more alarming proportions. It is called “MMM Global Republic of Bitcoin.” See their Facebook page and their website. Those who follow Ponzi schemes will immediately recognize the name MMM. In the 1990s, Russian fraudster Sergey Mavrodi ran one of Russia’s largest Ponzai schemes with the same name. Savvy marketing and promises of 1000%+ returns suckered tens of thousands of people into investing their savings in Mavrodi’s scheme. By 1994, when MMM’s offices were closed due to tax evasion, Mavrodi owed his investors beween 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles (between tens of millions and billions of dollars). Mavrodi spent a few years in jail, but by 2011, he was responsible for at least two other pyramid schemes.

Now Mavrodi is back in business, bigger and badder than ever. This time he is using Bitcoin.

Mavrodi’s new scheme is exploding in popularity, especially in India, South Africa, and the Philippines. MMM Global Republic of Bitcoin bills itself as a “Global Fund of mutual aid.” Participants help each other with gifts of money, and in return they receive an equal amount of “Mavros.” (Think of it like an altcoin.) Mavros grow at a rate of 20% to 100% per month, depending on a participant’s engagement with social media. Once Mavros are “confirmed,” participants can “ask for help” from other users according to how many Mavros they have. Theoretically, if I donated $100 of bitcoin today, and every day I completed a task, like sharing MMM videos on Facebook or uploading testimonials to Youtube, I would have $200 worth of Mavro by the end of the month, and could then “request help” in that amount.

https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/mmm-global-republic-of-bitcoin-cryptos-next-scandal

[/s]
And this mumu is one of the mmm guiders o...