МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the
world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s.
By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to
$10 billion. The exact figures are not known even to the
founders.

History
MMM was established in 1989 by Sergei Mavrodi, his
brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova. The name
of the company was taken from the first letters of the three
founders' surnames. Initially, the company imported computers and office equipment. In January 1992, tax police accused MMM of tax evasion , leading to the collapse of MMM-bank, and causing the company to have difficulty obtaining financing to support its operations. Faced with difficulties in funding its foreign trade, the company switched to the financial sector. It offered American stocks to Russian investors, but met with little success. Later, MMM-Invest was created for the purpose of collecting vouchers during privatisation. This effort was similarly unsuccessful. MMM created its successful Ponzi scheme in 1994. The company started attracting money from private investors, promising annual returns of up to one thousand percent. It is unclear whether a Ponzi scheme was Mavrodi's initial intention, inasmuch as such extravagant returns might have been possible during the Russian hyperinflation in such
commerce as import-export.
MMM grew rapidly. In February 1994, the company reported
dividends of 1,000%, and started an aggressive TV ad
campaign. Since the shares were not quoted on any stock
exchange and the company itself determined the share
price, it maintained a steady price growth of thousands of
percent annually, leading the public to believe its shares
were a safe and profitable investment . An important factor in the scheme's success was word of mouth, but most of the company's success came from its extremely aggressive ad campaign, which appealed to the general public by using "ordinary" characters that viewers could identify with. The most famous of them, a "folk hero" of early 1994, was Lyonya Golubkov . Another notable marketing effort was a giveaway of free Metro trips to all Moscow citizens on a particular day. MMM also was one of the first well-known companies in Russia with a logotype and slogans ("Flying from shadow to the light" and others). At its peak the company was taking in more than 100 billion rubles (about 50 million USD) each day from the sale of its shares to the public. Thus, the cashflow turnover at the MMM central office in Moscow was so high that it could not be estimated. The management started to count money in roomfuls (1 roomful of money, 2 roomfuls of money, etc.).
Regular publication in the media of the rising MMM share
price led President Boris Yeltsin to issue a decree in June
1994 prohibiting financial institutions from publicising their
expected income.
The success of MMM in attracting visitors led to the
creation of other similar companies, including Tibet , Chara,
Khoper-Invest , Selenga , Telemarket, and Germes . All of
these companies were characterised by aggressive
television advertising and extremely high promised rates of
return. One company promised annual returns of
30,000%. On July 22, 1994, the police closed the offices of MMM for tax evasion. For a few days the company attempted to continue the scheme, but soon ceased operations. At that point, Invest-Consulting, one of the company's subsidiaries, owed more than 50 billion rubles in taxes (USD 26 million), and MMM itself owed between 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles to the investors (from USD 50 million to USD 1.5 billion). In the aftermath at least 50 investors, having lost all of their money, committed suicide .
Several organisations of "deceived investors" made efforts
to recover their lost investments, but Sergei Mavrodi
manipulated their indignation and directed it at the
government. In August 1994 Mavrodi was arrested for tax
evasion. However, he was soon elected to the Russian
State Duma, with the support of the "deceived investors".
He argued that the government, not MMM, was responsible
for people losing their money, and promised to initiate a
pay-back program. The amount ultimately paid back was
minuscule compared to the amount owed. [citation needed]
In October 1995, the Duma cancelled Mavrodi's right to
immunity as a deputy. In 1996, he tried to run for Russia's
presidency, but most of the signatures he received were
rejected. MMM declared bankruptcy on September 22,
1997.
While it was believed that Sergei Mavrodi left Russia and
moved to the United States , it is possible that he stayed in
Moscow, using his money to change apartments regularly
and employ a group of former special agents. With the help
of a distant relative he started Stock Generation Ltd.,
another pyramid scheme based around trading non-existent
companies' stocks in a form of the "stock exchange game"
on the company's site, stockgeneration.com. Despite a
bold-letter warning on the main page that the site was not a
real stock exchange, between 20,000 and 275,000 people,
according to various estimates, fell for the promised 200%
returns and lost their money. According to U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission , losses of victims were at least
USD 5.5 million.
Mavrodi was found and arrested in 2003. While in custody,
Mavrodi was given until January 31, 2006 to read the
documents in his fraud case against him (The criminal case
consisted of 650 volumes, each 250-270 pages
long). [citation needed ] At the end of April 2007, Mavrodi was convicted of fraud, and given a sentence of four and a half years. Since he had already spent over four years in
custody, he was released less than a month later, on May
22, 2007. [citation needed ] He later went on to creating yet
another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011 .
The MMM scandal led to increased regulation of the
Russian stock market, but the legacy of the fraud led many
to become extremely suspicious of any joint stock
companies .
In 2015 MMM began operating in South Africa with the
same business model as MMM-2011, claiming a "30% per
month" return through a "social financial network". [3] The
group was identified as a possible pyramid scheme by the
National Consumer Commission and accounts of clients
were later frozen by Capitec Bank .[4] In response to
mounting criticism and official investigations by state
authorities in 2016 supporters of the South African MMM
scheme staged a protest march in Johannesburg.
In 2016, MMM launched a website targeting the Nigerian
audience.
In January 2016 the Chinese government banned MMM on
the grounds that it is a pyramid scheme, (Ponzi scheme),
and it is not registered in the country (and as a fraudulent
scheme cannot be registered).

trty harder with ur copy and paste.MMM is real believe it or not,that's ur business

No mind am by the time he would have woken up from his slumber it might be too late

intbizoil:
No mind am by the time he would have woken up from his slumber it might be too late

True talk u dey mind am?

One thing with MMM is that it cant last for long, presently, i have very close friends making money from it, but i keep telling them not to invest more than they can afford to lose.

modelmike7:
One thing with MMM is that it cant last for long, presently, i have very close friends making money from it, but i keep telling them not to invest more than they can afford to lose.

so your friends are making money and you are busy advising them, probably when their bank account is bursting to the seams you will turn around and ask for your salary as their economic adviser.