Sergey Mavrodi
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Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi (Russian: Сергей Пантелеевич Мавроди) (born Moscow August 11, 1955) is a Russian con artist. The founder of the МММ Ponzi scheme which has ruined millions of investors all over the country in the early 1990s. Even now his activity causes an ambiguous estimation in various circles of a society. In Russia, he is also famous as the financial speculator and the fraud.
[edit] Biography and the beginning of business career
Sergey Mavrodi was born on August 11, 1955 in Moscow. The father, Panteley Andreevich, the assembler by a trade, died of lung cancer in 1980. His mother, Valentina Fyodorovna, an economist, died of a liver cancer in 1986. Sergey was the first child of the Mavrodis and had a younger brother, Vyacheslav.
Mavrodi attended Secondary school #45 in Moscow. After the school he studied applied mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building[citation needed]. Upon graduation in 1978, he worked as a mathematical engineer at a research institute, and in 1980 he became the head of group of programmers at this institute. Simultaneously, he was engaged in manufacturing and sales of audio and video recordings, which was an illegal activity in the Soviet Union. In 1981, he left the institute to further pursue illicit business. To avoid criminal charges, he also worked various odd jobs, such as the night watchman in the Moscow Metro. In 1983 Mavrodi was arrested for the first time for illegal commerce, but soon was pardoned[citation needed].
[edit] MMM activity and swindling of cash
In 1988, he founded the MMM Ponzi scheme with his brother. Later Mavrodi created more schemes, which were prevalent in Russia 1990s.
Trying to avoid criminal charges again in 1994, Mavrodi managed to get elected to the State Duma, obtaining parliamentary immunity. He used the support of defrauded investors, for whom he had promised to start a pay back program. His immunity was nullified in October of 1995. Mavrodi declared MMM bankrupt on December 22, 1997, and was on the run until his arrest in 2003.
Mavrodi was placed under police custody in 2003, then was convicted of holding a fake passport and sentenced to 13 months in prison. While in custody he was also investigated over tax evasion and fraud charges that came to light in 1994 and 1995. Mavrodi tried to delay sentence announcement of his criminal case. Court hearings on the fraud charges began in March 2006. On April 28, 2007, Moscow court sentenced Mavrodi to four and a half years in a penal colony. The court also fined Mavrodi 10,000 rubles ($390). On May 22, 2007, Mavrodi left prison.
