Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi (Russian: Сергей Пантелеевич Мавроди) (born Moscow August 11, 1955) is a Russian businessman and financier; the founder of the financial pyramid МММ which ruined millions (10-15 millions) of investors during the early 1990s. Even now the scope of his activities are of an ambiguous estimation, occurring across various circles of society. In Russia, he is usually named as "the financial genius" and "the adventurer".
Biography and the beginning of business career
Sergei Mavrodi was born on August 11, 1955 in Moscow. His father, Panteley Andreevich, an assembler by a trade, died of lung cancer in 1980. His mother, Valentina Fyodorovna, an economist, died of liver cancer in 1986. Sergei was the first child of the Mavrodis and had a younger brother, Vyacheslav.
Mavrodi attended Secondary school #35 in Moscow. After 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 pursue further illicit business. To avoid criminal charges, he also worked various odd jobs, such as a night watchman in the Moscow Metro. In 1983 Mavrodi was arrested for the first time for illegal commerce, but soon was pardoned[citation needed].
MMM activity and swindling of cash
In 1988, he founded the MMM Ponzi scheme. Later Mavrodi created more schemes, which were prevalent in the 1990s in Russia[citation needed].
To avoid criminal charges in 1994[citation needed], Mavrodi managed to get elected to the State Duma, thereby 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[citation needed]. 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 sentencing announcement of his criminal case. Court hearings on the fraud charges began in March 2006. On April 28, 2007, the 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[citation needed].
External links
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