The revived Russian Ponzi scheme, MMM, has reached Armenia.
In Apr-May 2013 the new MMM launched a PR campaign in the country. Their new status is an international NGO and an international benevolent fund, their slogan is We are Changing the World, their tactics in Armenia are to capitalize on growing income gap and poverty. MMM's local units are headed by some Tachat, Luiza and Ghevond. According to their newsletter, their new concept is the operative business model of the modern banking system.
"The old system was a predatory scheme, the new one is based on mutual assistance and humanism," this is the theme line of the new MMM.
Established by Sergei Mavrodi, MMM 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. In the aftermath at least 50 investors, having lost all of their money, committed suicide.