Investors blink as Mavrodi slashes rates of Mavro

MMMIndia restricts redemptions to five per cent of reduced value

Thousands of investors saw the value of their investments, which had gone up exponentially in the past few months, vanish into thin air as the Russian financial scheme called MMMIndia said it was resetting the value of Mavro, the alternative currency it had floated to “destroy the global financial system”. The scheme also said only a fraction of this reset value will be available for withdrawal immediately.

Flooded with redemption requests, and for huge sums following a clampdown by authorities and warnings issued by some state police units, MMMIndia said, “All Mavro will be undergoing recalculation. …This amount will be credited to participant’s virtual accounts, but 95 per cent of the amount will be temporarily frozen. Five per cent of the amount will be released and be available for withdrawal.”

The scheme also said it would now offer only 30 per cent returns per month as against the recent 100 per cent returns and other bonuses. These terms will be applicable when the scheme restarts after the suspension imposed last week. Earlier this week, the Andhra Pradesh police issued an advisory, asking people not to take part in the scheme and risk their money.

In a video message, Sergey Mavrodi said, “Despite the huge influx of new participants wanting to give help, the number of people and most importantly the amount with which these people wanted to “Get Help” was much, much more. Therefore, I declare the restart of MMM in India. Mavro of all participants will be recalculated as: total amount of purchased confirmed Mavro minus total amount of withdrawal, plus 10 per cent. This is to ensure from our side that all who have not yet received help will get it for sure.”

An email questionnaire sent to Alexei Muratov, MMMIndia’s chief, did not elicit any response.

Mavrodi added, “For now, there will be only one type of Mavro, which is 30 per cent Mavro. Now, it all depends on your activity. If I see that you are able to launch open advertisment campaign, if you can explain ideology to more and more new participants, only then I will be increasing the rate of Mavro, which is possible even up to 100 per cent. Again, I want to repeat, this is not a pressure for the system, if participants and managers are active and there is no panic.”

The Russian mastermind, who was jailed in 2003 after an earlier scheme imploded, assured that “this is just the beginning.” He also talked about “Creating of political party, shooting of the movie, the work of software is proper, we defended ourselves successfully from hackers as well. I think, the authorities now will see, that even during restart there is no negativity from people, and finally they will realise, that we are a society of people who genuinely help each other, and they will co-operate.”

An email questionnaire sent to a Sebi spokesperson seeking comments on whether it had taken note of the scheme and action, if any, it has taken did not elicit any response.