Biography of Sergei Mavrodi
Sergey Panteleevich Mavrodi is the founder of the MMM structure that has become a legend and a brand, a former State Duma deputy, author of literary works, some of which were written during his stay in prison, and a performer of songs.
According to sociologists, three quarters of Russian citizens are convinced that in reality he is just a swindler and a swindler, but every tenth compatriot assessed his personality positively, calling him an innovator, creator of progressive ideas and an ingenious way of earning money.
The notorious entrepreneur himself believes that only the scale of his actions is important, regardless of their results, in which someone can see positive, and someone negative.
Childhood and family
The future creator of the controversial financial system was born on August 11, 1955 in the capital of our country. His father, Panteley Andreevich, was from Donbass, worked as an assembly worker, had Greek and Ukrainian roots (the surname means “black” or “dark” in Greek). Mom, Valentina Fedorovna, before Monakhov’s marriage, was an engineer-economist by profession, and Russian by nationality. She was born in the Vladimir region.
The couple raised two sons. Sergei was the firstborn, the youngest child was named Vyacheslav. Parents passed away in the 1980s from oncology. At birth, doctors diagnosed the eldest of the brothers with bilateral heart disease and suggested that he might not even live to come of age. However, their prediction did not come true.
At school, Seryozha studied well, participated in olympiads in mathematics and physics, had a phenomenal memory – he could easily repeat a text read to him aloud. But later, after suffering twelve concussions, he lost this ability. Also, Sergei Mavrodi attended art school as a child, although, according to him, he did not like to draw.
Education
In 1972, after completing his studies, he tried to enter the famous Phystech, where scientists and specialists of the highest level are trained. The young man hoped to pass physics as “excellent”, but received a satisfactory mark for his written work, so he took the documents and was enrolled in a somewhat less prestigious technical university – electronic engineering, whose graduates also included many famous people, for example, ex-director of the FSB Nikolai Kovalev and ex-wife of Eugene Kaspersky Natalia.
As a student at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Sergei did not show much zeal for acquiring knowledge – he rarely attended lectures and seminars. Although in the first year, he nevertheless became the winner of the institute Olympiad, which in itself speaks of his outstanding physical and mathematical abilities.
During the student years, the young man was fond of playing preference, sambo, and was engaged in blackmail.
After graduating from the institute in 1978, the young engineer worked for 3 years on assignment in one of the capital research institutes. Then he quit his job, got a job in the subway as a watchman and started selling pirated videos. As a result, in 1983 he was detained by law enforcement agencies for illegal business. He could have ended up behind bars, but he managed to avoid serious punishment, since in those years the law enforcement agencies were working against “going too far” in relation to minor offenses.
Sergey Mavrodi and MMM
In 1989, the young man, in partnership with his brother Vyacheslav and his wife Olga Melnikova, founded the MMM company (the abbreviation was formed from the names of the founders of the company). On its basis, several structures were later created, including the notorious financial pyramid of the same name with fifteen million depositors.
The sale of the company’s shares started in February 1994, and in just 6 months there was more than a hundredfold increase in the value of securities, and the accumulation of capital reached one third of the state budget. Until April 4, 1994, the value of each share increased 127 times, and the number of depositors, according to various estimates, reached from 10 to 15 million Russians.
The vigorous activity of the domestic phenomenon was stopped by arrest for violation of tax laws. Mavrodi himself claimed that the authorities launched a large-scale campaign against “MMM” and that the whole case was fabricated from start to finish. Nevertheless, right from the places of imprisonment, he suspended the work of his main brainchild and decided to run for parliament. After about 2 months, he was released, and at the end of October he became a parliamentarian.
Political career
Having become a parliamentarian in 1994, Sergei Panteleevich ignored legislative activity and did not attend Duma sessions. He was not interested in politics, and he needed the status of a deputy solely for the privilege of immunity.
Sergei Mavrodi wishes you a Happy New Year 1994
At the same time, he behaved with dignity – he officially refused the due wages and exclusive parliamentary rights in the form of a dacha, an apartment, an official car. He continued to engage in commercial activities, and also created and headed the “Party of People’s Capital”.
In 1995, at the suggestion of the Credentials Committee, he was deprived of his powers as a people’s deputy. In December, he re-nominated his candidacy for the State Duma of the II convocation, but failed. In 1996, the ex-deputy was nominated for the presidency of the Russian Federation, but the Central Election Commission refused to register his candidacy, doubting the authenticity of the signatures in his support. The criminal proceedings initiated on this occasion were soon terminated for lack of evidence, but the proceedings prevented him from taking part in the elections.
Litigation
In 1997, MMM was declared bankrupt. The deprivation of immunity of the parliamentarian led to the resumption of the previous investigative actions against the “father” of MMM, within the framework of a new charge of fraud. In 1997, Mavrodi was put on the wanted list in Russia, and since 1998, Interpol has been looking for him.
According to the assumption of law enforcement agencies, he was hiding in the suburbs or abroad. In reality, the leader of the unprecedented financial community never left the capital, and for about 8 years lived incognito in a rented apartment. His security was allegedly ensured by a personal service of specialists of a level no lower than that of the international police.
During his stay on the wanted list, the indefatigable pyramid builder launched another project on the worldwide network – the largest electronic exchange in history, Stock Generation. About three hundred thousand Europeans and Americans suffered from its activities.
In 2003, an adventurer of colossal proportions was arrested. He was accused of forging documents (during his arrest, law enforcement officers seized a fake passport from him), as well as violating tax laws, in addition to the existing indictment of fraud. For the first crime, the court sentenced him to imprisonment for 1 year and 1 month. The second sentence was not followed due to the expiration of its statute of limitations.
The main case on the deception of millions of depositors, however, contained more than 600 volumes. He was investigated for 3 years, and the trial went on for another year. The amount of damage caused to the victims was estimated in different ways by individual experts, but, admittedly, it amounted to more than a billion dollars.
In 2007, the swindler was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. About a month later, he was released – his stay in a pre-trial detention center was counted towards the term.
A year after his release, he published the book “Temptation”. The bailiffs seized its circulation, as the author was sued by defrauded investors to recover funds in the amount of about three hundred million rubles. To pay off the debt, more than 1,500 books were also withdrawn from his private library.
Life after prison
In 2011, on the MNK channel, Sergei read chapters from his literary works, including the unpublished Antiworld, and commented on news articles, but later gave up this occupation. In the same period, the film “PiraMMMida”, based on his story of the same name, was released. The main roles in the film were played by Alexei Serebryakov, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov and Ekaterina Vilkova.
Sergey Mavrodi’s song about Russia
In 2011, the leader of the MMM system announced its revival, but a year later this pyramid also collapsed. But in subsequent years, he made more than one attempt to build financial pyramids, according to him, more perfect and reliable.
The principle of operation of MMM-2011
Sergei also had an official source of income in the amount of 15 thousand rubles a month – he advised the accounting department of businessman Pavel Molchanov from Noginsk. Half of his salary was seized by bailiffs. He could not pay all of the three hundred fines available, as a result of which in 2012 Mavrodi was arrested for 5 days.
In early 2014, Mavrodi launched a virtual pyramid based on a cryptocurrency – bitcoin – with a 100% ROI. In December 2015, he announced the termination of MMM activities in Russia, as well as Kazakhstan and Belarus, declaring local pyramids to be fraudulent. In the spring of 2016, he also announced the closure of the virtual pyramid.
In 2014, the film “River” was shot according to his script. In 2015, the Internet started showing the series “Zombies”, where he became not only the author of the script, but also the soundtracks.
The series “Zombies” by Sergei Mavrodi with his songs
Personal life of Sergei Mavrodi
In the last years of his life, the leader of the MMM was divorced. He was married to Elena Pavlyuchenko from the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye. Before her marriage, she worked in a kindergarten and studied at a pedagogical institute. In 1989 she became “Vice-Miss”, in 1992 – the winner of the city beauty contest, met Sergei, who presented her with a modeling agency. Young people got married, although they never lived together. As it turned out, the builder of the pyramids, who was called in the press “New Pharaoh”, in principle did not understand how it was possible to live with a woman.
While in jail, Sergei decided that he had to give his beloved freedom. He himself filed for divorce and refused to meet with his wife. According to unofficial information, later the woman lived in the Moscow region and was engaged in raising their common daughter Irina (born in 2006).
It is known that Mavrodi did not sleep at night, but went to bed twice a day – from 6 to 10 in the morning and at the same time in the evening. Among his hobbies were fishing, hunting, books, collecting insects.
In his own words, Sergei Panteleevich is a supporter of complete information isolation: he was not interested in news, did not read anything, did not watch TV. Moreover, he did not communicate with anyone without urgent need, he loved to be in the company exclusively with himself. About women “Pharaoh” had a peculiar opinion: he compared them with stinging wasps and considered them “incapacitated.”
Possessing huge funds, Sergei Mavrodi did not become the owner of “factories, newspapers and ships.” Even the furnishings of his apartment were surprising with its excessive simplicity – there were shelves with books, a table, a bed and aquariums.
Death of Mavrodi
On the night of March 25-26, 2018, a bystander called an ambulance from a bus stop on Polikarpov Street for Mavrodi, who complained of acute pain in his heart. At about one in the morning, Sergei was taken to the capital’s hospital No. 67, but the doctors failed to save his life. On the morning of March 26, 62-year-old Sergei Mavrodi passed away.