1At the beginning of 994, Russian resident Mavrodi announced the establishment of an investment fund called MMM, claiming that its goal was to build it into the largest investment fund in Russia. The company assured the public that as long as it invested $65,438+000 in MMM, it could recover $500 within half a year, and there was a year-end rate of return as high as 400%! Under such a call, about150,000 people in Russia bought MMM shares. Due to the participation of a large number of shareholders, the share price of MMM investment fund soared from about 1 USD to 54 USD.

MMM fund-raising is another typical pyramid scheme fraud. Its operating procedure is: after the company sponsors draw up the financing plan, they are committed to luring investors to participate in the stock market, and when the funds accumulate to a certain amount, they begin to use these funds to provide returns to investors, and so on. As long as the raised shares reach a certain scale and can continue to circulate, they can cope with daily payments and year-end dividends. However, once investors' confidence is shaken, they stop investing, sell stocks or demand payment, the pyramid will collapse, and those shareholders who later participated in the investment will be wiped out and become victims of fraud.