Despite critics MMM Nigeria is thriving, is there a force binding folks collectively?

In the 1st week of October 2016, ContinenalInquirer requested to chat with the online consultant of MMM E.Africa,which is the  admin to MMM Zimbabwe. The essence of the chat is that have an insight about the report of the MMM Zimbabwe which was alleged to have crashed.

In August 2016, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, RBZ had warned all Zimbabweans to stay away from the scheme calling it a Ponzi Scheme. Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria had also warned Nigerians about MMM.

These were the answers we recieved from the online consultant of MMM E.Africa : "It was to build PH reserves. It has since been lifted and the GH train is slowly and surely moving. Also note MMM E.Africa is not linked to MMM Nigeria, and whatever happened, is happening and will happen in MMM E.Africa has no influence or effect whatsoever to MMM Nigeria”.

“What will contribute to a crash any MMM is unnecessary panic like the one which may arise as people believe old news which a journalist just copy-pasted from an early August 2016 piece. Please relax, stay calm, Provide Help, Get Help, recruit and together we change the world”.

Steven Melrewekende, an MMM member in Zimbabwe said: “We never thought the scheme would end this way as we believed that by using EcoCash to do the transactions, things were in order. I am surprised that EcoCash is also distancing itself from the scheme and it is clear that I will never recover the USD300 that I invested.”

EcoCash, the mobile money operator used by MMM members to transfer funds amongst themselves denied having any link with MMM. The company issued a statement that:

“We advise our valued customers and all stakeholders that Ecocash is a licensed mobile payment platform that enables customers to make financial transactions such as sending money, buying prepaid airtime as well as paying for goods and services within the confines of the law of Zimbabwe. EcoCash promotes safe and legal transactions but will not be held liable for any losses arising from the use of EcoCash to engage in illegal activities such as Ponzi schemes.”

Even though despite South Africa and China are banning it and warning their citizens against it. In January the bank accounts of an investor in MMM Global in South Africa were frozen for violating the Consumers’ Protection Act, MMM GLOBAL is still flourishing and expanding in Nigeria despite all the bad press.

MMM Global which has been labelled a ponzi scheme. What is making it prosperous in Nigeria despite the warnings?

The resultant crash of the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox scheme in Zimbabwe popularly known as MMM, the UK Independent newspaper has warned Africans to stop investing their money into the Ponzi Scheme.

There are obvious proofs that the Zimbabwe scheme follows the same model as that of  Nigeria and the two countries are also experiencing an economic crisis which has caused many citizens to turn to the MMM Global as a means of livelihood.

According to an excerpt from The Independent’s article, also in October 2016:

“With Zimbabwe’s traditional financial institutions in jeopardy and the country gripped by an economic crisis, thousands turned to MMM Global as an investment that was avowedly independent of government control.

“That’s despite a warning from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that the scheme was fraudulent. RBZ warned members of the public that existing investors were “paid money not from genuine market investment of their funds, but from contributions made by new investors, until a point when the scheme can no longer attract new investors.”

“What it simply means is that the number of people in need of help has outnumbered the number of people joining. Right now we have nowhere to get our money which we invested.

On the 1st of September 2016, The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has warned the investing public on the activities of some online investment scheme tagged ‘MMM Federal Republic of Nigeria.

According to SEC, the promoters of the scheme carry out their business activities via Nigeria.mmm.net portal/platform, and are promising investors a monthly investment return of 30 per cent.

SEC said the venture had no tangible business model, describing it as a Ponzi scheme, where returns would be paid from other peoples’ invested funds.

Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. The scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors.

The notice on SEC’s website thus read, “The attention of SEC, Nigeria has been drawn to the activities of an online investment scheme tagged ‘MMM Federal Republic of Nigeria (nigeria.mmm.net). The platform has embarked on an aggressive online media campaign to lure the investing public to participate in what it called ‘mutual aid financial network’ with a monthly investment return of 30 per cent.

Finally,  our findings noted that Moratorium might just be a new strategy devised by MMM Nigeria to delay the inevitable.

Ponzi Schemes like MMM and many others that have existed often crash once they get to a stage when old members/investors outnumber new members/investors.

After getting hit by a crash in Zimbabwe and the negative PR that comes with such misfortune, the folks running MMM Nigeria are taking some precautions to either delay the crash of MMM in Nigeria and or cheat unsuspecting members.

However, unknowing to many people and including its current members, MMM Nigeria has come up with a creative way of postponing its crash. On its website, the admin running the scheme in Nigeria has added two visible bars titled – ‘Solution to get help delay and understanding and lifting temporary moratorium’

  

An overview into the concept of moratorium and how it will affect when members can help (withdraw funds with interests) shows that MMM Nigeria claim that there will be serious delay from when withdrawal requests are made and when a match is provided for execution actual withdrawal.

Providing reasons for the moratorium, MMM Nigeria said:

“HACKERS are the major reason for this. When you account gets hacked, the first point of call is your banking details, including Bitcoin address. Hence, the MORATORIUM rule to minimize loss of your mavros (Ponzi currency) to them”.

“When you are on moratorium, your GH gets delayed for 15days (sic) to 1 month depending on the weight of the intrusion”.

The introduction of the clause is unprecedented giving the unique selling point that attracts its members- “30% RoI within 30 days”. The veracity of the argument for a 15-day freeze non withdrawal period as a result of hacking incidents is implausible to say the least. This is because the moratorium clause was introduced at the same time MMM Zimbabwe was crashing and sending panic attacks to the foundations of MMM Global’s country operations.

It is also surprising that MMM Nigeria is not specific on when the moratorium would be lifted.

Before it would fizzle out, its not a bad idea for those with guts to give it a try. After all, life itself is a risk....

By Dotun. I 

for Continenal Inquirer