TheCable

One month after members of the house of representatives warned Nigerians off the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM), the scheme has frozen withdrawals, causing panic among “Mavros” members.

Members of the scheme were shocked on Tuesday to find a message, instead of their statement of account, informing them of the decision to freeze withdrawal till the new year.

The message read thus:

“One-Month Freezing of Confirmed Mavros.”

“Dear members! As usual, in the New Year season the System is experiencing heavy workload. Moreover, it has to deal with the constant frenzy provoked by the authorities in the mass media.

“The things are still going well; the participants feel calm; everyone gets paid – as you can see, there haven’t been any payment delays or other problems yet – but!.. it is better to avoid taking risk.

“Moreover, there are almost three weeks left to the New Year. Hence, on the basis of the above mentioned, from now on all confirmed Mavro will be frozen for a month.”

“The reason for this measure is evident. We need to prevent any problems during the New Year season, and then, when everything calms down, this measure will be cancelled. (Which we will definitely do. We hope for your understanding, administration.”

MMM has been in Nigeria for over one year. It has several thousands of “investors” who put money in a scheme that has no product or service for exchange of value, yet expect and, until today, get more money than they put in.

There have been several warnings against participating in the scheme from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  and the house of representatives which also ordered an investigation into the operation of the scheme, in October.

Two days ago, Sergey Mavrodi, founder of MMM, wrote an open letter to the federal government, defending the scheme, claiming it was “restoring social justice” since the federal government was not concerned about the welfare of its citizens.

“MMM is their only means of livelihood,” Mavrodi had said.

However, an MMM participant who did not want to be named rued her luck.

“I knew it was going to crash and I thought I could quickly make my money before the crash. Now I am in big trouble,” the single mother of two said without disclosing the extent of her investment in the scheme.