A Nigerian identified as Pastor Ernest Chigozie Mbanefo, the
alleged mastermind of the suspected Ponzi scheme known as MMM Nigeria has been
uncovered. According to an online report, Mbanefo is based in South Africa.
Mbanefo Nigerian Communications Week said Mbanefo registered
the site MMM-Nigeria.net domain on June 7, 2016 about at about 5 pm Nigerian
time.
NAN quoting NCW And Pageone report written as far back as
September said Mbanefo made a single year domain payment. The domain will
expire on June 7, 2017. It was also revealed that MMM Nigeria is not part of
MMM Global – a Russian company that was responsible for one of the world’s
largest Ponzi schemes in the 1990s.
MMM Global was founded by Russian politician Sergei Mavrodi,
his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi and Olga Melnikova. The name of the company was
taken from the first letters of the three founders’ surnames (MMM) But like MMM
Global, the Nigerian scheme is also a pyramid marketing scheme where an
investor gets a 30 per cent return on investment. Around the world, MMM is
feared.
In January 2016 the Chinese government banned MMM on the
grounds that it is a pyramid scheme, (Ponzi scheme), and it is not registered
in the country (and as a fraudulent scheme cannot be registered. MMM recently
crashed in Zimbabwe: Thousands of ‘Mavrodians’ in Zimbabwe were left in tears
when the scheme crashed, losing tens of thousands of their lifetime savings.
Page One gave Mbanefo’s address as 1 ROYAL STREET, LINDBERG
PARK, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. According to Page One, on the 15th of July,
Ernest was awarded a certificate of completion of an online course titled ‘MMM
Guiders School’. The certificate was supposedly signed by Sergei Mavrodi
himself. He has since given himself the nickname the ‘Super Guider of MMM’.
To share news and information about MMM, Ernest also
operates a subdomain ‘news.mmm-nigeria.net. The site praises him and projects
him as the leader of the Ponzi Scheme in Nigeria.
“He is described as: MMM Nigeria Super Guider; Pastor Ernest
Mbanefo, has been selflessly helping thousands of MMM Nigeria Participants
whether or not they fall under his downline structure. The brain behind the MMM
NIGERIA REVOLUTION operation has been working selflessly and tirelessly towards
the education, information and proper guidance for the MMM Nigeria Community’.
Culled from NAN
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