The Latvian Register of Enterprises has received an application on foundation of a new association – MMM 2011 KLUBS which is to work with the aim to popularize financial pyramids. State institutions are powerless to refuse the registration.

 Submitters of the application are followers of the Russian resident Sergey Mavrodi. Mavrodi became famous in 1990s when his company MMM created a finance pyramid making 25 million Russian residents lose their money after it collapsed. He was sentenced to imprisonment. A year ago Mavrodi returned to make new schemes. This time the schemes are virtual – all money operations are carried out on the internet, according to the TV3 broadcast Nekā personīga.

Since autumn MMM web-page is translated also in Latvian. Pyramid laudatory advertisements are pasted up on walls of apartment houses’ stairs, and in bus stops. A huge advertisement is set up also on Krasta Street.

Until now all promisers of unbelievably profitable deals in Riga carried out an underground business. Now they have decided to register and have submitted an application on foundation of a new association – MMM 2011 KLUBS – to the Register of Enterprises. The founders Alona Lavrova and Jaroslavs Lihacs promise to carry out promotion of finance pyramids in Latvia. They have registered the association’s address in Skulte, village on the approaches to Riga.

In the said address the broadcast met Maksims who called himself a representative of the association and told that also the office in 2a Marijas Street, Riga, will soon be open.

The office is a kiosk in front of the Riga Central Railway Station where once a shoe shop was located. Next week they will start to consult people there. For the time being they have around 100 clients in Latvia. This time the pyramid will definitely not collapse, they say. But if it does – no one will be responsible for the lost money.

Such a moral seems unacceptable to the Register of Enterprises which has postponed the registration of the association until the 16^th of April. The Register is of opinion that people from MMM need registration documents in order to assure people to trust an officially recognized association. To find arguments to refuse the registration Ringolds Balodis has asked for advice to the Finance and Capital Market Commission. However, the Commission is making excuses saying it is not in their line.

Ref: 102.110.110.436