Promoters seek protection of rights of MMM participants

Scheme marks one year in Nigeria
Amid call for its probe by House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, promoters of the pyramid financial scheme, Mavrodi Mondial Movement (MMM), have sought protection of rights of the participants.

Addressing reporters at an event to mark the first anniversary of the scheme at the weekend in Lagos, counsel to the project, Messrs Ataguba S. Aboje, Kester Elebesunu and Jacob O. Ayodele, admonished the federal lawmakers and relevant government agencies to ensure fair hearing for the over two million participants in the interest of justice.‎

They noted that the programme has been beneficial as participants only donate spare funds to the needy for the donors to qualify for same.

The three legal practitioners added that the website contains a caveat, “Warning” section which domiciles inherent risks of participation, adding that it is taken for granted that a participant must have read and digested the rules.

They went on: “Besides that, MMM places a maximum limit on the total amount a participant can donate and participants are under no obligation to donate any particular sum on any regular basis or to introduce or recruit new members. As it is stated on their website, 30 per cent per month cannot be considered as an interest rate on invested money due to the fact 30 per cent is a representation of growth of a personal score of an MMM member, which is referred to as Mavro.

“MMM also declares that it sells no products or services and has no central structure or a central account to accept any form of deposits. In contrast, in Ponzi schemes, money invested by an investor is taken on the promise of returns on that investment. The MMM programme does not receive money and does not also guarantee any returns and the clear warning to this effect is expressly displayed on the website.”