Stranded MMM Nigeria investors cry out as MMM reopens

Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox, a Ponzi scheme known simply as MMM, on Friday reopened in Nigeria for business after one month of break.

Investors are crying out now after they learnt they still cannot access their funds because MMM plans to first pay participants with small amounts while big investors would have to wait longer.


Read the sad stories they shared with Saturday Punch:

Frank Bunna, who deals in computer accessories at Olugbede market in Idimu, Lagos, was looking dejected when Punch correspondent visited the market. According to him, he was stranded as he had invested all the money for his goods in MMM.

The trader said his future was dashed as he would not be able to get his money back today (Saturday).

“This is my life! How will I live? I invested N2m! Look at my shop, it is totally empty. I invested the whole money for my business on this MMM; I even borrowed N300, 000 that I added to it. I spent six days in the hospital as soon as I heard the account was frozen. I am hypertensive so my blood pressure shot up when I heard the news. To hear that I would not be paid immediately means that I am dead.”

Another Lagos resident simply identified as Korede, who invested over N500, 000 in the scheme, said,

“There is going to be crisis in my home. I borrowed my wife’s N300, 000 to invest in the scheme. I didn’t tell her, but I guess she’s suspicious now.

“I promised to return the money December ending, but couldn’t. That was when MMM froze our accounts. It appears that there is going to be some delay before I can get the money. I just hope my wife will forgive me in case this thing fails. To be sincere, I am afraid.”

An undergraduate of the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, who identified himself as Chiboy because he did not want his parents to know he invested his tuition and money meant for his dissertation in MMM, said he had been left stranded since December 2016, when MMM was suspended and desperately needed his money back.

“I had thought that I would be able to get my money back immediately MMM reopened but from what I heard, it would not be possible. My mother will kill me. I don’t even know what to do,” he said.

A teacher in a private secondary school in Egbeda, Lagos, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bursar of the school had invested N1.5m belonging to the institution in the scheme before the scheme was suspended last month.

According to the teacher, when the bursar could not provide the money, he was sacked by the school management and asked to sign an undertaking to return the money when MMM reopened on Saturday, January 14.

“The bursar has since been arrested and in his undertaking, he had said he would get the money back immediately MMM resumed operations. But with this development, it will take some time before he can get paid, and that is if he gets paid at all,” the teacher said.

A travel agent in Lagos, who identified himself as Mr. Oduntan, lamented that he has been going through difficulty after investing N900, 000 meant for paying his rent in MMM with the hope that he would get about N1.2m in return.

Oduntan said he was desperate to recover his funds as his landlord had been on his neck since then.

Also, a banker in a new generation bank in Ikeja, Lagos, told Punch on condition of anonymity that three of her colleagues were sacked for introducing some customers to MMM.

According to the banker, his colleagues were sacked after the aggrieved customers officially complained to the bank manager that they were stranded because they had invested in MMM, which was introduced to them by some employees of the bank.

The source said,

“The customers said they needed their money back. They blamed some of my colleagues for introducing them to MMM and the bank had to sack them.

“One of the customers complained that the money he had put in MMM was meant to roof his house and that his planned relocation to the house has had to be delayed because of that. Another one said the money he had invested in MMM was meant to pay his debts while another said the money was meant for his wife’s business.”

Another banker working in a commercial bank in Akute, Ogun State, also said one of her colleagues was sacked for investing N2m he had loaned from the bank in MMM and was unable to pay back the loan.

A barbing salon operator in Ilorin, Kwara State, Adejare Lawal, who spoke with one of Punch's correspondents on Thursday, said he had invested money belonging to some of his colleagues, which was from their contributory scheme, in the investment.

According to him, he invested around N350, 000 in November, hoping to get a profit of at least N80, 000 by the second week of December before accounts were frozen.

“This is the biggest risk I have taken in my life and at the moment all I can think about is how to get the money back. I was the one coordinating the barbers’ association’s contribution in my area and I invested it in MMM.”

In Oyo State, an estate agent, Mr. Funso Ogungbade, said he had invested the sum of N3.5m, part of which was from the rents he had collected from tenants on behalf of some landlords, in MMM.

“My target was that by Saturday, everything would be sorted out but as it is now, I cannot get the money back soon. MMM is saying that it will start by paying the people with small funds and that it will also put a peg on how much we can get,” he said.

A student at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, simply identified as Wole, said he had invested N50, 000 into the scheme a week before it froze all accounts.

Another MMM investor, who simply identified himself as Olayinka, said,

“I’m desperate to recover my money. All my investment has gone into it,” he added.

Olayinka, who lost his job over a year ago, said he had invested N700,000 that was paid to him as entitlement in MMM, given how profitable the scheme was before it collapsed.

He said,

“I have been counting down since the day MMM announced the closure. Everything I had went into it so I am seriously stranded.”

Another MMM investor, Miss Janet (surname withheld), said,

“I lied to my brother to lend me money to pursue my Master’s programme. I’ve not been working for some time, and he was the one who advised me to go for a postgraduate degree. So, when I asked for money, he gave me N150, 000.

“With the way it was booming, I invested my N600, 000 in it, including the money I had saved from my previous workplace. So, I’m in a fix as I’m talking to you.”

On January 11, 2017, the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Labode Popoola, told journalists that the school’s authorities would publish in national newspapers names of students who owe tuition, claiming that some of them had invested the money in the MMM scheme.

Noting that the affected students had owed since their enrolment, Popoola said it had come to the knowledge of the school that most of them were enrolled in MMM.

He disclosed that the cumulative debt being owed the school by the students was N2bn.

He said,

“We are aware that parents of most defaulting students had given them their school fees and it was revealed that the students had diverted the monies into the MMM scheme.”

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