Sergei Mavrodi, the founder of the MMM financial pyramid that cheated millions of Russians out of their savings in the 1990s, has died in a Moscow hospital, a source in medical circles told TASS on Monday.
"He was taken to the 67th city clinical hospital as an unidentified person. He is now being taken to the forensic morgue No. 5," the source said.
The Ritual funeral service has said it will render assistance to Mavrodi’s family for his burial.
"The Ritual state funeral service is helping and assisting the family of Sergei Mavrodi with his burial," the company’s spokesman said in response to an inquiry from TASS.
As media outlets reported earlier, Mavrodi, the founder of the MMM fraudulent scheme in the 1990s, died in a Moscow hospital. According to media reports, Mavrodi was hospitalized from his apartment in Komsomolsky Avenue in central Moscow where he lived.
Meanwhile, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported that Mavrodi was taken to the hospital from a bus stop in Polikarpova Street in north Moscow. Mavrodi complained of weakness and pain in the heart and a passer-by called an ambulance for him. A heart attack is the preliminary cause of his death.
He was taken to the Moscow city hospital No. 67 where he died.
The MMM company, which existed from 1989 to 1994 in Russia, was recognized as one of the biggest financial pyramid schemes.
Mavrodi, who had been fleeing from prosecution, was arrested in Moscow with a forged passport in January 2003. In April 2007, the court found him guilty of cheating millions of Russians of their savings and sentenced him to 4.5 years in jail for fraud.