43. MMM
Year: 1989
Approx. Amount: $500 million-$1.5 billion*
Company / Person Involved: Sergei Mavrodi
Another Ponzi scheme on this list is MMM. MMM was one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the world when it was perpetrated in the 1990s, and between five and ten million people lost their savings. A lot of investors, oddly, knew that MMM was likely a fake, but they still hoped they could get in on the profits before it inevitably collapsed.
MMM @iamBodee / Twitter.com
MMM promised annual returns of 3,000% if you invested. The Russian company spent millions on an aggressive TV campaign to get people to invest, and it managed to make $500 million to $1.5 billion from investors. When MMM failed, Sergei and Vyacheslav Mavrodi and Olga Menikova were investigated.