Thirty-one years ago today, on July 24, 1994 (June 16, 1994 in the lunar calendar), the 3M financial mutual aid scheme collapsed. 3M financial mutual aid is a "Ponzi scheme" that borrows new and pays back old! - History today advises that on July 24, 1994, the shares of MMM Joint Stock Company suffered a catastrophic collapse, which was a tragedy for the millions of depositors of the company. Finally, the riot did not happen. In order to reassure depositors, measures were taken in August to artificially raise the stock price, but this only allowed a small number of people to get their money back. By this time, the company's founder, Sergei Mavrodi, had been detained, but fraudulent depositors demanded his release and later elected him to the Russian State Duma, but this did not help millions of depositors get their money back. MMM was founded in Moscow in 1989, and the company was named after the initials of the three founders: Sergei Mavrodi, his brothers Vyacheslav Mavrodi and Olga Melnikova. The company started by selling computers and office equipment that were highly profitable at the time, but in the early 1990s it began to raise funds from the public with high interest rates. At that time, almost all Russian media published advertisements for MMM's fund-raising. Mavrodi's name and MMM's name appeared in the public opinion media even more frequently than Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other political dignitaries. For a time, MMM was a household name in Russia, and Mavrodi became a central figure in the minds of Russians. MMM opened a large number of branches in major Russian cities to sell shares, and said that as long as you invest $100 in MMM, you can get back $500 in half a year, with a year-end return of up to 400%. Under the temptation of strong publicity and high returns, people ignored the risks involved. And believe that you can make a fortune by buying MMM shares. MMM shares were snapped up. From then on, the original shares with Mavrodi's avatar and a face value of 1,000 rubles went to the society, setting off a wide-ranging stock speculation frenzy in Russia. By June 1994, MMM's share price rose 36.5 times its face value to 37,500 rubles. In just half a year, MMM has absorbed hundreds of billions of rubles with its "pyramid" investment return program. It has agents in more than 60 cities. Its trading turnover accounts for half of the total trading turnover in Russia. It earns 40 billion rubles a day from selling shares. This pyramid-style speculation has great risks. On July 22, 1994, the Russian government, which had always been ambiguous about MMM, suddenly publicly stated that the government was skeptical of MMM's promised annual rate of return of 400%, and the government did not guarantee the safety of investment in MMM. Only then did investors realize that the tempting promise was nothing more than a deception. Confidence was shaken, they stopped investing and demanded payment. The pyramid collapsed completely, and those shareholders who participated in the investment later lost their money and became the biggest victims of fraud. Recently, 3M in WeChat's circle of friends had gone viral. It was said that there were already millions of people participating in 3M in China, and there was a lot of power to start a prairie fire. "History Today" heard such news and loudly pointed out: "3M scam: a'Ponzi scheme 'that borrows new and pays back old."