- Title: RUSSIA: RUSSIAN BANKER RELEASED FROM PRISON
- Date: 13th October 1994
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (OCTOBER 13, 1994) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS SUPPORTERS GATHERING IN THE RAIN 0.07 2. GV RIOT POLICE ON STANDBY 0.12 3. CU BANKER SERGEI MAVRODI SPEAKING ABOUT RELEASE ORDER (RUSSIAN) 0.26 4. GV PROTESTORS WITH BANNERS AND CHANTING (6 SHOTS) 0.59 5. GV MAVRODI GETS INTO CAR 1.11 6. GV PROTESTORS LEAVING FLOWERS ON MAVRODI'S CAR (2 SHOTS) 1.24 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 28th October 1994 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- City:
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVA31F8AOUL711JDLJJJB0ON9HLE
- Story Text: Russian banker Sergei Mavrodi, whose MMM investment fund's clash with the government sent shock waves through Russia's fledgling stock market, was released on Thursday (October 13) after two months in prison to prepare for his trial.
Mavrodi was detained by police on August 4 on accusations of tax evasion. He is now running for a seat in the Russian parliament.
About 300 vociferous MMM shareholders turned out on a rainy day to greet the fund's president as he appeared from the gates of Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
They carried banners proclaiming "Freedom to Mavrodi", "MMM is our hope". But the banker was kept away from the crowd by his bodyguards and rushed away in his Volvo 960.
The emerging Russian stock market's biggest crisis erupted in late July when the finance ministry publicly warned against investing in MMM.
The government accuses MMM of being a pyramid scheme, an inherently doomed structure based on the savings of millions of people. Russian law does not, however, prohibit pyramids.
Mavrodi faces charges of failing to pay taxes due on another company he controls.
He was released under a court decision taken on Wednesday, as he had already been held for the maximum time allowed under the law before going to trial.
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