Return of Russia’s pyramid man

Sergei Mavrodi became a notorious conman when he exploited up to 10 million Russians in the 1990s.

After serving a four-year jail term, he is now setting up another financial pyramid scheme, insisting as he always has that there is nothing wrong with them.

He is promising that a new pyramid investment scheme will yield Russians returns of 20 per cent a year. Just like he said it would in the 1990s.

The Russian government has not said whether it will shut down his new money-making endeavour.

The collapse of Mavrodi’s first scheme resulted in thousands of bankruptcies, homelessness and suicides.

Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee reports from Moscow.