OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2011. The Expert Council of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) on Developing Competition in Financial Markets unanimously recognized that “МММ-2011” scheme has the signs of a financial pyramid, regardless of how the monetary means are placed, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

“Regardless of the platform, this scheme has the signs of a fraud as in reality it would never bring the communicated income”, emphasized the Chairman of the Expert Council, Deputy Head of FAS Russia Andrey Kashevarov.

The Council instructed FAS Russia to prepare its conclusion regarding the identified signs of “МММ-2011” as a financial pyramid and send it to the relevant law enforcement bodies.

FAS Russia, jointly with the Federal Financial Markets Service, will draft legislative proposals about counteracting financial pyramids. Then the draft will be introduces for consideration of the Government of the Russian Federation.

At an open session of the Expert Council, the theme of which was “Financial Pyramids – the Reality of the Russian Markets”, representatives of the State Duma [the Legislature], the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finances, the Federal Financial Markets Service, representatives of self-regulated organizations and organizations performing financial activities and experts in the financial field discussed the issues of qualifying financial pyramids and administrative and others type of liability for their formation, including the example of “МММ-2011”.

Members of the Expert Council and the invitees outlined that participation in financial pyramids can be discouraged through increasing financial awareness of the population and organizing advertising campaigns aimed at informing the population about the consequences of such investments.