MMM, the investment fund that collapsed three weeks ago leaving millions of shareholders without their savings, reopened for business Monday and thousands of investors promptly lined up again to buy securities that the government has declared worthless.


"People have more faith in MMM than the authorities," said Sergei Taranov, press secretary for MMM. "We were called thieves and cheats but now we're back and a large number of people want to buy our shares."


MMM president Sergei Mavrodi suspended the company's operations Aug. 4 when he was detained by tax police soon after slashing the value of MMM shares to 1,000 rubles (45 cents) from 125,000 rubles. He is currently in prison facing charges of large-scale tax evasion.


But last week Mavrodi issued an order from his prison cell, directing MMM officials to reopen the company's offices and begin trading shares again.


MMM's much-publicized difficulties did not deter more than 2,000 investors from lining up in drizzling rain Monday outside the firm's headquarters on Varshavskoye Shosse in southern Moscow.


Far from seeking to dump their securities in the reputed pyramid scheme, most were either biding their time or seeking to snap up new MMM "tickets," which purport to entitle the holder to a fraction of an MMM share.


"No one's selling," said Dima Aktsionov, 20, a medical student. "Everyone's waiting to see what happens."


Ruslan Natsaiyanov, 28, who off-loaded his shares a week before their price collapsed, said he was thinking about buying more MMM securities because he expected their value to grow again. "Everyone wants to buy," said MMM's Taranov, though he declined to give any figures for the day's trading.


The attraction of buying new MMM securities was not hard to see Monday. While the company quoted a selling price for a full share, or 100 tickets, at 1,515 rubles apiece, it was promising to buy them back for 1,700 rubles as early as Thursday.


Asked whether MMM could give a guarantee that it would pay out this amount at the end of the week, Taranov replied "definitely."


But while MMM was quoting prices for shares, Taranov said that it was only selling tickets. According to the company's charter capital, it can issue no more than 991,000 regular shares, though it claims that some 10 million Russians hold MMM paper. Hardly any of the shares in circulation, and none of the tickets, actually entitle the holder to any part of the company.


MMM's Taranov said that his company considered the sale of tickets to be legal. A spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, however, maintained Monday that it was unlawful.


"The Finance Ministry considers the sale of tickets illegal," said Lyudmila Chepaikina, but she did not know whether the government would prevent MMM's offices from selling the tickets again.


A separate statement issued by the ministry Friday warned investors that they would be buying worthless pieces of colored paper when MMM reopened.


"Buyers of MMM tickets become entitled only to pretty postcards and cannot expect to receive any profits or income," the statement said.


The issue hinges on whether a ticket is a security or not. Under a June presidential decree, unregistered securities cannot be sold to the public or advertised. MMM insists that tickets are not securities and, hence, are not covered by this law.


In reaction to the MMM debacle, the government has appointed a commission headed by acting Finance Minister Sergei Dubinin to form a more stringent legal basis for the securities market. But Chepaikina could not say what measures the Finance Ministry is planning to take.


"It is very difficult to predict the actions of the Finance Ministry's leadership," Chepaikina said. "I remember them telling a press conference that no force would be used to stop Mavrodi, and the next day he was arrested."


A spokesman for the tax police, who are conducting an investigation into Mavrodi's activities, gave cautious approval to the reopening of MMM's branches across Russia.


"If the intentions of MMM are sincere, then the reopening of its branches can only be welcomed," said Nikolai Medvedev.


Among the representatives of MMM's 10 million investors gathered outside the company's Varshavskoye Shosse branch Monday, there were few signs of bitterness toward Mavrodi, who is now conducting his business from a prison cell.


"He's a fine fellow. He didn't cheat us, the government has," said Nina Yevteseyeva, 56, a pensioner who invested 120,000 rubles in MMM to raise money for furniture and a well at her dacha.


MMM's Taranov said that pensioners, invalids and other deserving cases will have their claims for compensation evaluated this week by a special company commission.


Payments will be made in cash at the pre-crash value of the company's shares, or 125,000 rubles, he said. The commission has already compensated several thousand shareholders.


In a separate development, another troubled investment company, the Russian House of Selenga, had 13 billion rubles ($6.5 million) in cash seized by police over the weekend from its Ufa branch, the tax police's Medvedev said. This follows the confiscation of some $3.3 million from the same company in Irkutsk last week.


Natalya Khomenko, a spokes-woman for the Central Bank, said that under banking and trade regulations companies cannot hold large sums of money in cash.


A Volgograd court ruled last year that Selenga, which promised to add 5 rubles daily to every 1,000 rubles deposited, was carrying out unlicensed banking activities. The company did not respond until last week, when it suspended its operations, saying it would reopen when it had obtained a banking license.


The Central Bank's Khomenko said Selenga would be given a banking license if it submits the required documents.


"I do not see a reason why they shouldn't be given a license," Khomenko said.