[2Wycked]

The ringleader of a pyramid scheme -- Jill Platt -- was re-sentenced this week, as her sentence was reduced from six to four years. Her scheme targeted women under the guise of "empowerment" and "helping professional women network:"

Quote:

A remorseful Jill Platt, a leader in the "gifting tables" pyramid scheme involving dozens of women along the Connecticut shoreline, was re-sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday as co-defendant Donna Bello, up for re-sentencing later in the week, sat in the gallery and watched.

"In some respects, this was an egregious offense," said U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson, who referred to emails and other trial evidence showing Platt, Bello and others had joked about going to jail over what they appeared to know was a criminal scheme.

Thompson said the leaders "preyed on people who they knew couldn't afford to invest $5,000" -- the initial payment to enter the layered scheme, where, before the pyramid's inevitable collapse, the person who made it to the top could walk away with $40,000.

"I see now, clearly, that women were hurt," Platt said in brief remarks to the judge before she was sentenced. "I truly am sorry."

Her lawyer, Federal Defender James Darrow, and the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Morabito, both noted that this was Platt's first expression of contrition since she was convicted in February 2013.

She was sentenced to 54 months, but the case was returned to Thompson by the U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit over errors in the way monetary losses were calculated. Bello's case was also returned. She was originally sentenced to 72 months.

For Monday's hearing, the prosecution and defense agreed Platt was responsible for $90,000 in losses, for which she failed to pay $25,200 in federal taxes. Overall, the scheme pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Platt was was convicted of tax fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. She has served seven months in prison so far. She had been on supervised release and now must surrender to the U.S. Marshals by Jan. 23.

Thompson said he took into account that Platt for the first time was accepting responsibility for her criminal conduct.

When the hearing was over, Platt turned and looked at Bello and briefly shook her head. Bello was sitting with her husband, developer Joel Schiavone, her lawyer, Jeremiah Donovan, and Platt's son, Chris.

Darrow told the judge that Platt is living "hand to mouth" in a rented room, receiving only her social-security benefits. Since her arrest, her husband, mother, and a son died, and she has lost her home, Darrow said.

"Time has caused her to see the truth" of her role as a leader in the scheme, said Darrow. He asked Thompson to sentence Platt to only the time she has already served in prison.

The judge said such a sentence would not deter others, nor would it reflect the seriousness of the conduct.

Federal law officers said Platt helped Bello run the fraudulent scheme in which new members were recruited in social gatherings and induced to make $5,000 "gifts" — money that was transferred in sums of $40,000 to longer established members of the "tables." New members were told that they could collect $40,000 if they stayed on their "table" long enough and recruited new members.

Court records indicate that each of the gifting tables had a four-level pyramid, with eight participants at the bottom, four assigned to the third row, two participants at the second row and one member on top. New members paid $5,000 cash to the person at the top. That payment, "which is characterized as a gift," according to the original indictment, gave the new person a spot on the bottom row.

To move higher up the pyramid, participants recruited additional women. When eight new women joined, the woman at the top left the gifting table and kept the $40,000 paid by the newest members. All levels moved up the pyramid, including one to the top spot of a second gifting table that was formed, and the search would begin for new recruits, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that the defendants tried to use the pretext of gifting tables as a way to avoid paying taxes on their proceeds.

Bello, Platt and other women associated with the gifting tables have described them as social and charitable organizations whose members met regularly for self-empowerment and to help one another through difficult times.

Quite the rip-off, eh?

Here is a blog post detailing how these sorts of "gifting tables" scams work. Not particularly surprising in the kinds of people they target, but interesting nonetheless. Middle-aged and middle class women gather for a night of middling wine and mincing chatter. Eventually, the women get regaled with tales of how these "Female Financial Collectives" saved poor Hispanic women from abusive, drunk husbands while recruiting more women and making lots of scratch for themselves. And it all started with women donating 5k to the pot. . .doesn't everybody want to somehow magically make the world a better place while also getting rich?



Anybody been caught up in a pyramid scheme before? Anybody you know been burned before? I had a friend who did; him and his family ended up buying a bunch of low-grade household products for over a year to keep up their quotas. He must have guzzled 4 or 5 off-brand "Cherry colas" every day for a year. What a rip!