9 Prominent Coachella Valley Residents Plead Not Guilty in Pyramid Scheme

Nine Coachella Valley residents pleaded not guilty Monday to felony charges of operating an illegal pyramid scheme that involved more than $1 million and reached into the highest levels of the desert resort community’s educational and cultural institutions.

The list of defendants is a roster of prominent citizens, including David George, president of the College of the Desert community college in Palm Desert; Dolores Ballesteros, who was fired as superintendent of the Desert Sands school district in Indio after acknowledging her participation in the pyramid scheme, and Nancy Dolensek, who resigned as executive director of the McCallum Theatre for the Performing Arts in Palm Desert in the wake of her indictment.

Prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme, sometimes known as “The Gift Exchange Program,” involved 1,000 people. Those at the bottom tiers of the pyramid lost $5,000 to $6,000, and some individuals near the top made more than $100,000.

“My office is most concerned about people who may have used their influence or positions of public trust to bring others into the scheme,” said Riverside Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Kotzin.

But even as felony charges were about to be read, Ballesteros expressed shock that her admitted participation in the scheme would bring her to a courtroom.

“I’m stunned. I think it’s an absurd waste of money,” she said. “They should be concerned with drugs and other crimes.”

Previously, Ballesteros had said that she neither made nor lost money during the few weeks she was involved in the program.

Also pleading not guilty to the felony charge, which can carry a maximum three-year prison sentence, were Matt Monica, a Desert Sands Board of Education member and a counselor at College of the Desert, and his wife, Mary Ann Monica; McCallum Theatre controller Vickie Brown; Kathleen Rector and Diana Hodgkins, both concierge employees at the Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert, and Marianna Dorson, a Palm Desert resident.

If the defendants are convicted or strike a plea bargain on the charges against them, they may be forced to pay restitution to participants who lost money in the scheme.