Woman Accused of High-End Pyramid Scam in Orange County

Organizers called their group “Women of Empowerment,” holding lavish dinners at homes and restaurants. But Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators said the social club was an upscale pyramid scheme that allegedly bilked at least 30 women out of more than $100,000.

The plan lured new participants with the enticement of gifts of $40,000 paid out at bashes called “birthday parties,” according to sheriff’s officials. Each new recruit paid $5,000, a sum that shocked even seasoned detectives.

“Maybe it’s a reflection of the affluent times we live in,” said Sheriff’s Investigator Chris Rhodes, who has worked vice cases for 14 years. “I’ve never seen one where the [entry fee] was so high.”

Deputies infiltrated the group about a week ago, interrupting one such party Tuesday at the Crab Cooker restaurant in Newport Beach. Deputies arrested the suspected organizer, Corinne Joy Alavekios of Laguna Niguel.

Alavekios, in an interview, denied that she organized a pyramid scheme. Thousands of women, she said, are involved in “Women of Empowerment” throughout California, Washington and Oregon.

“It’s women helping women,” she said. “There’s a lot of charity benefiting from this, whether it be personal or helping other causes.”

But sheriff’s detectives say she ran a sophisticated organization that projected an image of high-class respectability.

Recruits, whose entry fees funded the alleged pyramid, were dubbed “appetizers,” Rhodes said. With each new recruit they attracted, members moved up through the dining hierarchy, he said, to become “soup or salads,” then “entrees,” until they finally became “desserts.”

The desserts collected the final jackpot, he said. The alleged pyramid would then split into two, and the scheme would begin again.