CASE OF INTEREST

Date: February 21, 2003
Case: Women Helping Women
Contact: Albert Locher, Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney, (916) 874-6150

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that six women charged in the Women Helping Women case have plead guilty.

On Friday, February 14, 2003, Donna Goles plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation of Penal Code Section 327 (Endless-Chain Schemes). On Thursday, February 20, 2003, the following four defendants also plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation of PC 327: Shannon Coolidge, Melissa Guidera, Alexa Luckman, and Blythe Lehman. Pam Garibaldi, the mother of Ms. Guidera and Ms. Coolidge, and a leader of the overall scheme, plead no contest and was found guilty of a felony violation of PC 327.

Women Helping Women was a scam operated in El Dorado, Sacramento, and Placer Counties from April 2001 to September 2002, when search warrants were served on organizers. Women Helping Women was promoted as a "charitable gifting concept." In reality, women were induced to invest a minimum of $625 to $5,000 cash money in the form of a "gift" in exchange for a chance of a $5,000 to $40,000 payoff. The scheme is an endless chain "pyramid", and inherently fraudulent under California law, since the increasing number of investors required to keep the scheme going will inevitably result in its collapse.

In the plea agreement, the defendants will each be ordered to serve between 260 and 540 hours of community service in non-profit programs that assist women in need in the Sacramento Valley area. The defendants will each be required to pay into a restitution fund for Women Helping Women victims and to pay into a charitable organization fund, the proceeds of which will be distributed to local non-profit organizations which assist women who are in need.

Total payments for each defendant will be between $10,000 and $25,000. Each defendant will also be required to give a statement regarding her participation in Women Helping Women and will make herself available to testify truthfully at any hearing or trial involving Women Helping Women.

According to District Attorney Jan Scully, "This resolution of the case will provide these women with the opportunity to really help women by helping women who really need help. These pleas also reinforce the fact that "gifting clubs" such as Women Helping Women are merely attractively packaged illegal pyramid scams."

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