Officer's wife, TV personality charged in pyramid scheme
Last Updated: Friday, March 10, 2000 | 7:23 PM ET
CBC News
The pyramid scheme is called WINE. It stands for "Women Improving their Needs through Financial Empowerment."
The lure is make a $5,000 investment, and benefit from the returns.
Police say the original investment goes to the people at the top, the people at the bottom are supposed to attract more women.
Police won't say how much money is involved, but six women are charged with getting involved.
Marjorie Stevens is one of them. She's a television personality known for her career as a broadcaster at CKND, the Global affiliate in Winnipeg. She's also been charged with laundering the profits.
Another woman charged is the wife of an RCMP officer from Carman.
RCMP say there was no conflict in the investigation because an officer from an outside detachment was responsible for it.
Women in other parts of Canada have also been involved in the pyramid scheme. Police in Toronto laid charges in August of 1998. The Manitoba investigation started last October.
Police officers went to the homes of the six women all at the same time.
Police say it's not unusual to execute search warrants at the same time. The women will appear in court March 15th. Winnipeg police are warning about three other pyramid schemes.
They're call Excomm Ltd., a scheme involving telephone cards, Virtual Beneficiary Trust, involving tickets and Skybiz 2000 involving the sale of Internet space.
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