Issue Date:  -  Wednesday, 4 February 2004

Amazing Grace Pyramid Scheme Earns Operator a Conviction

A promoter of a pyramid scheme was prosecuted and fined today in the Fremantle Court of Petty Sessions.

Deanne Koppman of Dianella admitted promoting ‘Amazing Grace Benefactor Project’ as a system for giving and receiving gifts and was fined $1,000 with a conviction recorded against her by Stipendiary Magistrate Michelides.

A second promoter Julie Yoke Jacobs a.k.a. Julie Chin of East Fremantle did not plead and will have her case heard at a later date.

"The so-called gifts were an attempt to present ‘Amazing Grace’ as something other than a pyramid scheme", Consumer Protection Commissioner Patrick Walker, said.

"The scheme was promoted to friends and even contacts within church groups as a way to be generous, where generosity would be rewarded fourfold by recruiting others", he said.

Mrs Jacobs admitted setting up Amazing Grace as a way friends could share good fortune, and Ms Koppman admitted that she promoted the scheme to others.

"Like any pyramid scheme, it relied on recruiting new members to generate money to pay those who had got in first.

"Recruiting stopped immediately after Consumer Protection officers executed search warrants at the homes of several suspected participants", Commissioner Walker said.

Records obtained by Consumer Protection indicate that the scheme ran for almost six months and turned over about $500,000 before coming to a halt in December 2001.

"Mrs Jacobs, or Julie Chin as she was known to her victims, recruited others by claiming to have gone from being heavily in debt, to being able to take overseas holidays after only a short period of time" Mr Walker said.

Pyramid schemes rely on abusing the trust of friends to get money. Under WA’s Fair Trading Act a company can be fined up to $100,000 and an individual $20,000. Additionally, Victims of pyramid schemes are entitled to sue the promoters for compensation.

Contact Consumer Protection on 1300 30 40 54 to report the operators of any pyramid schemes that have approached you.