GlobalNews.ca: Pyramid Scheme Was Operating Out Of British Columbia Nursing Home

Two senior managers at the St. Michael’s Centre nursing home in Burnaby allegedly were running a pyramid scheme targeted at women and have been fired, GlobalNews.ca is reporting.

Workers — rather than residents — were the apparent targets. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating, the publication reported.

Whether the scheme was operating as a “gifting” program was not immediately clear. In 2013, there were reports in British Columbia about a “women’s circle” gifting scam in the province.

Such schemes may adopt a theme of “women helping women.” There have been criminal prosecutions flowing from such schemes in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In November 2014, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden issued a warning about a “women’s” program operating in that U.S. state.

Some promoters who push gifting scams also participate in other forms of the pyramid- or Ponzi scheme. Such was the case among certain participants in “Blessing Gold Club.”  They simultaneously were pushing a scheme known as Better-Living Global Marketing, a “program” whose business model strongly resembled that of the Zeek Rewards scheme taken down by the SEC in 2012.

BLGM now is the subject of a criminal investigation in Hong Kong.