Operator of Pyramid Game Is Sentenced

A pyramid-game operator was sentenced to 60 days of community service and ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution after pleading no contest to running the scam in North Hollywood and Studio City.

Crystal Martell, 41, entered the plea Thursday in Los Angeles Municipal Court. She had been charged with one court of operating an endless chain scheme.

Authorities said Martell, the third of three suspects charged in the case, was involved in a group called “Friends Helping Friends,” which ran pyramid scams by promising investors a return of up to eight times their original investment, according to a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Sentenced earlier on similar charges were Barbara Gross-Trembley and Eileen Farrell, who pleaded no contest in October and were ordered to perform 30 days of community service. Gross-Trembley also was ordered to pay $6,000 to one victim and Farrell $2,000 to another, said Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert, the lead prosecutor on the case.

All three were placed on three years’ probation, Lambert said.

Martell was ordered to reimburse one victim $4,000 and to pay an additional $2,000 to the State Restitution Fund, said Lambert.

The LAPD Bunco-Forgery Division began the investigation in October 1996, after several consumers filed complaints with the city attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit. One said she gave Martell $4,000 and was promised a return of $32,000, according to the city attorney.

The victim said she attended 35 meetings of the “Friends Helping Friends” organization at the Raven Playhouse in North Hollywood and at Montana’s in Studio City. After several months, she filed a complaint with City Atty. Jim Hahn’s office.

After an eight-month investigation, the case was filed in June and the three were arrested shortly after, Lambert said.