Abstract: There is obvious imbalance between crime and punishment in the practice of the crime of organizing and leading pyramid schemes， because the number of participants recruited by the defendant is calculated by indirect rules based on the mainstream view of judicial interpretation， which leads the amount of crime to a serious overestimation. Taking the national-scale “ShanXinHui” Organization as a typical case， a multiple linear regression model established on the data in 1792 judgment documents shows that the existing crime calculation rules cannot reasonably describe the balanced relationship between crime and punishment. Indirect calculating rules have three specific defects in criminal law dogmatics， namely， abuse of system interpretation skills， neglect of accomplices' depletion， and excessive import of criminal policies. After these defects are amended， it is advisable to apply direct calculating rules to first-time offenders.

Key words: crime of organizing and leading pyramid schemes; amount of crime; the balance of the crime and punishment; indirect calculating rule