They're rich and powerful - if there was a magical mafia, this would be them. Seems very 'horse head in the bed to send a message' and whatnot. They own a lot of businesses in the city - restaurants, hotels, etc.
And I don't know about friends. The Outlander magic group has plenty of people salivating to connect with the covens, but no one wanted to work with Vorerra. Probably because of the above reasons.