Published: Less than 30 min ago
A 48-year-old woman defrauded her elderly mother of paintings worth 1.4 billion.
To help her, she had a medium – who claimed that there was a curse on the artworks.
Now the woman and six other people have been arrested.
A 48-year-old woman from Brazil was arrested on Wednesday and is now suspected of defrauding her 82-year-old mother of money, artwork and jewelry totaling $142 million (approximately SEK 1.4 billion).
It reports Reuters.
According to the police investigation, the big fraud has been going on since 2020. The woman has had several mediums to help her.
The 82-year-old was contacted by one of the people who claimed to be psychic. According to the person, the mother’s daughter was dying. The mother fell for the scam and paid large sums of money to the medium to carry out “spiritual treatment” of the daughter.
Lied about curse
The daughter and one of her cronies also tricked the mother by claiming that there was a curse on her expensive paintings, and that they must therefore take care of the artworks and pray for them.
The paintings were never returned to the mother.
Several other accomplices allegedly threatened her while the daughter kept her mother at home for several months.
After a year, the old mother found courage and decided to alert the police about the scammers who could be arrested.
In total, the fraudsters stole 16 paintings worth around $137 million. Among the stolen items were artworks from the iconic artist Tarsila do Amaral.
Eleven of the artworks were found at the home of a medium.
Seven people are now suspected of the serious crime. They are arrested for, among other things, embezzlement, robbery and extortion.