Influencer Kat Torres jailed for human trafficking and slavery of woman | US News

To her followers, Kat Torres was an inspirational rags to riches success story who went from residing in Brazilian slums to partying with Leonardo DiCaprio.

In actuality she was liable for human trafficking and slavery of one other lady.

As she sits in a jail cell in the beginning of an eight-year sentence, she could have time to replicate upon the abuse she meted out in opposition to individuals who have been impressed by her story.

When two Brazilian ladies vanished in 2022, it sparked an FBI seek for them throughout the US. The one clue that they’d was that they have been residing with the ‘wellness influencer’.

Certainly one of them had been human trafficked and was being saved as a slave.

Expenses have additionally been filed in opposition to her in relation to the second lady and different ladies have spoken to the BBC about their expertise residing together with her.

Ana, one lady who fell sufferer to Torres’ coercion however was not reported lacking, described her response to discovering her Instagram web page in 2017. She instructed the BBC: ‘She sort of resembled hope for me. She appeared like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences.

‘She was on the quilt of magazines. She was seen with well-known individuals similar to Leonardo DiCaprio. All the things I noticed appeared credible.’

Torres invited Ana to maneuver to her New York condominium in 2019 to work as her assistant.

This concerned her being paid £1,540 a month to prepare dinner, clear, take care of Torres’ pets and do her laundry.

The fact for Ana was far completely different, who was compelled to sleep on a settee and be out there for Torres all hours of the day.

Ana mentioned she would typically escape to the health club to get just a few hours of sleep and he or she was by no means paid for her work.

She added she solely managed to flee after she moved in with a brand new boyfriend three months later.

Torres was additionally a well-known identify on Brazilian TV as a result of she claimed she might make predictions utilizing her non secular powers.

She reinvented herself as a hypnotist and life coach after her Hollywood pals launched her to the hallucinogenic drug known as ayahuasca, in accordance with her former flatmate Luzer Twersky.

Torres created a wellness web site and subscription service that promised its prospects ‘love, cash and self-worth that you simply’ve all the time dreamed of’.

Her one-on-one movies would price individuals £115 and would promise to resolve ‘any of their issues’.

The opposite movies on her web site supply recommendation on relationships, enterprise success, and wellness and would use hypnosis, meditation and train programmes.

Torres later focused two different devoted Instagram followers to return and work for her in her new five-bedroom dwelling she had moved into together with her 21-year-old boyfriend Zach within the suburbs of Texas, Austin.

These two Brazilian ladies have been known as Desirrê Freitas, who was residing in Germany, and Letícia Maia.

Their disappearance would later go on to spark the FBI-led search.

4 different ladies have been additionally persuaded by Torres to dwell in her home however they pulled out.

Torres posted an image of herself to her Instagram alongside Desirrê and Letícia and launched the pair of them as her ‘witch clan’.

Issues shortly escalated right into a nightmare for the pair and inside weeks, Torres had carried out ‘withcraft’ on Desirrê and pressured her into working at a strip membership for lengthy hours seven days per week.

The ladies mentioned they needed to ask for permission to depart their bedrooms – even to go to the bathroom – and have been forbidden from speaking to 1 one other.

Torres then set Desirrê ‘incomes quotas’ of £2,345 a day, compelled her into prostitution, and wouldn’t enable her again dwelling until she met her goal.

However following months of no contact, Desirrê and Letícia’s household launched social media campaigns to try to discover them in September 2022.

Ana got here throughout the information and social media campaigns and contacted legislation enforcement together with the FBI due to her suspicions that Torres was preserving different women.

Torres was panicked by the media storm and took Desirrê and Letícia from Texas to Maine, the place they mentioned in a social media video they weren’t being held captive.

However when a police officer FaceTimed Torres, simply earlier than it begins she might be heard saying: ‘He’ll begin asking questions. Guys, they’re stuffed with methods. He’s a detective, be very cautious. For God’s sake, I’ll kick you out when you say something. I’ll scream.’

Torres and the 2 ladies have been ultimately persuaded to attend a welfare verify in individual in Maine.

This was carried out by Detective David Davol who observed various pink flags together with a mistrust of legislation enforcement, isolation and their reluctance to talk with out Torres’ permission.

Torres was deported again to Brazil and arrested in November 2022.

By December 2022, Desirrê and Letícia had returned to Brazil.

The BBC was granted a court docket order to interview Torres in jail in Rio de Janeiro in April the place she denied any ladies ever residing together with her or coercing them.

Torres has appealed her conviction and maintains her innocence however an investigation into allegations from different ladies in Brazil is ongoing.

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