Kat Torres, a Brazilian model who was once linked to Leonardo DiCaprio, has been sentenced to prison for human trafficking and slavery!
The new BBC documentary Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta’s Fake Guru just exposed the Instagram influencer’s wicked ways with several victims speaking out. It even included Kat’s first interview since the legal drama began! According to the outlet, suspicions about the model were first raised publicly in 2022 when two young Brazilian women went missing. Their families reached out to the FBI, which launched a search to find them. All they knew was that they were with the wellness influencer — and hadn’t been easy to contact for months.
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After her arrest in 2022, Kat spent more than 18 months in jail. Earlier this month, a judge sentenced her to eight years in prison for subjecting one of those women to human trafficking and slavery. It’s believed she was luring girls to the US for sexual exploitation. And now more than 20 women have come forward with claims they were scammed or exploited by the model — with possibly more victims still out there! Jeez!
Speaking out in the doc, a woman named Ana said she first stumbled across Kat’s popular IG page in 2017. Kat had come from an impoverished town in Brazil and was now famous for her modeling gigs and hanging out with Hollywood A-listers — an American dream that attracted many of her followers. Torres had also published an autobiography called A Voz (The Voice) and was seen on several shows talking about her spiritual powers and ability to make predictions. Ana told the BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brasil teams:
“She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences. […] She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible.”
The model used her fame and so-called abilities to start up a wellness website and subscription service where she promised clients “love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.” This included self-help videos on relationships, business, wellness, and more. People could then pay an extra $150 for personal one-on-one consultations where she promised to solve their problems.
Kat’s NYC roommate at the time, Luzer Twersky, alleged that she “started going off the deep end” after some Hollywood pals introduced her to the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca. He also believed she was a sugar baby, claiming wealthy and powerful men were paying for the apartment they shared.
Using her money and influence, Kat started to psychologically isolate her most die-hard clients and followers, often luring them to come stay with her. Take Ana, for example. She was studying in Boston in 2019 when Kat asked her to move to NY to be her live-in assistant, taking care of her animals, cooking, laundry, and cleaning for $2,000 a month. Ana ultimately agreed — and it was a nightmare!
The house was not only “really dirty” but she had to stay by her boss’ side practically 24/7, including talking to her while she was in the shower because the influencer didn’t like to be alone. She’d only get a few hours of sleep on a sofa covered in cat urine and would often hide out in the building’s gym to snag a little more rest. She declared:
“Now, I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it.”
WTF.
Ana quickly felt “stuck” and like she didn’t “have a way out,” made worse since she allegedly was never paid and didn’t have money or a job to move back to Boston (since she’d given up her university housing). She idolized Kat — now she believes she was “one of her first victims of human trafficking.”
When Ana tried to confront her boss, Kat allegedly grew aggressive, triggering Ana’s own past with domestic violence. Thankfully, she was able to escape after three months by moving in with a new boyfriend. But when she heard about the women reported missing in 2022, she stepped in to help (despite alleged threats that Kat would kill her).
Speaking of those women, the FBI was on the hunt for Desirrê Freitas, a Brazilian woman living in Germany, and Brazilian Letícia Maia. At this point, Torres was living in Austin, Texas with her husband Zach. Desirrê, Letícia, and a third woman the outlet referred to as Sol moved in to live with the social media star, and they were introduced on Kat’s social media platforms as part of her “witch clan.” Per the outlet’s investigation, at least four other women had been persuaded to live with Torres but pulled out.
Via the documentary and her memoir, @Searching Desirrê, Desirrê claimed she was given a plane ticket after Kat revealed she was experiencing suicidal thoughts and needed support. Letícia, meanwhile, was just 14 when she started having life-coaching sessions with the model before she was convinced to move to the US via an au pair program that she later dropped out of… to live and work with the so-called guru. Sol claimed she moved in after becoming homeless and agreed to host tarot readings and yoga classes. Within weeks, everything got so, so much worse.
Desirrê was allegedly pressured into working at a local strip club. If she didn’t obey, she’d be forced to pay Kat back for everything (flights, housing, furniture, even the “witchcraft” she performed). Believing the life coach had real magical powers, Desirrê went along with it. Her boss at the club confirmed she worked extremely long hours, every day of the week.
The women also had to follow strict rules in the home, such as getting permission to leave their rooms (even to use the bathroom). Sol said:
“It was very difficult to, you know, get out of the situation because she holds your money. […] It was terrifying. I thought something could happen to me because she had all my information, my passport, my driving licence.”
Sol realized she needed to escape after allegedly overhearing a phone call in which Kat told a client she must work as a prostitute in Brazil as “punishment.” She was able to get out with the help of an ex-boyfriend.
Sadly, Desirrê — who had dyed her hair blonde to match Kat’s at this point — was then pressured into becoming a sex worker. She initially refused, but Kat took her to a gun range the next day, scaring her into submission. Kat’s husband allegedly kept guns in the house that were regularly featured on IG Stories, too. In her book, Desirrê said she was panicked about this new endeavor and what could happen to her. She was also forced to sleep on the streets some nights if she didn’t meet her earning quota for the day and faced threats from Kat that she would be reported to the police if she ever talked about wanting to stop (prostitution is illegal in Texas).
This leads us to September 2022 when friends and family took to the internet to seek answers. Desirrê claimed her phone contacts had been blocked, making it impossible for her to contact her loved ones. She was also so brainwashed at this point, she did anything Kat asked without question.
As the FBI investigation picked up and more people became aware of the controversy, Kat moved the group to Maine. The women denied they were being held captive and demanded in IG videos released at the time that people stop searching for them. But authorities were working hard behind the scenes. Per BBC, a Homeland Security agent had been tipped off by a police officer, who had managed to FaceTime Torres to check on the women. Kat could be heard saying on video:
“He will start asking questions. Guys, they are full of tricks. He’s a detective, be very careful. For God’s sake, I’ll kick you out if you say anything. I’ll scream.”
Yeesh.
In November 2022, the officers convinced Kat to bring the women in for a welfare check at Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in Maine, where officers were immediately concerned and saw signs of human trafficking. Kat was deported that month (and arrested in Brazil) and the women were returned home safely to Brazil by December. Wow.
In her book, which was published in December 2023, Desirrê reflected:
“I’m not fully recovered yet, I’ve had a challenging year. I was sexually exploited, enslaved and imprisoned. I hope my story serves as a warning.”
In April, BBC was able to sit down with Torres in her first interview since being in prison while she still awaited the verdict of her trial for her crimes against Desirrê. Showing little remorse, she said:
“When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies. So many lies that at one point, I couldn’t stop laughing. […] People are saying I am a fake guru, but at the same time, they are also saying that… ‘She is a danger to society because she can change people’s mind with her words.’”
When confronted with evidence against her, she grew more upset, saying:
“You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I can tell you I’m Jesus. And you can see Jesus, or you can see the devil, that’s it. It’s your choice. It’s your mind.”
And when she left, she threatened one of the journalists, saying she “didn’t like her.” Yikes!
You can watch the whole doc (below) to hear more about this awful situation.
Reactions?! Let us know (below)!
[Image via ABC News/BBC World Service/YouTube/TUDO BY KAT TORRES/Instagram.]
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