Former Brazilian model turned wellness influencer, Kat Torres, has been sentenced to eight years in prison following an FBI investigation that uncovered her involvement in human trafficking and slavery.
The FBI began investigation in 2022 when two missing women were found living with Torres, leading to shocking revelations about her double life. All they knew was that they were living with wellness influencer Kat Torres, reported BBC.
Torres, who once graced magazine covers and mingled with Hollywood A-listers, used her online presence to lure followers into exploitation, masking her dark activities behind a facade of spiritual and wellness guidance.
Women Lured Into Living With Influencer
Several followers of Torres have accused her of trafficking and coercing them into sex work. A victim, identified as Ana, revealed to the BBC that she was initially drawn to Torres by her rags-to-riches narrative. “She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences,” Ana stated.
In 2019, Torres invited Ana to move to New York and be her live-in assistant. Torres promised to pay Ana 2000 US Dollar (Rs 1.6 lakh) a month to take care of her and her pets. Ana, who was attending university in Boston, switched to online studies and accepted the offer.
Upon arriving at Torres’s apartment, Ana faced a harsh reality. The living conditions were squalid, with the apartment being messy, dirty, and malodorous.
Fed up with the situation, Ana escaped with her new boyfriend’s help. She was among Torres’s earliest victims of human trafficking.
Forced Into Strip Club
In 2022, two women went missing, by this time Torres had married a man named Zach and moved into a five-bedroom apartment in Austin, Texas. She repeated her pattern, luring women with promises of solving their problems through spiritual powers.
She arranged the flight tickets of a woman from Germany to US and promised to support her through a suicidal crisis. She was persuaded to drop out of a program to live and work with Torres. While the other one was homeless and was hired for tarot readings and yoga classes.
However, things took a dark turn within weeks as they were coerced into working at a local strip club. When they tried to leave, the influencer threatened repayment demands for the money she invested in her.
An investigation revealed a troubling pattern, with over 20 women alleging they were victims of Torres’ scams and exploitation. These women are now receiving psychiatric therapy to recover from their experiences.