The victims of an Instagram swindler have shared the stories of how they were tricked into moving to the US, only to became enslaved and forced into prostitution by a cash-hungry spiritualist.
Katiuscia Torres, a Brazilian wellness influencer and spiritual life coach, was sentenced to eight years in prison last year for human trafficking and slavery after luring multiple women to live with her in Texas and and coercing them into sex work.
Described as a ‘master manipulator’ by those close to her, Kat, who previously claimed to have enjoyed a romance with Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, was known for her obsession with witchcraft and for presenting herself as a spiritual messiah – claiming she had precognition and even comparing herself to Jesus.
Having began life in poor neighbourhood in Brazil, Kat posed as having the ultimate rags-to-riches story, boasting a life of opulence online and presenting as an enviable character who partied with Hollywood elite.
On Instagram, she built a million strong following by portraying a seemingly perfect life, filled with luxury and wellness – but the reality behind the scenes was far more insidious as she forced some of her loyal followers to work in strip clubs and serve her every need, without paying them a penny.
Kat began offering life-coaching services to people online, charging $150 for one-on-one sessions and promising to help fulfil their dreams by offering business advice, love guidance and spiritual counsel.
But lurking behind her expertly curated Instagram grid was a scam artist willing to subject her clients to all manner of evil – including sexual exploitation, bullying, slavery and even three cases of human trafficking that led to a nationwide FBI search.
This led to the arrest and eventual conviction of the serial swindler who last year was sentenced to eight years in prison in Brazil for human trafficking and slavery.
Kat Torres, a Brazilian wellness influencer and spiritual life coach, was sentenced to eight years in prison last year for human trafficking and slavery after luring multiple women to live with her in Texas and and coercing them into sex work (pictured)
Described as a ‘master manipulator’ by those close to her, Kat was known for her obsession with witchcraft and for presenting herself as a spiritual messiah – claiming she had precognition and even comparing herself to Jesus (pictured during her days as a swimwear model)
Speaking in a BBC documentary, which aired on Wednesday, one of her victims, Desirre, shared her harrowing story, as portrayed by an actor and scribed from her book, Searching Desirre.
She recounted first coming into contact with Kat, which made her feel ‘deeply understood’ and feeling ‘comfort’ in Kat’s words – but things took a terrifying turn later down the line.
Kat started life out growing up a poor neighbourhood in northern Brazil in the city of Belém.
She started modelling at the age of 12 and began taking on more jobs as she reached her teens, desperately hoping to earn enough money to escape her life.
Kat claimed her life at home was difficult and that her father’s drinking problem had made living there near impossible.
Beautiful, blonde and slim, Kat’s modelling career instantly took off and she found herself taking on lingerie or swimwear jobs in countries all across the world.
It was at this point, when she was 24 years old, that she was pictured partying with Leonardo DiCaprio, then 38, sparking romance rumours in the media.
In 2013, Kat appeared to confirm she was dating the Oscar winner, saying: ‘I met Leo in Cannes. We were staying in the same house at the festival.’
The pair were photographed together, dressed casually and surrounded by security as their pushed their way through crowds.
She told Brazilian newspaper Extra: ‘I really don’t know how the photographers got the picture because we were well guarded and no one could come close in any circumstances.’
While confirming that she was seeing DiCaprio, the model shied clear of saying too much about the romance.
She said: ‘Leo is amazing, but I worry about what he will think about me talking to you. We have a pact that nothing can ever be said about our relationship.
‘In Europe it is different. People see us together in many places so they do not need to ask us about anything.’
DiCaprio never confirmed the relationship himself.
As her Kat started regularly using Instagram, amassing thousands of followers and building an online persona. She began making motivational posts and plugging products from her various beauty collaborations.
She even published a motivational self-help book about her life, leading millions to believe she had overcome mountains to achieve her fame.
By 2017, wellness influencing had reached its peak, with influencers across Instagram promising followers they could fulfil and enhance their lives if they followed their favourite guru’s top tips.
Kat began offering life-coaching services to people online, charging $150 for one-on-one sessions and promising she could help fulfil their dreams by offering business advice, love guidance and spiritual counsel
Having began life in poor neighbourhood in Brazil , Kat posed as having the ultimate rags-to-riches story, boasting a life of opulence online and presenting as an enviable character who partied with Hollywood elite and claimed she had had a romance with Leonardo DiCaprio
Instagram gave Kat the perfect platform to grow a captive audience of young women seeking guidance.
She promised people they could achieve ‘love, money and self esteem that you always dreamed of’.
Her website offered people advice on business, love and spirituality, all for the subscription price of $700 a year.
She also offered video consultations starting from $150, which would give clients exclusive one on one time with her.
‘Everything I saw seemed credible. She was an ex model who decided to turn into a life coach. I thought that she was hope and was the person who would guide me to this,’ said Ana, former client of hers.
Kat took inspiration from global spiritual leaders, including John of God, a Brazil guru who was later convicted of rape, and American spiritualist Tony Robbins.
Speaking in the documentary, one of Kat’s former clients recalled how she wouldn’t make a single life decision without first consulting the influencer.
Hundreds of women began to rely on Kat’s advice, believing her to pivotal to their development – with many vulnerable and seeking her support to recover trauma such as abusive relationships and grief.
Former client, Ana, pictured, lived and worked for Kat for three months but was never paid a penny
But lurking behind her expertly curated Instagram grid was a scam artist willing to subject her clients to all manner of evil – including sexual exploitation, bullying, slavery and even three cases of human trafficking that led to a nation wide FBI search
Hundreds of women began to rely on the advice of Kat, believing her to pivotal to their development – with many vulnerable and seeking her support to recover trauma such as abusive relationships and grief
Often Kat would be intimately involved in crucial decision-making of her clients, encouraging them to break off relationships and isolating them from their loved ones.
Desirre said: ‘She claimed my relationship was toxic and if we didn’t separate, something terrible would happen to me. I was terrified – I really believed she had a supernatural precognition.’
But what they didn’t know is that they were using the advice of a scam artist who had built an empire on half truths and an omnipotent obsession with money.
Kat told those around her that she living off the money of what was believed to be an elusive Russian oligarch who she would call ‘A’.
Speaking on the documentary, Kat’s former roommate recalled the moment that Kat ‘flipped’ after she began experimenting with the psychedelic drug ayahuasca.
She had long insisted she had been born with a spiritual gift that allowed her to make revelations. She called it ‘the voice’.
As her ayahuasca use became heavier, ‘the voice’ became a stronger and a more pervasive part of her self-help brand.
In time, Kat encouraged Ana to move across the US to be her live-in assistant to help with domestic upkeep.
Kat said she had no regrets and ‘absolutely’ did not deserve to face legal ramifications for her actions
When Ana arrived, the reality of the glistening online persona was quickly shattered.
She recounted: ‘The house was really messy and dirty and didn’t smell good. She wouldn’t be able to do minimal things by herself – she couldn’t shower alone. I had to be talking to her the whole time because she couldn’t stand to be in silence.’
‘The only time I was allowed to sleep for a few hours in a row was if she was with one of her boyfriends and then when she came home at 2am, I’d have to wake up.’
Ana said she was so exhausted that she would even pretend she was working out – in order to grab some sleep on her yoga mat.
Despite working around the clock, Ana never received a single penny from Kat and when she eventually confronted her, she became aggressive.
‘Now I see that she was using me as a slave, she wanted to see me doing everything, not paying me – and I would see that she had satisfaction in it. I could clearly see she was using me but at the time, I felt sorry for her.’
Ana left the apartment after three years but it took a year for her to eventually break contact for good.
Before the documentary, Ana said she had been too scared to speak of her experiences on camera, fearing what Kat’s reaction would be.
In 2022, Kat moved to Texas with her husband Zac, a 21-year-old man she met in California. They moved into a five-bedroom house but were evicted after they failed to pay their rent
Kat referred to her sorority of live-in workers as being part of her witch clan, and would encourage them to pray and perform rituals with her (pictured in prison in Brazil)
In 2022, Kat moved to Texas with her husband Zac, a 21-year-old man she met in California. They moved into a five-bedroom house but were evicted after they failed to pay their rent.
It was at this point that she convinced a number of people, including Desirre, to move in with her in Texas, promising people she would pay them to work for her but failing to ever live up word.
Kat referred to her sorority of live-in workers as being part of her ‘witch clan’, and would encourage them to pray and perform rituals with her.
She began encouraging people to make life-changing decisions and even persuaded Desirre to work in a local strip club.
But they never saw any of their earnings, with Kat insisting she manage their cash.
Desirre recalled: ‘In two weeks, I had made about $9,000 at the club but Kat demanded I try to make at least $1,000 a day.’
But the figure continued to rise and Desirre became exhausted physically and emotionally – but Kat would insist she had to do ‘so much witchcraft’ just to get her there.
Adding to her financial revenues, Kat began offering ‘spiritual baths’ and encouraging people to visit her in person rather than on online courses in the hopes of recruiting more women for cash.
But those that lived were increasingly under the thumb of the influencer, who even began suggesting they sleep with men for money.
Desirre said Kat continued to threaten her and she eventually gave in and agreed to begin work as a prostitute and she was forced to balance it alongside her work at the strip club.
Families and friends of the women began social media campaigns in a desperate bid to find them
Prostitution is illegal in Texas and Kat would threaten to report her to the authorities if she ever spoke about wanting to quit.
‘I met multi-millionaire sugar daddies. But the richer, the more dangerous and unpredictable,’ Desirre said.
‘Kat said I needed to get out my comfort zone and make more money. She said I could only return home once I had reached a daily goal of $3,000 and I ended up sleeping on the streets several times because I couldn’t reach that.’
By this point, the families of Desirre and another of the women living with Kat, Sol, began to grow worried about their whereabouts.
Families and friends of the women began social media campaigns in a desperate bid to find them.
From there, a social media war broke out with Kat forcing the missing girls to post videos telling their parents not to look for them.
But when the families discovered the escort accounts of the girls, Kat ended up going on the run with the girls.
Seeing what was happening online, Ana, who had lived with her years earlier, reported everything she knew about Kat.
But Kat continued to threaten people online, saying she would kill anyone who got in the way of her scheme – including Ana and even her own father-in-law.
While on the run, Kat received a call from a law enforcement officer who asked to speak to the girls to ensure they weren’t being held against their will.
But unbeknownst to her, the interaction was being recorded, including a moment before she answered the call when she threatened to ‘kick’ them out and ‘scream’ should the girls say anything.
An officer eventually managed to convince Kat to come into a police station, where staff immediately noticed the ‘strange’ behaviour of the girls.
A detective who worked on the case said: ‘Human traffickers aren’t always how they seem in the movies where you have a gang that kidnaps people, it’s far more often someone you trust where a relationship is built.’
Kat was deported back to Brazil where she faced charges of human trafficking, slave labour and medical fraud. She was jailed for eight years.
Since being imprisoned in 2022, more than 20 women have reported being scammed or exploited by the influencer.
The BBC gained a rare court order to interview Kat for the documentary, where she insisted that people were ‘telling so many lies that I couldn’t stop laughing.
‘People are saying I am a fake guru that also that I am so real that I can take someone’s mind and change it,’ she said.
Kat insisted to the BBC that she ‘never lived with any women’ besides her female dog and cat.
She said the money Desirre was sending was ‘for Ubers’ and that those claiming to be victims were fame hungry and that she ‘does not regret’ anything.
‘There are some people that are born in this world that have no talents and some people that were born with all talents – I think that’s me,’ she told documentary makers.
Kat said she had no regrets and ‘absolutely’ did not deserve to face legal ramifications for her actions.
Kat’s ex-husband, Colborn Bell, described her as a ‘master manipulator’ but said that he believed her intent was positive.
On 28 June 20234, Kat was sentenced to eight years in prison for subjecting Desirre to human trafficking and slavery, and concluded that she had lured her to the US for sexual exploitation.
Several women in the documentary said they were experiencing PTSD as a result of what they experienced with Kat, with one even saying she had contemplated suicide.
Kat has denied all allegations.
