Ohio Psychic Accused Of Swindling Clients Out Of $1.5M In Cash, Gift Cards

Image courtesy of Ron Dauphin

An Ohio woman who called herself a psychic apparently didn’t see a criminal indictment with more than two dozen charges attached to it in the stars. She stands accused of convincing clients to fork over about $1.5 million in cash, gift cards, jewelry, and cars.

According to detectives who investigated the woman for about a year and a half, between Aug. 1, 2001 and Sept. 16, 2015, the so-called psychic convinced her clients that bad things would happen to them or their families if they didn’t give her money and other valuable items as payment, Cleveland.com reports.

Records show that those payments included Rolex watches, a diamond ring, Frigidaire appliances, a kitchen table with four chairs, a 40-inch television, nine cellphones, an Apple iPad, Louis Vuitton and Chanel handbags, a neon sign, and a disco ball. Some clients leased expensive cars for the psychic as well, police said.

The 41-year-old woman is facing charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, theft, telecommunications fraud, and securing writings by deception in an indictment by a grand jury on Tuesday. That adds up to a potential 34 years in prison if she’s convicted on all charges. Her lawyer says she will plead not guilty, and is looking forward to her day in court.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone who claims to see the future getting in legal trouble: there was the Florida psychic who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding clients out of $17.8 million; a man seeking to be reunited with his long lost love who paid $700,000 to a sham fortune teller; and of course, the “Maria Duval psychic mailer” scheme that tricked victims out of a whopping $180 million for otherworldly insights.

Mentor psychic deceived clients out of $1.5 million in cash, jewelry and cars, records say [Cleveland.com]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.