An influencer has been jailed for human trafficking and slavery after two women living with her went missing in 2022.
Following an FBI investigation, Instagram influencer Katiuscia Torres will spend eight years in prison on charges of slavery and human trafficking.
Women, inspired by her apparent rags-to-riches story, were coerced by Torres, being forced to work for her in poor conditions in a bid to replicate her success.
One of her victims named Ana, who is not one of the two women who vanished in 2022, discovered the influencer’s Instagram page in 2017.
“She kind of resembled hope for me,” Ana told the BBC.
“She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible.
“She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences.
In 2019, Ana was invited to move into Torres’ New York apartment.
Ana was told she would be paid £1,540 a month to cook, clean, look after Torres’ pets and do her laundry.
But upon moving in, Ana was forced to be available to Torres at all hours of the day and made to sleep on a sofa covered in cat urine.
She would sometimes escape to a local gym for a moment’s rest.
She was never paid for her work.
Ana would eventually escape the situation after moving in with a boyfriend but says she felt like one of Torres’ “first cases of human trafficking.”
“It was shocking because the house was really messy, really dirty, didn’t smell good,” Ana added.
“Now, I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it,” Ana told the BBC.
“I felt like, ‘I’m stuck here, I don’t have a way out.’”
As part of her online persona, Torres claimed she could see the future using spiritual powers.
She would charge dedicated followers £115 for one-on-one videos, promising to solve their problems with her abilities.
Two of these followers were Brazilian pair Desirrê Freitas and Letícia Maia.
Their disappearance would go on to spark an FBI investigation and eventually lead to Torres’ arrest.
A BBC investigation revealed at least four women were nearly persuaded to move in with Torres before her arrest.
One of the women, named Sol, told the broadcaster: “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.”
Torres maintains her innocence, accusing her victims of fabricating their experiences with her.
“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,” she told the BBC while being interviewed from prison.
“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.’”
“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.”
Torres plans to appeal her conviction, her lawyer has said.
