Former Brazilian model and US-based wellness influencer Kat Torres has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the human trafficking and slavery of women, after an FBI investigation found that two women living with her had gone missing in 2022.
Women who claim that they were also trafficked and enslaved by Torres have spoken out about their harrowing experience living with her. Talking to BBC, the women claimed they were attracted to her rags to riches story as she went from living in an impoverished Brazilian neighbourhood to partying with Hollywood stars.
Torres, who was once rumoured to be dating actor Leonardo DiCaprio, also claimed she could make predictions using her spiritual powers and was a common face on reputed Brazilian TV shows.
“She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible,” the woman named Ana told BBC.
Torres' former flatmate, who shared a home with her in New York, told BBC that her Hollywood friends had introduced her to a hallucinogenic drug called ayahuasca. It was through the use of this drug that she reinvented herself as a life coach and hypnotist.
Soon, Torres developed a wellness website and subscription service that promised customers “Love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.”
She also created self-help videos offering advice on relationships, wellness, business success including hypnosis, meditation and exercise programmes. She offered one-on-one video consultations for $150 that would solve "any of their problems."
In 2019, Ana moved to New York to work as her Torres' live-in assistant. Escaping a violent childhood and an abusive relationship, she moved alone to the US from Brazil and was studying nutrition at university in Boston.
The work required her to look after Torres' animals, cook for her, do her laundry and clean for $2000 a month. But when she arrived, the situation in Torres' house shocked her. The house was filthy and she was forced to sleep on a sofa covered in cat urine. She was expected to constantly be available for Torres, only being allowed to sleep for a few hours. She would sneak away to the building's gym to sleep for a few hours. She was never paid.
After Ana escaped, Torres hired two more women -- Desirre and Leticia-- who moved with her to a house in Texas. What started out as a life coaching and healing retreat quickly turned into a nightmare for the women.
Within weeks, Desirre was pressured her into working at a local strip club while Torres performed “witchcraft” on her. The two women were forbidden from speaking to each other and had to ask her permission to leave their rooms, even to use the bathroom.
Soon, Torres convinced Desiree to turn to prostitution. If she didn't meet the earning quotas that Torres set, she was not allowed to return to the house that night. “I ended up sleeping on the street several times because I couldn't reach that,” Desirre told BBC.
In September, the two women's friends and family launched social media campaigns to find them. To escape media attention, Torres and the women travelled from Texas to Maine. From there, the two were made to post Instagram videos denying being held captive and demanded people stop searching for them.
Over 20 women have come forward with stories of being scammed or exploited by Torres. They are still undergoing psychiatric therapy to recover from what they say they experienced.