Whether you believe in spiritual cleansing, demon removal, or other such services a psychic provides, this true-crime is more about elder abuse than tax evasion.
This is a sad true-crime focused on an elderly woman who remained unmarried, but always hoped to meet the right man. She grew up wealthy, and as an adult, generously gave money to people in need and worthy causes. You could call her a philanthropist, known as a kind and giving person.
Settling into her later years, after a life well-traveled, she purchased her forever home and settled into a posh community in the north-east U.S. She had space for her passions—food canning, meditation, art, and gardening. Slowly, her money trickled away after she connected with a young, spiritual healer—a psychic.
She told the spiritual healer her deepest, darkest secrets and fears. The psychic latched on to the woman and stoked the fear the woman felt that demons had invaded her space.
To start her treatment to rid the demons, the spiritual healer advised the elderly woman to cut off her friendships and family members. The two often emailed and spoke on the phone. In the elderly woman’s diary, she wrote about cleansing treatments like placing gold coins on her bed and lay on them every night to transfer the negative energy from her to the coins. Once this treatment had concluded, she was to give the gold coins to the psychic for safekeeping.
Their relationship lasted seven years. The wealthy woman gave the psychic free use of her credit cards, transferred money to various bank accounts in different names, and gave her sizeable sums of cash.
When the elderly woman asked a relative to help her pay a bill because her funds were low, this caused concern and the relative called the police. The officer assigned the case worked tirelessly for justice and hoped to get the woman’s money back from the psychic (who lived in another state). Elder abuse crimes are hard to prove, even when so much money is at stake. Remember, the woman had hired the spiritual healer to rid her of demons and she believed she was getting what she paid for.
Frustrated with the challenge of proving elder abuse, the local officer called upon the FBI to look into possible tax evasion. Then the case had merit. The psychic had reported none of the money the woman had given her for her services.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” the officer told the psychic, “I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
The FBI arrested the 41-year-old spiritual healer. Later, rather than go to trial, she pleaded guilty to impeding the Internal Revenue Service by hiding more than $3.5 million the woman had paid her. A federal judge sentenced her to two-years in prison, to repay $3.5+ million to the woman, and to pay $700,000+ in restitution to the court.
The local police officer received accolades for his dedication to seek justice for the citizen in his jurisdiction.
Because the psychic was unemployed, the court allowed her to make payments of $25 per month to pay back the elderly woman. At $25 per month, it would take over 11,000 years to repay $3.5 million.
One month after the psychic’s conviction, the elderly woman passed away.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Boston Globe, Marth’s Vineyard Times