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- Kat Torres, an Instagram influencer, was sentenced to 8 years in prison, according to the BBC.
- Torres posed as a wellness guru, but over 20 women claim to have been scammed or exploited by her.
- Victims claim they were forced into sex work and deprived of sleep, per a BBC investigation.
Kat Torres, an Instagram influencer, was sentenced to eight years in a Brazilian prison for the human trafficking and slavery of a woman, according to the BBC.
An investigation by BBC Eye and BBC News Brasil also revealed additional charges against her concerning a second Brazilian woman.
Both women were reported missing in September 2022, prompting an FBI search that ultimately led to the downfall of the social media star, the BBC reported.
According to the BBC, Torres had gone from living in a Brazillian favela to partying with Leonardo DiCaprio and other A-listers.
She had more than a million Instagram followers.
However, beneath the glitz and glamour of her social media presence, her victims claim they were subjected to coercion and sexual exploitation.
Ana, a victim of Torres who was not one of the missing women, 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."
In her biography, Torres said she had suffered a violent childhood, had been in an abusive relationship, and moved to the US alone, the BBC reported. There, she built a life for herself as a wellness influencer.
According to the BBC, her wellness website and subscription service promised customers the "love, money, and self-esteem that you always dreamed of," with self-help videos offering advice on relationships and spirituality.
But according to the BBC, Ana and other followers said taking Torres' advice led to them becoming increasingly isolated from family and friends.
The outlet reported that Torres asked Ana to move to New York in 2019 and work as her live-in assistant, helping with her animals, cooking, laundry, and cleaning.
When she arrived, however, she told the BBC that the apartment didn't match the glamour of the influencer's online presence.
She claimed to the news outlet that she slept on a couch covered in cat urine and was only allowed to sleep for a few hours at a time so as to be available for Torres.
"Now, I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it," Ana told the outlet, adding that she was never paid for her work.
According to the BBC, Torres is also accused of convincing Letícia Maia, also from Brazil, who was 14 when she first started sessions with Torres, to move to the US for an au pair program before dropping out to live with her.
Desirrê Freitas, a Brazilian woman living in Germany, also went to live with her.
Freitas says Torres bought her plane ticket to the US from Germany. She told the outlet that she was pressured into working in a strip club, and was threatened with needing to repay Torres for the flights, accommodation, and other expenses if she didn't comply.
According to the investigation, Freitas and a third Brazilian woman, identified only as Sol, said Torres kept their money, banned them from speaking to each other, and required them to seek permission to leave their rooms, even to use the bathroom.
Freitas told the BBC that Torres later tried to persuade her to become a sex worker. Though she initially refused, she said she eventually gave in, per the new outlet.
In an interview with the Brazilian news outlet O Globo, Freitas claimed Torres convinced her to remove her IUD so she could get pregnant with a wealthy client.
She also said she was told to do whatever was necessary to make money, which included using drugs to satisfy clients, per O Globo.
According to the BBC, the women said they weren't allowed into the house if they didn't meet Torres's earning quotas, which rose from $1,000 to $3,000 daily, leading Freitas to sleep on the street several times.
Bank statements reviewed by the BBC showed Freitas transferred more than $21,000 to Torres's account in June and July 2022. She said she paid even more in cash.
In September 2022, friends and family of Freitas and Maia in Brazil launched social media campaigns to find them, fearing they might have been murdered.
The Instagram page @searchingDesirrê started to gain attention, including coverage in the Brazilian media.
According to the BBC, Ana saw the news stories and contacted law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
In November 2022, police convinced Torres and the other women to attend an in-person welfare check, per the BBC.
The detective who questioned them told the outlet that he and his colleagues spotted a number of red flags immediately. By December 2022, the women were safely returned to Brazil.
When the BBC interviewed Torres in a Brazilian prison in April, she was adamant that she had never coerced anyone.
"You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe," she told the outlet. "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."
According to the BBC, more than 20 women have reported being scammed or exploited by Torres.