She Used Psychics to Con Her Widowed 82-Year-Old Mother Out of Her Wealth

Photo by Jeremy Wong on Unsplash

If anyone were to ask what the most painful thing to happen to a parent is, without a doubt, the answer would be the loss of a child. However, when a Brazillian 82-year-old Genevieve Boghici, a wealthy widow, was approached by a psychic who told her that her daughter faced imminent death, the poor woman was trapped in a cycle of deceit that cost her $142 million.

It turned out that it was the daughter of the Brazilian woman who hatched the elaborate plan involving multiple psychics to leverage the unsuspecting mother. Initially, they used sensitive personal information that no one knew to gain her trust. However, she was eventually scammed by forcing her to transfer money to cover the cost of what they called a “spiritual treatment” to help her daughter, Sabine Coll Boghici.

Nonetheless, the scammers didn’t stop at demanding money. They also demanded priceless artwork and jewelry she owned, information fed to the scammers by the daughter.

It’s unimaginable to think someone who grew up with the privilege of wealth would take advantage of their elderly parents by using bogus clairvoyants and parental love against their unsuspecting parent. Yet, Genevieve was not only physically threatened for months, but she was also kept at home against her will by her unhinged daughter, whose sole mission was to usurp everything Genevieve owned.

The victim, Genevieve Boghici, was the wife of the late art collector Jean Boghici, who was born in Romania in 1928 but moved to Brazil in 1948 to escape the horrors of World War II. Like many immigrants who began their new life in a new country, Jean faced hardships that included homelessness. To make ends meet, he fixed radios during the days, and at night-time, he slept on Rio de Janeiro’s beach. He was a self-made man as well as a skilled draftsman.

However, Jean finally found the break he needed when he won $200,000 in a quiz competition that involved answering questions about the life of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh. After that, Jean used his prize money to purchase an art gallery and later became an art collector. The endeavor would change his life. He was no longer the hungry immigrant who called the beach home and spent his days hustling to fix radios.

Though Jean’s daughter Sabine Coll Boghici didn’t go through homelessness like her father, the 48-year-old’s cruelty towards her mother eventually made Genevieve realize that she was no longer safe under her daughter’s constant threats. Finally, Genevieve sought the help of the police when Sabine started to take the paintings claiming that they were cursed with dark energy and, therefore, they had to get rid of them.

Among the 16 paintings that Sabine stole from her mother were some of the works of Brazil’s most renowned artists. For instance, the O Sono, Sol Poente, and the Pont Neuf were by Brazil’s modernist painter, Tarsila do Amaral, and had an estimated value of $137 million.

Fortunately for Genevieve, the authorities have recovered 11 paintings, including the priceless Sol Poente, after raiding one of the psychic’s homes that the daughter hired. Though three other paintings were also retrieved in Sao Paulo, two were already sold to a Buenos Aires Museum and are yet to be recovered.

The authorities successfully gave Genevieve some semblance of justice when they arrested Sabine last month. As the police concluded the brutal scam, the seven people suspected in the crime faced charges that included false imprisonment, robbery, embezzlement, and extortion.

However, what Genevieve will never get back is the loss of trust that her daughter betrayed. Her love for her daughter was used against her by the very daughter she loved. Not only did Sabine break the sacred bond between a mother and a daughter, but Genevieve was also lucky to survive her daughter’s greed. I don’t know how such wounds can heal, but as with everything else, time will tell.