By pretending to have psychic powers, a woman gained another woman’s trust — convincing her to provide money or else “bad things would happen” to her own family, according to federal prosecutors.
Gina Rita Russell exploited the woman’s belief in her purported capabilities after performing a psychic reading for her nearly 15 years ago in New York City, court documents say.
“Russell is a dangerous woman,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
She “orchestrated multiple schemes that involved (the woman) raising money for Russell and Russell’s family,” the filing says.
Russell eventually convinced the woman to become a sex worker to raise more cash, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
After the woman began advertising “sensual” massages online, she met a married Maryland man through her ads who fell in love with her, prosecutors said.
Russell, the woman and Russell’s family took advantage of his feelings, scamming him into believing the woman owed money to mobsters and that she was in danger so he could provide her cash, according to prosecutors.
Russell was the “mastermind” behind the scheme in which they extorted $4 million from the man — resulting in her conviction on extortion charges, prosecutors said.
The man stole more than $4 million from his boss between January and March of 2017, converting the money into “cash and gold bars which he delivered to New York drop-off locations, including a hotel room, believing the funds were going to mobsters,” according to prosecutors.
All the money went to Russell and her family, prosecutors said.
On July 18, Russell was sentenced to 10 years and five months in prison after pleading guilty to interference with interstate commerce by extortion in 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Her defense attorneys didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on July 19.
“Russell has proven herself to be a complete menace to society, a true danger to any person unfortunate enough to believe that she has actual psychic ability,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo.
In a sentencing memo on Russell’s behalf, her legal counsel wrote that “she sincerely apologizes for her role in inducing (the woman) to obtain millions of dollars from (the man).”
All for greed
Before Russell encouraged the woman to turn to sex work, she manipulated her into giving her money she earned from lawful work — and from the woman’s father, according to prosecutors.
Russell had the woman “lie to her father by claiming she needed money for therapy, extensive sleep studies, and university classes,” prosecutors said. “After giving his daughter enormous sums of money, the New York woman’s father eventually stopped providing her with financial assistance.”
Due to Russell’s influence over the woman, she later started “conning her sex work clients,” including the Maryland man — who ended up proposing to her, according to prosecutors.
The family’s involvement
Russell involved her ex-common-law husband, Robert Evans, his brothers Tony John Evans and Corry Blue Evans, and their parents, Archie Kaslov and Candy Evans, in extorting the man, prosecutors said.
It was all for greed, according to prosecutors.
“They did it so the family could live a lifestyle that they craved, but one that they did not earn,” the sentencing memo says.
Russell and the family would celebrate by taking photographs of the money they received through extorting the man, the sentencing memo shows. One photo included in the filing shows stacks of cash and watches they bought.
On a few occasions, Russell made Tony John Evans pretend to be a mobster and call the man, threatening to hurt his children, according to prosecutors.
Russell and her family’s “continuing and growing” demands to obtain money from the man “were built on the foundation of (the man’s) psychological turmoil and emotional terror and his genuine — but misplaced — love and affection for (the woman),” the sentencing memo says.
More sentences
Tony John Evans, 35, and Robert Evans, 37, were previously sentenced to five years in prison after they each pleaded guilty to interference with interstate commerce by extortion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Corry Blue Evans, 31, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud, prosecutors said.
The Evans brother’s father, Kaslov, 57, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to prosecutors.
Their mother, Candy Evansm, 55, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison after pleading guilty to tampering with a witness by corrupt persuasion or misleading conduct, prosecutors said.
Carmen D. Hernandez, one of Candy Evans’ defense attorneys, told McClatchy News that she “was not charged with nor involved in the $4 million extortion conspiracy.”
Tony John Evans’ defense attorney, Joanne D. Slaight, declined a request for comment. The other defendants’ attorneys didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on July 19.
Before Russell was the last to be sentenced in the case, prosecutors wrote that: “There is a troubling sense that members of the Russell/Evans/Kaslov families have been defrauding unwitting victims for years.”
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