The One Agency Brazil
The daughter of a wealthy Brazilian art collector used fake fortune tellers to convince her mother that family heirloom paintings were possessed and needed to be removed from the home as part of an elaborate scheme to swindle the family estate, according to a Brazilian police report.
Former model Sabine Boghici, 48, was taken into custody Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro on charges of stealing $140 million in fine art and jewelry and an undermined amount of cash from her mother, Geneviève Boghici, the widow of the late Romanian art dealer Jean Boghici, who had set up a multimillion-dollar business in Brazil. She is also charged with embezzlement, extortion, and false imprisonment.
At some point in her late adolescence, Sabine is said to have become obsessed with dogs and kept dozens of them in the family’s homes. She tried to push her mother to buy her an apartment just for the animals, according to Brazilian news reports. When she refused, she allegedly started to take the revenge on her mother that led to her undoing.