Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Instagram Model Starts a Cult - The Kat Torres story

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

Kat Torres, born Katiuscia Torres Soares, is a Brazilian former model and social media influencer who was convicted in July 2024. Initially gaining attention for her modeling career and association with celebrities, including a rumored connection with Leonardo DiCaprio, Torres later rebranded herself as a wellness guru and spiritual life coach. She manipulated young women by enticing them with promises of a better life and personal development opportunities, only to subject them to forced labor.

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And she's doing pretty well for herself. She models in several different countries. She's in some magazines. I mean, things are taking off for her. So after a few years of this, she moves somewhere. She can really make it big, the United States. And she eventually ends up in New York City. And here she decides she's going to become an influencer.

The crazy thing is, it works. Because soon enough, she has over a million followers, mostly because of her modeling stuff, because, you know, people on Instagram like to follow models. But then she parlays that into giving advice, like spiritual advice and like life coaching. And she starts making all this spiritual life coaching content and making all kinds of wild claims. Like she says she's spiritually gifted and that she's some kind of witch who can like put curses on people. and that she has spiritual powers that can allow her to predict the future, that she's guided by divine voices that only she can hear.

She writes an autobiography about her life at 25 years old, like she's all important. But whatever, there must be a demand for it because she publishes it, and I guess her followers buy it. And like here she is on a Brazilian TV show promoting it. Not only that, she's getting so popular she allegedly starts dating Leonardo DiCaprio. Here's a picture of them together, there's Cat, and I guess that's Leonardo. Now, I don't know if they actually dated, that's just what the tabloid said. And that's great and all.

However, because she's having all this very public success and she talks all this shit about herself being spiritually gifted, a lot of her followers listen to everything she says. And so she starts a website and she starts charging people to help coach them. Like she charges some kind of subscription service where she promises to show you, how to gain wealth, how to attract the man of your dreams, and other spiritual life coach like that. And like we laugh at this stuff because it's an obvious grift, but a lot of her followers are really into this and some of them start to believe she has like some sort of magical powers or something. Then in 2019 things start to shift and get really crazy because one of her followers, this woman,

Anna, Anna starts reading Kat's autobiography and she gets really really into Kat and her teachings and she's like, I want to be closer to this woman. And eventually she moves from Massachusetts to New York City to live with Kat in her apartment and work as her live-in assistant. However, when Anna gets there to the apartment, she is shocked. I mean, this place isn't anything how Kat made it look on Instagram. Like the whole place smells and it's extremely dirty. Like cat's a hoarder or something and like this place hadn't been cleaned in months.

Like she's living in filth. Not only that, Cat is extremely controlling and treats her like trash. Like Anna has to be available to work 24-7, and Cat only allows her to sleep a few hours a night? And when she is allowed to sleep, she has to sleep on this couch that's apparently covered in house cat urine? Not to mention, Cat tells Anna that she'll pay her for her work, but then she doesn't. And this goes on for about three months. And finally, Anna's like, screw this, and she leaves, and she moves in with like a new board. boyfriend. And that sucks for Kat. However, it is at this point, Kat realizes that she has a lot of power

over her followers. So she's going to get more of them to live with her, and she's going to treat them even worse. And in 2022, she moves from New York down to Austin, Texas, where she ends up living in a decent-sized place. I think it's like five bedrooms. And there, she starts trying to recruit women from her online following, like she tries to recruit them as helpers who would come live with her in this house. So she reaches out to some of them and she asks them to move in with her. And she promises that she's going to like be their spiritual guide and help them achieve their dreams or whatever. And most of her followers are like, live with you. Nah, I'm good.

That's weird. But surprisingly, three women eventually say yes. I mean, one of them's not actually a woman because she's a teenager, but three of them say yes. And so two of them up in their lives, and they move from Brazil all the way up to Austin, Texas to live with and work for Kat. And then another one moves from Germany to Texas to live with and work for Kat. And this is where it starts to turn into like a weird little cult. Because Kat starts putting these women to work. Like one of them, she brings her into her room with some tarot cards and some crystals and she performs her witchcraft or whatever.

And she tells the follower, you must become an. adult dancer. Like, that's what the spirits are telling me, that you need to be a stripper. And so, this follower listens to her, and she goes and gets a job at the local strip club, like, dancing every night, putting in some serious hours. And Kat starts collecting and holding on to the money that this follower's making because she says the follower owes her for room and board and her flight to the U.S. And to make it worse, Kat starts placing very strict rules on these three followers. Like she forbids them from communicating with one another. They're not allowed to leave their rooms without asking permission first. Even to go to the bathroom, they have to ask

permission. And if they don't follow these rules, Kat threatens to kick them out in a country where they don't know anyone. However, I think pretty early on, one of the followers is like, fuck all this, I'm out. And she escapes and she leaves the house. But the other two either can't or don't want to escape and things get much worse for them. Because Kat starts controlling everything they do. Like she makes them block all of their old contacts in their phones so that there's no outside people trying to contact them. At one point she decides that working as adult dancers isn't enough.

And soon she starts pressuring these two followers into becoming escorts. And like Kat sets up profiles for them on escort sites and Sugar Baby websites and these women start escorting. She even gives them like an earning quota, like they have to earn a certain amount of money a day, or they're not allowed back in the house, and they have to sleep on the street. And of course, Kat collects all the money that they earn, because she's like they're pimp, I guess. And so this becomes the weirdest little cult I've ever seen, and I don't quite understand it, but it seems like these women are somehow trapped in all this. until

Here's the thing about these two followers They still have family and friends back in Brazil Family and friends who are worried And wondering where the hell they're at And what they've been doing all these years they've been gone And so eventually in 2022 They go and they report these two women As officially missing

And they like launch social media campaigns To try and find them And the story of these two missing women blows up in Brazil and it makes the news. Meanwhile, in the United States, Anna, Kat's old live-in assistant, she starts reading these news stories online.

And she knows these women are devoted followers of Kat, because it's like a small community, I guess. And so she contacts the FBI. So then the FBI starts investigating, and they find the two women's profiles on the escort and sugar baby websites. And so now they're starting to think that there's like the...

whole human trafficking situation going on. And so the feds tip off local police, and local police talk Kat and the other two women into coming into the police station and answering a few questions. And while they're there, bam, they arrest Kat. Here's her mugshot. And they deport her back to Brazil and they charge her with human trafficking and slavery. I didn't even know you could be charged with that. But anyway, she goes to trial and she's found guilty and she's sentenced to eight years in prison. Wow, that's crazy.