They didn’t see that coming! Fortune teller ‘helped scammers take £51million from Catholic charity’

A fortune teller believed to be linked to a sophisticated Bulgarian organized crime network may have helped defraud a Catholic charity of £51 million after taking advantage of the “psychological vulnerability” of its chief financial officer, investigators believe.

The scam came to light when criminals posing as Caritas CEO Mark Crochet emptied fourteen bank accounts in Spain after instructing Caritas Luxembourg’s chief financial officer to make around 120 transfers of €500,000 in five months.

The Public Prosecution Service in Luxembourg believes that the plot was the work of a complex criminal organization. But so far the only person charged in the case is the unnamed chief financial officer, who prepared false documents.

She allegedly entrusted sensitive details about the company to a “clairvoyant operating in Belgium” but is headquartered in Spain, and told the scammer about her professional challenges and the organization’s weaknesses before passing the information to a crime group , local media reports.

“She confides to her interlocutor the secrets about her private and family life and talks about her professional problems, the weaknesses of the organization and her mental burden,” news channel Reporter claimed.

File. Investigators held their first special parliamentary committee on the scandal this week

The criminals are said to have used the information passed on by the ‘fortune teller’ to ‘take advantage’ of her ‘psychological vulnerability’ and the ‘weakness of the management’ of the organisation, to steal 61 million euros over a period of several months.

The Public Prosecution Service has refused to comment on the latest allegations, linking the plot to a clairvoyant in Belgium.

They said earlier this month that the investigation was still operating on the theory that a gang had posed as president to raise money that the actual president says amounts to the entire annual budget of Caritas Luxembourg.

And a first special parliamentary committee into the scandal held its first meeting on Wednesday this week.

Researchers believe that around 25 million euros have since been sent to China, 10 million to Hong Kong and eight million to Lithuania.

“Since the first complaint was filed, CID investigators, led by the investigating judge, have worked closely with the Financial Intelligence Unit (CRF),” the agency said.

“The ongoing investigation has identified more than 8,200 transactions, carried out at very short intervals, to hundreds of accounts opened in a large number of countries around the world, reinforcing the suspicion that a criminal association or organization is involved in this fraud.”

“At this stage, approximately fifteen requests for mutual assistance have been sent by the investigating judge to his foreign colleagues.

“The response of the foreign authorities is crucial to the outcome of the investigation.”

It is still unclear to prosecutors whether the money can be recovered, months after the scam first came to light in July.

Caritas Luxembourg first filed the complaint on July 16, prompting a full judicial investigation into a number of suspected crimes, including forgery, fraud, breach of trust and money laundering.

The affair took a new turn when the former financial director turned himself in to the police over the summer, the newspaper reports Luxembourg times.

She remains under investigation and is assisting with the ongoing investigation, the outlet reports.

Mark Crochet acknowledged the scale of the operation at the time.

Caritas CEO Mark Caritas acknowledged that the fraud was ‘very extensive’

Caritas Luxembourg lost the equivalent of its entire annual budget to the scam (headquarters pictured)

Caritas is a confederation of 162 organizations for aid, development and social services.

It works in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide to “end poverty, promote justice and restore dignity” through assistance programs.

The group continues to assist civilians trapped in conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.

The scandal is not the first time a fortune teller has been accused of defrauding unwitting customers.

In 2011, prosecutors said in a separate case that 10 “psychic readers” in the US defrauded several customers out of a total of $40 million by telling them they would be “hounded” if they refused.

Jude Deveraux, the author of 37 New York Times bestsellers, is said to have given $20 million to the group, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.