She built her empire on Instagram. Then she enslaved young women in her home.

If you were to stumble across Kat Torres' Instagram account in 2017, you would have seen a grid full of aesthetic pictures of a beautiful blonde woman.

The Brazilian model, actor and wellness influencer shared a very aspirational life with her more than one million followers. Beautiful clothes, beautiful places and healthy aesthetic food scattered with photos of her nails, her makeup, her dog and Sundays relaxing with a book or Sex in The City in her stunning New York apartment.

She was on the cover of magazines. She was travelling the world. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Her life looked amazing, and other women noticed.

Torres' Instagram posts were aesthetic, aspirational and liked by millions. Image: Instagram

She'd come from a childhood of poverty, and was generous in sharing her learnings about business, success, life, spirituality and love, publishing a self-help book called The Voice in 2017 in which she claimed she could make predictions as a result of her spiritual powers.

As fans leant in and her celebrity grew, Torres started a subscription service in 2018 touting herself as a 'spiritual guru' and life coach.

Her website opened with an exciting offer for members; 'Have love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.'

At her peak, Torres was coaching some 14,000 people, and soon expanded into one-on-one consultations, offering to help individuals with any problems in their life.

But her business wasn't as it seemed.

Torres "was faking it until she made it" and when she made it, her story took a dark turn.

"She was really poor. She comes from no money, had a really hard upbringing. She barely had food on the table, but she was graced with beauty", journalist and Don't Cross Kat podcast host Chico Felitti, told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations podcast.

"And she used it to get what she wanted".

Inside the dark reality: 'She was using me as a slave.'

At the start, Torres made her clients feel special. She was kind and attentive and helped them make big decisions in their life. She'd overcome a life of childhood abuse and poverty and represented hope for many of the young women who sought her services.

Her sessions leant heavily on spirituality, and she'd give them guidance based on what 'The Voice' told her. She'd warn that those who didn't follow her advice, were living with disastrous consequences.

But as the coaching sessions continued, the women said they found themselves becoming increasingly psychologically isolated from friends, partners and family and willing to do anything the influencer and 'guru' suggested.

"She was pretty much advising young women to be submissive and to look for rich men... to drop out of college and to try to get pregnant with someone who was richer than them," Chico said.

A BBC World documentary, Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta’s Fake Guru, interviewed several women who fell into Torres' web, including Ana, who reached out for help.

Ana was at rock bottom after surviving an abusive relationship. She quickly agreed when Torres asked her to move in with her as a live-in assistant.

She was offered a salary to do Torres' cooking, laundry, cleaning and look after her animals.

Listen to the full episode below. Post continues afterwards.

When she arrived in 2019, Torres' home was nothing like the pretty picture she portrayed online. It was messy, it smelt and Ana was expected to sleep on a sofa covered in cat urine and be available for the influencer's every need.

"I think I was probably one of the first victims of human trafficking. She was using me as a slave," Ana told the BBC.

Ana was never paid by Torres and when she confronted her, she says she became aggressive. She managed to escape after three months.

But Ana wasn't the only woman Torres entrapped.

As the BBC documentary reports, Torres' life was built on a series of half-truths and lies. Her wealthy aesthetic lifestyle, for example, was funded largely by rich sugar daddies; including a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin.

Her journey into spirituality was also heavily influenced by the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca, which her former housemate claims made her "go off the deep end".

Bringing down Kat's 'cult'.

In 2022, Torres was living in a five-bedroom home in Austin, Texas, with her second husband Zach.

Her Instagram painted the picture of an aesthetic exercise-loving couple, and her self-help business was booming. By this point, she'd increased her prices and was selling herself as a 'witch.'

Kat Torres and her husband, Zach.

Calling them her 'witch-clan', Torres convinced three young women - Desirrê Freitas, Letícia Maia (who was only 14 when she started coaching sessions with Torres), and Sol* - to move in and work for her in exchange for helping them achieve their dreams.

The BBC reported she nearly convinced a further four to uproot their lives, before she was caught.

As Sol told the BBC, instead of helping her build her yoga and tarot business, she found herself doing Torres' domestic labour 24/7.

But then Torres' demands of the women became sexual. Desirrê says Torres pressured her into working at a local strip club, saying if she did not comply, she'd have to repay her for accommodation, flights and witchcraft services.

Watch some of the documentary below. Post continues after video.

Desirrê says Torres then forced her to work as a prostitute, and began using the threat of reporting her to police for the illegal activity if she tried to stop.

The BBC reports the women's IDs were confiscated, they were forbidden from speaking to each other, needed Torres’ permission to leave their rooms or use the bathroom and were required to give her all of their earnings.

"We've got in touch with three women who were able to prove they lived with her in Texas, and two of them report that they were coerced to dance in strip clubs and to do sex work," Chico said.

"Each one of them had a room, but it's a classic case of human trafficking. She would say she needed to pay for the groceries, she needed to pay for the guests, to drive them to the strip club. She needed to pay for all of her basic needs. So caters would keep all the money they would make doing sex work or dancing at street clubs, and she would keep, keep it pretty much all to to herself.

"They would not see this money."

If the women didn't earn the quota Torres had set, they weren't allowed to return to the house that night. Desirrê says her quota was eventually increased to US $3000 a day, and she "ended up sleeping on the street several times" when she failed to reach it.

Sol managed to escape with the help of an ex-boyfriend, but Desirrê and Letícia's families were growing increasingly worried after months of no contact.

They started a social media campaign in September 2022 to help find them, which both Sol and Ana saw as it gained momentum. They contacted police and told them everything, and the FBI took up the case.

Torres (left) with Desirrê Freitas and Letícia Maia, who started to resemble her once they moved in with her. Image: BBC World.

Torres knew of the attention on her and the missing women in her company, and travelled 2,000 miles with the women to Maine. They even shared social media videos while there, saying they were not being held captive and urging concerned loved ones to "leave them alone".

But a video recorded moments before a police Facetime check-in with Torres, and reported by the BBC, shows Torres saying, "He will start asking questions. Guys, they are full of tricks. He’s a detective, be very careful. For God’s sake, I’ll kick you out if you say anything. I’ll scream."

Local police managed to convince Torres to attend a welfare check in person with Desirrê and Letícia, where they noticed a number of red flags, including their reluctance to speak without Torres’ permission.

Torres, then 34, was charged with human trafficking, slavery and medical fraud in November, 2022, and deported back to Brazil.

In June 2024, she was sentenced to eight years in prison for her crimes against Desirrê, but still faces further criminal proceedings.

Chico said he hasn't had a chance to meet the disgraced influencer face-to-face, but they have exchanged letters.

"She showed another side of her in which she denied the crimes, but she admitted to having relations with those young women who moved to Texas, but also having a big expectation of her followers saving her from jail," he said.

"She actually says, and that's verbatim, 'if they know I'm here, they will destroy this prison and they will get me out because they love me'.

"There's a sense of grandeur, and there's a sense of importance, which might not be precise, which might not correspond to the reality."

However, when she spoke to the BBC from prison, Torres said "no women lived with me, other than my dog," and told the journalist that unless messages from Torres inviting women to stay were "from the federal police" then "there is no way".

Kat Torres gave an interview to the BBC from prison. Image: BBC World.

She also claimed transfers from Desirrê to her account of large amounts of cash were "Uber receipts," and doesn't regret "one single word" of advice she gave to her clients.

At least 20 women have now reported being defrauded or exploited by Torres.

Investigations into allegations against her are ongoing.

*name changed by BBC for privacy reasons.

Feature image: Instagram.

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