Kat Torres was a popular Instagram influencer. Police say she was secretly enslaving young women.

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 blond 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. 

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. 

Ana reached out for her help when she was at rock bottom after surviving an abusive relationship, and as she told the BBC World documentary Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta’s Fake Guru, she said yes 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. 

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

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 victim's 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. 

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. 

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. 

Speaking to the BBC from prison, Torres said "no women lived with me, other than my dog," telling 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: Getty/Mark Davis.

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