On a fateful day in Miami, Florida back in 2012, the fortunes of 51-year-old Samantha Stevens drastically changed. She and her partner had just orchestrated an elaborate psychic scheme that swindled $3 million out of one wealthy client. The ruse involved convincing the woman that her family was cursed and only Stevens’s magical powers could make it all go away; unfortunately for the victim but fortunately for them- they pulled off their plan to perfection!
Stevens and her partner, Michael Paul Guzman (shown below), orchestrated a cunning plan to pilfer over three million dollars from their victim. The funds were used for purchasing vehicles, real estate investments, and casino gambling.
Stevens deceived her client by guaranteeing to lift the ominous curse that loomed over them, manipulating them into believing she had supernatural powers. To supposedly do this, Stevens demanded exorbitant sums of money in exchange for carrying out spiritual cleansing rituals.
For years, Stevens deceived her victims with false promises of magical rituals that she claimed would rid them of a curse. During this time, she accumulated significant wealth by convincing people to pay for more and more cleansing sessions which supposedly removed the spell. However, the “spell” was never lifted as promised; rather it had only been an elaborate hoax orchestrated by Stevens all along.
When the victim’s funds had been depleted by 2016, Stevens quickly moved on to his next target and severed all contact with her. He cruelly left the poor woman and her family in a devastating state of distress as he allowed the ‘curse’ to continue damaging their lives.
After the charges were submitted against Stevens and Guzman, they both realized that their chance of avoiding a conviction was slim, so they chose to plead guilty instead. The two accepted money laundering schemes as the cause for their arrest; thus, confirming all suspicions authorities had regarding them.
Through fearmongering, Stevens was able to dupe her victim into giving her massive amounts of money for the sake of conducting expensive cleansing rituals. She threatened them with harm and danger should they not comply – a tactic that ultimately enabled her to steal from the unsuspecting individual.
“Stevens claimed she needed to perform rituals on large sums of money in order to lift the curse. Failure to do so—the victim was led to believe—would result in harm to her and her family.”
When appearing in court, Stevens defended her rituals as being rooted in her spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, she argued that the victim “received exactly what she bargained for” when employing a fraudulent fortune teller to cleanse their home of any curse that could have jeopardized their family’s safety.
After the victim cut off contact with Stevens in 2016, they reported her to law enforcement for fraud. Ultimately, the client had paid Stevens and Guzman an astounding total of $3.198 million throughout their relationship – which prompted a judge to order that both defendants must repay this sum as restitution for the fraudulent activity conducted by them under false pretenses as psychic advisors.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, alongside Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Haggerty were responsible for investigating Stevens.
