A mother and daughter accused of stealing more than $100,000 by leading victims to believe their money was cursed were back in court today after being extradited from Arizona to face theft charges.
Laura Santini, 62, and her daughter, Rosann, 36, were arrested earlier this summer after fleeing to Arizona after allegedly stealing $62,000 from a Park Ridge woman and another $45,000 from a South Holland couple.
The pair worked out of a home on Chicago's Far Northwest Side, billing themselves as fortune tellers and psychic healers, according to a criminal complaint unveiled at a bond hearing for the women this morning. They both face felony theft and theft by deception charges.
Authorities said the South Holland couple began visiting the pair in 2005 after the husband responded to a flier advertising their services that was left on the windshield of his car. Over several years, the Santinis allegedly gleaned detailed information about the couple's financial condition, and convinced them that their money was the source of demonic energy. They claimed they would cleanse the cash and then return it to the couple.
When the victims balked, the Santinis warned "that something bad would happen to them and their children, including the death of their children, if they did not give them the money for cleansing," prosecutors said in court.
Authorities said the couple cashed out their life savings of $45,000 in 2007 and turned it over to the pair, but when they asked for their money back, they were repeatedly told that the cleansing process was not complete. In August 2008, the husband went to visit them again, only to discover that the home was up for rent and that the Santinis had fled the area.
The second victim first met with the Santinis in February 2007 and turned over her life savings of $62,000 in cash after she too was told that her money needed to cleansed at the Indiana shrine to remove demonic energy in her life before she or her children suffered harm, according to the complaint. In January 2009, after the Santini's repeatedly rebuffed her request that the money be returned, the woman discovered that the women had vanished.
The two were indicted earlier this year and warrants were issued for their arrest. They were caught in Scottsdale, Ariz., in July, and were extradited to Chicago last week. This morning, Cook County Judge Dennis J. Porter set bail at $100,000 for each woman.
Chicago Police Det. Milorad Sofrenovic said both victims were hard working, educated people who were caught in a moment of weakness due to personal problems. The crimes often go unreported because the victims are too embarrassed to admit they were duped, he said.
"When people do things like this and keep getting away with it, they become more emboldened," said Sofrenovic, an Area 5 property crimes detective who investigated the Santinis and specializes in probing similar scams.
From: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/10/2-accused-in-cursed-money-scam-extradited-to-chicago.html
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