The banking executive made friends with a woman identified by the court as “Catherine D.” and her boyfriend. The two women became friends and found they had in common a belief in spirituality and the after-life. The banker, identified as “Josette P.”, was shocked to learn that she somehow been afflicted with bad karma. Fortunately Catherine was on hand with an Algerian medium that could tell her what to do.

Josette soon began to receive messages from the after-life, via telephone, giving her numbered bank accounts in places such as Paris and Aix where her money would “do good”. Josette selected wealthy elderly Italians who rarely visited the bank as targets least likely to raise the alarm. Around 140 transactions later she had managed to divert €20,723,131 into various bank accounts. Josette claims she never profited from any of this herself.

After a two week trial, the misguided bank executive was found guilty of fraud and sentences to 5 years in jail, but Catherine and her accomplices were found to be the mastermind. Her two accomplices, “Beatrice L.” and “Marie-Josephe B.”, received 2 and 3 years in jail respectively. Catherine, who failed to turn up to court, has been sentenced to 7 years and an €80,000 fine and an international arrest warrant has been issued.