Brazilian authorities have arrested 27-year-old influencer Monica Fraga after determining that the kidnapping she reported a year ago was fake and carried out to increase her number of social media followers.
Fraga was arrested on Tuesday, nearly a year after she tearfully told her followers in a video that she and her husband, Lucas, were confronted by three armed robbers in their car outside their home before being taken into the woods, held hostage and forced to pay a ransom.
Despite the 27-year-old's claims, the police officers who took over the case concluded that she had staged the kidnapping to attract media attention.
"As the investigation progressed, indications emerged that the suspected kidnapping for ransom was in fact nothing more than a conspiracy between the alleged victim and one of the perpetrators," a police spokesman said, adding that the 27-year-old's husband was completely unaware of her plan.
The fraud allegedly involved three men and the 27-year-old, one of whom is in prison for other crimes and a second was killed before an arrest warrant was issued for him.
However, police searched the home of a third accomplice, who is said to have received the ransom money.
Fraga now faces charges of extortion, obstruction of justice and wasting police time, while her lawyers have requested that she be placed under house arrest because she has young children./ TheSun