Page 64 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

64 Sherry Tina Uwanawich Arrested

Self-Proclaimed Gypsy

‘Fortune Teller’ Invented
A Family Curse To Scam

A Woman Out Of $1
Million ARRESTED

Sherry Tina Uwanawich, a

woman who pretended to be a
psychic with “God-given powers,”

told a Texas medical student
supernatural harm could come to
her family if she didn’t pay up.

By Dorian Geiger
Sherry Tina Uwanawich

A Florida woman, who claimed to be a gypsy
fortune teller with “God-given powers,” was
sentenced last week to 40 months in prison for in harm to the victim or [the] victim’s family, or
scamming a Texas medical student out of $1.6 loved ones,” the indictment described. Nygaard, who perhaps unsurprisingly, said he
million. doesn’t “believe in psychic ability,” added he’s
Uwanawich supposedly told the medical student also worked with clients from New Zealand to
Sherry Tina Uwanawich, 28, was convicted of that she often needed more money to purchase Japan who have been duped by counterfeit
one count of wire fraud in a psychic scheme that occult supplies like “crystals, candles, and the mystics.
spanned seven years and took advantage of a like,” according to a Department of Justice press
troubled young woman, who supposedly paid release. The woman, prosecutors said, wired “It’s very common,” he said. “It’s going on all
the spiritual medium to help lift a family curse Uwanawich varying amounts of money over the across the United States.”
that Uwanawich had invented, according to an years, often through Western Union.
indictment obtained by Oxygen.com. The When the Texas medical student was
woman, who attended several sessions with the In 2014, Uwanawich confessed the family curse hoodwinked by Uwanawich, it was a vulnerable
psychic and consulted her over the telephone, wasn’t real, and instead proposed the pair write period in her life, Nygaard said. The woman’s
sent Uwanawich a small fortune over the course a book together exposing "gypsy culture" and mother had just died, her father had moved back
of several years. the fraudulent ways of fortune tellers, but said to Brazil, she recently broke up with her
first she needed $30,000 from the woman to boyfriend, and was facing the constant pressure
“[Uwanawich] represented herself as a psychic secure a ghostwriter, which she promised to pay of medical school exams.
and spiritual healer, with God-given powers, back upon publication, insisting they would
able to communicate with the spirit world and make millions in revenue. “She was all alone,” the 57-year-old investigator
assist clients through personal difficulties,” the said.
indictment stated. The Texas woman instead sought the services of
a private investigator, who eventually brought Nygaard explained that this targeted pattern of
The victim of the scheme, who wasn’t named by the case to trial. deceit is commonplace in many psychic fraud
police, was grieving the death of her mother, cases he takes.
coping with a recent breakup, and was enduring Aside from being sentenced to over three years
the stresses of medical school when she was in prison, Uwanawich has been ordered to pay “They will create a sense of dependency: ‘You
conned by Uwanawich. She had supposedly $1.6 million in restitution for carrying out the have to trust me and only me — I’m the only one
been approached by the psychic at a mall in fortune telling scam. But Bob Nygaard, the that can help you,’” he stated.
Houston, Texas in 2007. The woman, who had private investigator who investigated the case,
been crying, came out of a department store at was displeased with the ruling. “They’ll exacerbate the victim’s existing fears,
the shopping center when Unwanawich came up they find out what is bothering this person, and
to her and offered a free reading at her fortune “I think it was wholly inadequate,” Nygaard, a they exploit those fears for their own financial
telling parlor. former police officer who specializes in psychic gain.”
fraud cases, told Oxygen.com.
Uwanawich, who went by the fictitious alias Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos, a spokesperson
“Jacklyn Miller,” told the woman that spirits had Nygaard, who disclosed he’s helped prosecute for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern
communicated to her that the victim’s family roughly 40 different fortune telling fraud cases District of Florida, declined to comment on the
was suffering from a curse that had been passed — and added he has another 40 in the works — sentencing. []
on from the victim’s mother. This, she said, was assisted the Texas woman in bringing charges
the root of the “turmoil [and] strife” currently against Uwanawich. However, he doesn’t expect
plaguing her personal life. Uwanawich promised his client will ever be paid back the money she’s
to “restore harmony and balance” to the owed.
woman’s life.
“What you have is self-proclaimed psychics
Uwanawich then convinced the Texas medical gaming the criminal justice system,” he said.
student her family was in danger if she didn’t
continue their “curse-lifting work.” Psychics, he explained, rarely keep assets in
their name and hardly ever pay back court
“The failure of the victim to continue to furnish restitution orders: “If the defendant doesn’t have
more money or property to [Uwanawich] would the ability to pay, then the victim never sees a
result in the ‘work’ becoming undone and result cent of that money.”