A social media influencer has been taken into custody on charges of orchestrating her own abduction to gain more followers, with authorities indicating that even her husband, allegedly taken hostage, was unaware of the deceitful plan.
Monniky Fraga, a 27-year-old content creator from Brazil, was apprehended on Tuesday, nearly a year after she claimed to her 48,000 followers that she and her husband, Lucas, were ambushed by three armed men outside their residence. The story included being whisked away to a forest, held captive, and coerced into paying a ransom.
Fraga narrated how her husband was assaulted as the assailants demanded their possessions. However, law enforcement officials suspect she fabricated the entire ordeal for publicity after initiating an investigation, as reported by Brazilian news outlet Globo.
“The investigation has revealed evidence suggesting that the supposed kidnap-for-ransom was, in reality, a scheme concocted between the alleged victim and one of the perpetrators,” stated detective Cley Anderson.
Anderson clarified that Fraga’s husband had no knowledge of the plot.
“He has consistently maintained that he genuinely believed they were victims of an actual kidnapping,” Anderson explained.
Three men and Fraga were allegedly involved in the plot. One man is in prison for other crimes, while another was murdered before an arrest warrant could be issued.
The third man, who allegedly received the ransom money, had his Várzea Paulista home searched.
Fraga now faces charges of blackmail, perverting the course of justice and wasting police time.
Her lawyers have called for her to be put under house arrest because she has young children.
