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Gina Rita Russell, 35, formerly of New York and Los Angeles, was sentenced to 125 months in prison following an elaborate scheme involving family members, one of whom threatened the Maryland man's young children.
According to prosecutors, Russell met a New York woman and performed a psychic reading on her, convincing her that bad things would happen unless the woman raised large sums of money for Russell and her family.
In response, the woman began giving Russell money, and she later was convinced to lie to her father by claiming she needed money for therapy, extensive sleep studies, and university classes, which Russell happily accepted until she was cut off.
Court documents state that Russell then continued to encourage the woman to earn more cash through sex work, which is how she met her mark from Maryland, who fell in love and proposed, despite being married with children.
"Preying on his affection, Russell and the New York woman conspired with Robert Evans, Tony John Evans, Corry Blue Evans, and Archie Kaslov to extort money and gold bars from the victim," prosecutors said.
The New York woman told the Maryland man "that she owed money to bad people from prior debts and that her life was in danger," prompting him to embezzle more than $4 million from her employer in 2017.
As part of the scheme, Russell had Tony John Evans impersonate a mobster during calls with the Maryland man, according to prosecutors.
During one of those calls, Tony John Evans asked if he needed to remind the Maryland man where his children went to school, and Russell also dictated threatening texts and provided the New York woman with instructions on what to tell the Maryland man.
The Maryland man converted embezzled funds to cash and gold bars which he delivered to New York drop-off locations, including a hotel room, believing the funds were going to mobsters.
In reality, the funds were all funneled to members of the Russell-Evans-Kaslov family.
Further investigation also found that she ran a similar scheme using her "psychic" powers in LA to defraud a woman's father out of money and then persuaded her to raise more cash through sex work.
In April 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Russell, her ex-common-law husband Robert Evans, his brothers Tony John Evans and Corry Blue Evans, and the brothers’ parents, Archie Kaslov and Candy Evans, all of New York, on various charges related to the scheme
Russell pleaded guilty in 2019 to interference with interstate commerce by extortion.
Tony John Evans, 35, and Robert Evans, 37, both pleaded guilty to interference with interstate commerce by extortion and were each sentenced to five years in prison.
Corry Blue Evans, 31, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and was sentenced to 41-months in prison. Archie Kaslov, 57, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to 30-months in prison.
Candy Evans, 55, pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness by corrupt persuasion or misleading conduct and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
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