An influencer mom has been arrested over claims she staged her own kidnapping to boost her social media followers – and even her husband who was taken hostage wasn’t aware of the twisted plot, according to police.
Brazilian content creator Monniky Fraga, 27, was arrested Tuesday – almost a year after telling her legion of 48,000 followers she and her husband Lucas were confronted by three armed bandits in their car outside their home before being taken to the woods, held hostage and forced to pay ransom.
Fraga said her husband was attacked while the crooks demanded their belongings — but cops believe she staged the kidnapping for media attention after launching a probe, Brazilian outlet Globo reported.
“As the investigation progressed, it found indications that the alleged kidnap-for-ransom was in fact nothing more than a plot between the supposed victim and one of the perpetrators,” detective Cley Anderson said.
Anderson said Fraga’s husband was in the dark about the scheme.
“At all times, he has maintained that he genuinely believed it was a real kidnapping,” he said.
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.
