The American woman met a dream man for two years and it turned out to be a large-scale production
'21.10.2021'
Source: Medialeaks
Catalina Rosas from Florida two years had a crush on Eric Benson, who introduced himself as an elite painting seller. If it were not for a few random events, she would not even understand that Benson is a crook who lured tens of thousands of dollars from her and her son before she noticed. And all their relationships turned out to be a carefully planned fake with beautifully played roles and theatrical props.
The first meeting of Catalina Rosas with Eric Benson happened by chance - in an expensive restaurant in the city of Boca Raton in the state of Florida, says Medialeaks. Erik immediately charmed the woman with his stories about eight years of living in Hong Kong and how he supplies works of art to select wealthy clients and helps them with investments in luxury items. Soon they began to meet, and the relationship lasted two years, Catalina said.
Catalina and Eric most often saw in between his business trips and met in a luxury hotel or in other beautiful places in Florida. They drank wine, played golf, and just had a good time. Eric talked a lot about his investments in gold, but they also had conversations on abstract topics. And these conversations convinced the woman that their relationship was more than a casual romance:
“We had so much fun together, and we also often had what I considered to be deep and sincere conversations about society, politics and religion. I felt like I finally found someone to spend my time with. "
There were some oddities in Eric's behavior that Catalina sometimes noticed. She had never seen his friends or relatives, although Eric said his family was from Florida. He did not have his own house there either - he stayed in a hotel. Catalina never even saw his driver's license or other documents. But she preferred not to pay attention to all this. But in vain, because his performance was much bigger than that of a man who wanted to pretend to be dead, so as not to give his wife money, but gave himself away.
Over time, Eric began to pretend to involve her in some of his work operations. He gave her small orders like sending letters and paintings or signing documents, and for this the woman allegedly received a small percentage of his transactions. And then Catalina entrusted him with her own money.
“When the UK voted to leave the EU, Eric persuaded me to cash out half of my retirement savings and invest in gold coins. He argued that the markets would soon collapse, and people would not be able to withdraw their money from their accounts, as they did in Greece before, and gold would be a much smarter investment. "
A year later, almost nothing remained of Catalina's pension savings. She gave Erik 52 thousands of dollars, and her son - his savings, 12 thousand (3,5 million and 812 thousand rubles, respectively). The woman became agitated and asked for advice from a financial adviser. He said that you need to immediately check the gold coins that she kept in the bank box. It took the appraiser five seconds to realize that they were fake.
Then the real detective began. The police believed that there was no point in taking on this case without proof that Eric had sold the coins to her. Then Catalina spoke to him, pretending to buy more coins, and recorded the conversation on a dictaphone, including the moment when he mentions that he had already bought gold with her money. The woman turned to the FBI, and there she was helped to contact the US Secret Service - she is engaged not only in protecting the president, but also in catching counterfeiters. The Secret Service immediately got down to business.
Catalina, too, continued to seek new information. She found out who owns the house, where she and Eric once spent an evening instead of a hotel. It turned out that a woman lived there, with whom Eric had also met all this time (their relationship began a year before the appearance of Catalina and lasted almost all this time). The woman from this house, whom Catalina calls Jennifer, also suffered from Eric's actions. But now she helped to find out his real name.
Jennifer revealed that she learned Eric's real name during a visit to the Art Basel exhibition in December 2016. She introduced him to everyone as Eric Benson. To her surprise, one person immediately replied, "You're not Eric, you're that California golfer guy, Blaine Frederick." When she asked Eric what this meant, he replied that sometimes he presented himself with false names: because of an unsuccessful deal, bad people could be looking for him.
In fact, the name was Eric Benson. And under his real name, Blaine Frederick, still in 2012, was wanted in California, where he fraudulently lured several million dollars from two people.
Nine months later, in March 2018, Blaine was detained in a Florida golf club. He was recognized by an employee who saw the search orientation and called the Secret Service. Blaine is now awaiting trial. According to Catalina, she still physically hurts at the thought of how he used her. She hopes her story will help other people avoid falling into a similar situation.
