It began with a simple offer from a stranger on a Manhattan sidewalk, a promise to introduce a woman who appeared to be carrying a heavy emotional load to someone with spiritual powers. From that introduction, in July 2011, the emotions and stakes escalated, with visions of the woman’s dead relatives crying, promises to cure her father’s cancer, and, ultimately, the need to cleanse evil spirits from vast sums of the woman’s cash. By August 2012, the woman had turned over $600,000 for cleansing, and the fortune teller, Janet Miller, had disappeared. 

DA Vance announced the guilty plea of Janet Miller for stealing more than $650,000 from a woman whom she claimed she could help spiritually. The victim, at the direction of the defendant, repeatedly gave Miller money for items the she claimed were needed to protect the victim and ward off the devil. Miller pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, and is expected to be sentenced on June 12, 2013.