September 26, 2025 • 39 mins
The Buddha said, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense." Ignore that advice, and you might find that you're clouding your vision--that instead of seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything so it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering, unquestioned belief in anything--a philosophy, an institution, or a person--can lend us strength sometimes, but it can also make us vulnerable. And there are plenty of people out there just waiting to exploit that vulnerability. This story is about two of them, each with a very different MO, and the havoc they wreaked in the lives of the people around them.
Sources
The German newspaper BZ (translated from German to English): Blackmail Sect: Now Former Members Speak Out by Romeo Regenass, Nov. 12, 2008
Documentary "Seduced and Blackmailed" by Aldo Gugolz and Romeo Regenass
Time: https://time.com/archive/6945942/the-swiss-gigolo-and-the-german-billionaire/
NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29594154
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/09/bmw-blackmailer-jailed
Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5051613/Religious-leader-denies-blackmailing-woman-in-Swiss-gigolo-case.html
Forbes:https://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/scarbi-klatten-bmw-markets-faces-celebrity-blackmail.html
The Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/gigolo-who-seduced-bmw-heiress-boasted-he-read-women-like-a-map-6824827.html
Follow us, campers!
Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire
https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/
Facebook: True Crime Campfire
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=en
Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com
MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
Sources
The German newspaper BZ (translated from German to English): Blackmail Sect: Now Former Members Speak Out by Romeo Regenass, Nov. 12, 2008
Documentary "Seduced and Blackmailed" by Aldo Gugolz and Romeo Regenass
Time: https://time.com/archive/6945942/the-swiss-gigolo-and-the-german-billionaire/
NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29594154
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/09/bmw-blackmailer-jailed
Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5051613/Religious-leader-denies-blackmailing-woman-in-Swiss-gigolo-case.html
Forbes:https://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/scarbi-klatten-bmw-markets-faces-celebrity-blackmail.html
The Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/gigolo-who-seduced-bmw-heiress-boasted-he-read-women-like-a-map-6824827.html
Follow us, campers!
Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire
https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/
Facebook: True Crime Campfire
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=en
Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com
MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, campers, Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true
crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie and I'm Whitney,
and we're here to tell you a true story that
is way stranger than fiction or roasting murderers and marshmallows
around the true crime campfire.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The Buddhist said, believe nothing, no matter where you read
it or who has said it, not even if I
have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. Ignore that advice and you
might find that you're clouding your vision, that instead of
seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything
so that it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering
(00:42):
and unquestioned belief in anything, a philosophy, an institution, or
a person can lend us strength sometimes, but it can
also make us vulnerable, and there are plenty of people
out there just waiting to exploit that vulnerability. This story
is about two of them, each with a very different
mo O and the havoc they reeked in the lives
of the people around them. This is Swindles and Sacraments,
(01:05):
a story of deception and belief. So Camper's for this
one were in Munich, Germany. It's the spring of two
thousand and nine, and everybody has been riveted to the
case of Hege Scarby, a Swiss investment banker and jiggielow
(01:28):
and Suzan Clatton, the richest woman in the country. A
couple of years earlier, Scarby and Clatton had had a
brief little affair, and when Clatton tried to break it off,
Scarby tried to blackmail her with a sex tape he'd
recorded without her knowledge or consent. He must have thought
she'd give in without much backchat. After all, he'd done
this before with other rich women. All told, he'd stolen
(01:50):
or coerced about twelve million dollars out of the women
he'd seduced and blackmailed. But Suzan Claughton wasn't about to
let him get away with this. She ratted him out,
and now Munich was hosting the trial of the decade.
Not only was this a sensational story on the surface,
a look at the covert sex lives of the wealthy
and the shadowy world of the jiglos, but it had
(02:12):
deeper layers that nobody had seen coming. Bizarre movie of
the week type stuff about a secret of cult in
a quaint Italian village and a filthy, rich cult leader
who claimed he had God given magic powers. But we'll
get to that part later. First, let's get some background
on our dapper blackmailer. Helg Scarby is an unlikely guy
(02:33):
to play the starring role in this story. He gives
off a sort of Niles Crane energy, perfect little sued,
perfect little glasses, every hair firmly in place. Before his
court hearing, he bantered with the press, smiling and clearly
trying to use the same kind of charm he'd used
to conn his victims. Helg was an intelligent guy. Before
he began his career as a sweetheart swindler, he'd studied
(02:55):
law and served as a lieutenant in the Swiss Army. Later,
he took a job working on corporate mergers for Credit Suisse,
so he knew how to schmooz wealthy women. He felt
perfectly at home in the kind of spaces they occupied.
He knew all he had to do was put on
a nice suit and hang out in the kind of
places where you'd be considered riff raff if you made
less than ten million a year. His marks would find him.
(03:20):
One of Helg's first victims was an eighty three year
old countess named Verena Dupasquier Goebbels. She was Swiss, like
Helg's Garby, and for years she'd lived alone in a
suite at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Man,
doesn't that just sound like that sentence sounds like money?
The Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Lord, I couldn't
(03:40):
afford to step one toe in that place.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I feel like that's like where Rebecca starts.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Mm hmm, yeah, something like that. Despite all her money,
the countess didn't get out a lot. She had friends
who would visit her, sure, and sometimes she'd get an
invite to the Prince's palace yawn, But she didn't have
a partner in life, and she was lonely. She was
pretty much Helg's dream girl. One evening, he positioned himself
(04:08):
all alone at a table next to hers in the
hotel dining room, where the countess held court every night.
I'm sure he made sure to look pitiful, like a
little discarded puppy, and like she usually did in these situations,
Verena called him over to sit with her and her friends.
The next morning, she woke up to a flower delivery,
three lovely roses from Helge. She was touched by the
(04:30):
simplicity and humility of the gift. It wasn't fancy, it
wasn't calculated to impress her. This man was genuine decent.
The Countess was so excited she called her best friend,
who later told journalist Romeo reaganas that's how consciously he
manipulated her. Before long, Helg and the Countess were inseparable.
(04:52):
He escorted her to events, where she proudly showed him
off to her friends. Helg had impeccable manners, and he
seemed devoted to the countess, despite being forty seven years younger.
Verena didn't like the name hell. I don't either, so
she decided to call him Alexander instead. This absolutely cracks
me up. Just what's your name? Nah, I don't like
(05:14):
that you're Alexander. Now. It was bug nuts crazy, but
Alexander didn't seem to mind.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That is some like peak rich countess shit there, Like
it would fit right in in a movie like Oh,
I don't like your given name, so I'm just gonna
give you an entirely unrelated name that I prefer and
you will like it.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's such like crazy rich person entitlement. And she just
assumed it would be cool with him, you know. Yeah,
and it was, you know, it was whatever his darling
girl wanted. For her part, the Countess was in Capitol
l Live. She told her friend Margaret, I'm experiencing real
love for the first time. I've never been loved like this.
It's so touching. The only wrinkle was that Alexander had
(06:02):
to work all the time. He was a freelance consultant
for a big corporation and he had to travel a lot,
so he was always having to jet off and leave
for Verena alone, but she respected his work ethic, she
told her friend, Finally, a young man who thinks about
working and not about taking advantage.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Helg Scarvey later said he genuinely liked the Countess, which
makes you wonder how the hell he could do this
to her. He told the police she wanted a man
by her side who would protect her from all the parasites,
a man to show off, to manage her finances, and
a man who wasn't bothered by her age. He also
said this, which made me throw up in my mouth
(06:43):
a little bit. She wanted a man with whom she
could find sexual satisfaction. The woman was markedly clear headed
and her body was decidedly lively.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
My dude, freaking eye.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Oh lord, Yeah, apparently Helg was running a full service
operation lively fucking jeepers.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Lively. Oh, it's such a weird word to pick. It's
just that whole sentence is so so gross.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So we already told you that Helg was always running
off on business trips. A wink wink. Actually, he confided
in Verena, he was going on secret missions for the
Swiss government, but he had to keep that on the DL.
I think much like the CIA, No one works for
the Swiss government. Lord, big empty buildings.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know this shit again and over in a completely
different country. It is the same playbook. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And after one trip to Italy, Helg came home in
a tizzy. I'm in serious trouble, he told Verena. The
mafia found out I was with you, and they know
how wealthy you are. They're demanding two million francs. Dang,
don't you hate when that happens? You go on a
business trip to Italy and the mob decides to go
after you.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Oh, it's the worst.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Almost happened to me once, but I used my natural
charms and wits to get out of it. This story was,
of course, completely ridiculous, but the Countess had her love
goggles firmly in place. Hellk had already convinced her he
was a trustworthy and honest man, a rare treasure in
her world. She forked over the money without hesitation. Hellg's
(08:34):
response was to ask her to marry him. The Countess
was over the moon and she didn't think twice when
her new fiance insisted she go get a physical before
they made it official. He wanted to make sure his
bride was in the best of health, and he made
sure the doctor included one important note in her file
that the Countess Verena was of sound mind.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Why did I just feel a little chill?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, it is creepy. That same day, Verena in hell
Slash Alexander paid a visit to an attorney, where the
Countess ordered that her new fiancee be granted access to
twenty five million francs, just a little token of her
affection and a gesture to officially start the ball, rolling
on their new life together. Now Verena had people who
(09:23):
genuinely did care about her, and those people weren't born yesterday.
They knew a con man when they saw one, and
they were horrified to find out she was planning to
marry this guy. They tried to tell her, look, this
man isn't what he seems to be. He's a scammer.
He's done this to other women, but Verena didn't want
(09:45):
to believe it, so she didn't. She was about to
be forced back to reality, though. The Countess's dream romance
came to a sickening end one day when Hell came
to stay with her at a ritzy spa where she
was a case with her best friend.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
As soon as some of the other hotel guests laid
eyes on Scarby, they recognized him as a serial con artist,
a sweetheart swindler, and they told the front desk that
if he was going to stay there, they were leaving.
The hotel kicked him out, went to the Countess's room,
where they found the two lovebirds in their bathrobes, and
told him he had to leave right away. I'm sure
Verena was outraged as she watched her fiance pack up
(10:24):
his stuff and leave. I'm guessing he kissed her goodbye.
I told her not to worry. He'd see her when
she got home from her trip, but that would be
the last kiss he'd ever give her. The next day,
he vanished and cut off all communications with the Countess.
All her friend's warnings came crashing down around her, and
she was devastated and angry. She went to the authorities.
(10:47):
The police picked hellgup on charges of theft and tossed
him in jail to wait for trial. He was in
there for two weeks before his first hearing, and as
angry and hurt as she was when Verena saw him
in court, she Helg made sad puppy eyes at her
from across the courtroom, and he looked so thin and haggard.
After his two weeks behind bars, the Countess decided she
(11:09):
just couldn't go through with the trial. She dropped the
charges on the condition that Scarby pay her back all
the money he'd taken from her, at least everything he
hadn't already spent. She did get some of her money back,
but there were four million francs she'd never see again.
So Helg pretty much got away scott free after scamming
the countess, and before long he moved on to his
(11:30):
next target. Her name was Suzanne Clawton and she was
the richest woman in Germany at the time. Forty six
year old billionaire, major BMW shareholder and businesswoman, Suzan seemed
like the perfect mark for Helg Scarby. She was rich,
she was easy on the eyes, and she was married
with three teenage kids, so she had a family she
(11:51):
wouldn't want to embarrass, and she was the type of
rich person who likes to keep a really low profile.
Some sources even describe her as reclusive. Hell thought this
one would be child's play. Little did he know he
was fucking with the wrong one, but at first she
fell for him pretty hard. They met at a fancy
(12:12):
pants spa resort in Austria in two thousand and seven.
She had no way of knowing that the charming man
who seemed to share all her interests had researched her beforehand,
so he'd know just what to say to win her
over Creepy. Before long they were having a sneaky little affair,
meeting up for sex at the Munich Holiday Inn, which
cracks me up. By the way, there's a billionaire holiday inn.
(12:36):
I mean, maybe they're fancy in Germany. I don't know. Here,
they're like a step up from a motel six.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Maybe it added to like the dirty thrill of the affair, like.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Oh, that's very possible, actually, yeah, slumming it at the holiday.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
She's like, she's like, oh, this is how the normal
people live. Take off her pants, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, she wants to live like common people do. What
Suzan didn't know, of course, was that a man was
holed up in the room next door running the audio
visual equipment that would record her affair for posterity. Their
relationship had been going on for about two months when
Hell told her he had to make a quick trip
to the US. When he got back, he had a
(13:19):
hell of a story to tell her. He'd gotten into
a car accident in Miami, Florida. He told her, bad one.
A young woman in the other car was killed, and
she turned out to be the daughter of a mafia
boss man. This guy cannot catch a break. He can't
swing a dead cat without hitting a vengeful mafia don Now,
(13:40):
he told Suzan, the Capital f family wanted restitution. Otherwise, well,
you know what the mob is like. If they couldn't
get their revenge financially, they'd have to resort to other
much bloodier means. Now most of us might raise an
eyebrow at a story like this, but Suzan was in love, and,
as she later told documentarian Romeo raganas I thought he
(14:00):
was a man of the world. It didn't seem impossible
that he could have run a foul of some mafia types.
It really goes to show you that, very much like cults,
this stuff has nothing to do with intelligence. It's all
about emotion. Suzan was normally a very skeptical, logic minded woman,
but she fell for this bs hook line and sinker.
(14:20):
In the parking garage of the Holiday Inn where she
and Heald liked to have their little trysts, Suzan gave
him almost nine million dollars in cash seven million euros alone.
He insisted he'd pay her back as soon as he could, right.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And soon phew, Suzanne got a tax from Helk saying
he'd paid off the Bob and everything was fine. This
must have made Helk feel like she would be willing
to do pretty much anything for him. I mean nine
million dollars and she handed it over so easily. So
he did something a lot of con artists do when
(14:57):
they get a few successful scams under their belt. He
got cocky. He tried to talk Suzan into putting about
three hundred million dollars into a fund for him to manage.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, she bought the mafia story, but this was a
flaming red flag, and in a flash she realized what
Helg Scarby really was and she dumbed him. But Helg
didn't call his bestie and set up all night eating
Ben and Jerry's. He had a plan, b okay, He
said to Susan, give me fourteen million or I'll expose
(15:33):
our affair. You have a lot to lose, I have
a lot less. He showed her pictures of herself naked
with Scarby. Imagine how that must have felt for her
to realize that some creep had been watching them the
whole time they were together, taking pictures and filming.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Ugh.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Now, Susan Clotton is a smart woman, and she spent
her life in the cutthroat corporate world. She knows how
to take hit, and she decided she wasn't going to
let this little snotrag win. She told him, sure, I'll
give you the money, just please don't show anyone those pictures,
(16:12):
and then, satisfied that he believed he had her right
where he wanted her, she called the police. Experts like
Gavitt de Becker say, this is the best way, the
only way really to handle a blackmailer, slash extortionists, as
much as it might suck, you've got to just look
(16:33):
them in the eye and say, do what you gotta
do and deal with whatever backlash is coming, if it's
coming at all. I suspect a lot of blackmailers wouldn't
go through with the threat in the first place, like,
especially when it comes to revenge porn nowadays. Yeah, because
the consequences are really severe illegal, right, Yeah, And if
(16:54):
you call the police right away, they'll probably stop them
before they can do anything. But whatever the outcome, you
can't give in. If you give in, they own you forever.
You'll never be free of them.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Fun fact, extortion and blackmail aren't just two words for
the same thing. They're different. Extortion is when you use
something threats, violence, abuse of power, whatever to coerce somebody
into doing something, providing a service, giving you money, taking
some kind of action that the extortionist wants you to take.
An example of extortion might be marry my daughter, I'll
(17:28):
cut your legs off, or sleep with me, or I'll fire.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You, right, And blackmail is when you're specifically coercing money
out of the victim. So blackmail is actually a kind
of extortion, and the most common type we hear about
is right, Vinnie, give me five hundred books, or I'll
tell everybody about walking in on you watch and land
before time and crying like a baby. That would work.
In other words, pay me, or I'll tell your dirty
(17:53):
little secret. I suspect there's many a public figure who's
paid to avoid their skeletons being yanked out of the closet.
Both blackmail and extortion are illegal, of course, though the
specifics of that differ by state here in the US,
but in most places they're both felonies, and it's no
different in Europe. These are criminal offenses and serious ones.
(18:14):
And I don't really understand this kind of blackmail, by
the way. It's like, Okay, so you've got video of
us having sex. You're there too, I mean, and an
embarrassing for both of us. I mean, if I were
in this situation, I feel like I just say, Okay,
hss go for it, and when those sex tapes hit
the news, I'll just tell them, Yeah, this asshole tried
to blackmail me with this. He's a con artist who
(18:35):
works for a cult leader. Why don't y'all go look
into that. It's a lot more interesting than my boobs.
No shade to my boobs, obviously they're nice boobs, but
you know what I mean, I just think this strategy
would be likely to backfire spectacularly. For hell, all it's
gonna do is invite the kind of scrutiny that he
really didn't want. But I guess most of the women
didn't think it through that carefully. They just panicked and
(18:58):
gave in viusually. Given the type of women this chowd
went after elderly for the most part, Suzan was an
exception to that. Wealthy and probably pretty prim and proper
and concerned about their reputations. Suzan was concerned about hers too,
but not enough to cave to this loser. She later
said she went to the police not only for herself,
(19:18):
but to discourage other scammers from trying this tactic on women. So,
as you probably predicted, the police set up a sting
to catch Helg in the act of picking up his
fourteen mil Catch him they did, and they got a
little bonus treat too. When Scarby showed up to collect
his money, he had somebody else with him, an Italian
guy named Ernani Barretta. And when the authorities looked into Baretta,
(19:43):
it soon became clear where all the money Scarby stole
had been going. Our boy wasn't keeping the money for himself.
He was giving it all to a cult leader. On
(20:18):
paper or Nanni Baretta didn't seem like the kind of
dude who could attract a small army of devoted disciples.
He wasn't blue blooded, he hadn't had extensive education. Dude
was a car mechanic by trade. But he had psy
charisma and somehow he managed to convince people. He tapped
into a two way line of communication with God. He
(20:39):
was Christ's representative on earth, a prophet sent to heal humanity,
and he was very persuasive. People were drawn to him
like eager little moths to a flame. I don't see
it personally, as I usually don't with these cult leaders.
Dude looks I don't know, greasy, like a cheesy seventies
lounge singer with a side hustle as a cope dealer.
(21:00):
He looks like he wears too much Colonne, okay, or
possibly smells like hot dog water. One of the two.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
One of the two.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
He just looks greasy, but looks aside. Beretta claimed he
could read minds, He could heal both physical and mental illnesses.
He could bilocate, be in more than one place at
one time. He could be hosting a dinner party in
Italy while taking a nap in Switzerland. That's a neat
trick which I could do that. He could also go
into a sort of trance where he claimed he was
(21:29):
sucked out of his body through his hair and he
was balding, so that must have been tough and thrown
into the spiritual realm the afterlife. It was horribly painful
for him, he claimed, and his followers could see it.
He always bled copiously after these episodes. Once he got
back to his body, he'd lie in a little pool
of blood and prey. A former member of the cult
(21:51):
told the press today, we know it was all staged,
but at the time the scene seemed believable. He staged
other little miracles too. Once, when Borretta was traveling in
the US, one of his disciples back in Italy found
a bloody cross on his apartment door. He took it
as a sign that Bretta was in trouble, and lo and.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Behold he was.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
He'd ended up in the hospital in the US and
they were trying to steal his kidney. This is how
would you even know? It's such a ridiculous story. He
just needed a little cash to get back home, so
you know, pay up. And then there were the stigmata.
He got them every Friday, like oh tgif Stigmata time.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
His disciples lived with a constant gnawing guilt about the
stigmata and the other punishments Borretta had to endure for them,
but he assured them he was glad to suffer for
their sins. What a guy. He called himself Maestro de
la vita, life teacher. I am your highway to Heaven,
(22:54):
he told his disciples. Follow me, put your trust in me,
let me guide you, and I will bring you directly
to God. He started to gather his followers around him
in the early nineties in Zurich, Switzerland, holding esoteric meetings
where he'd preach, demonstrate his godly superpowers, and love bomb
(23:14):
potential converts. We've talked before about how cult leaders tend
to use the same playbook, and Ernani Baretta was no exception.
One of the classic cult tactics is to love bomb
the crap out of your prospective converts. Bretta let his
followers know they were a family with him as the
benevolent Daddy. He'd cook big Italian dinners and they'd all
(23:37):
eat by candlelight with opera playing in the background. He
was a wizard with pasta, so it was always delicious.
But once you've done the love bombing, once you've got
them hooked in, you get to work making them feel
like absolute worthless shit, making them feel like they need you.
(23:59):
You don't have any idea who you are, he told
one disciple. Bretta made sure everybody knew how deeply sick
and flawed and spiritually sunted they were, how desperately in
need of salvation. Salvation it just so happened that Bretta
would be happy to provide for the low low price
of you know, everything you had to give, plus whatever
(24:22):
you could borrow. And like a strict father, he required
his disciples to run every move they made past him first.
And I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that
Daddy Bretta demanded more than just loyalty from his crew.
If you wanted to be in his inner circle, you
had to fork over everything you had. That's how Jesus lived.
(24:45):
Bretta told them simply and humbly. He promised them that
he was using their money wisely to spread the good word,
and he had plans to build an orphanage too, for
kids who had lost their parents in the war Yugoslavia.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
This beautiful man getting over climped over here.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
That part is so funny to be because if you
asked me to write a screenplay and said, Okay, this
character is a con artist. We want you to think
of the most cliche lie he could tell his victims
about why he needs their money, I'd say, uh, he
wants to start an orphanage in a war torn country,
Like come on, man, work a little harder than that.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
One of his childhood friends actually told journalist Romeo Reganos
that Bretta had been money obsessed from the time he
was in diapers. The guy said, the only reason they
stayed friends is that he'd never done business with him.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
By the late nineties, Bretta had gathered a group of
about fifteen or twenty followers in Zurich, but he decided
to up his game. He gathered up about a dozen
of his most loyal followers and relocated to Italy, a
small picturesque place outside Piscara called Pisco sansone which has
to be one of the funnest words to say ever.
(26:03):
Say it with me, Pesco sansore esco. I love it,
and I'm apparently incapable of not saying it like in
a really bad Italian accent Pesco sansonesco. Oh No, that
doesn't sound nearly as good. God had told him to
go there. He claimed he'd had a vision of a
beautiful place where he could gather all his followers around him,
where he could further his work as a healer and
(26:24):
emissary of God. The heavenly Father wanted Bretta to build
this place, but he couldn't do it by himself. He
needed his closest disciples to help him, so his most
ardent followers quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and picked
up their whole lives to follow him to Italy. They
cashed in their pension funds and handed them over. One
(26:45):
of the disciples in this inner circle was Helg Scarvey.
Hell initially had some doubts about Borretta's claims. He wasn't
sure if this was a real prophet or a false
one sent by the devil to send him astray. But
one day Barret showed him the bloody stigmata on his
hands and it just blew Helg's mind. It's God's will
that you met me, Beretta told him. He said that
(27:08):
to everybody, And it's a funny way to phrase it,
isn't it Not it's God's will that I met you,
or that we met It's that you met me a
little bit of narcissistic leakage there. Anyway, Bretta took Helg
Scarby right under his wing, and before long he was
his right hand man. I suspect this is because he
realized Helg had an inn with rich women. Because of
(27:30):
his background and his job in finance, he could be
very useful. See, you didn't just have to hand over
your life savings to Ernani, you also had to work
for him. He wanted to turn Pesca Sansonesco into a
resort town, and he worked his followers like pack mules
toward that end. They pulled weeds, they painted, they washed dishes,
and served food for zero pay, of course, seven days
(27:53):
a week, and housing in tiny rooms heated by woodstoves.
If they were lucky, Beretta might let him go to
the movies once in a while. One of the things
they did at the property was host's weddings. This town
was super photogenic, and if you've ever worked in catering
or wedding planning, you know how much work that is.
It's absolutely exhausting, stressful, and sweaty. They were doing that
(28:14):
stuff seven days a week. In the documentary Seduced and Blackmailed,
we hear from the grandson of one of Bretta's most
loyal followers, who initially joined the group in Switzerland but
then followed them to Italy. Arena Berninger was a religious woman,
and like Bretta, she believed it was possible for some
people to communicate with the infinite. When she met Ernani Baretta,
(28:35):
she quickly came to believe that he was one of
those blessed few. She called him the Saint, an emissary
of Christ's love and the saint was thrilled to bits
to have her as a member of his flock. See
Missus Berninger was fairly well off and she was more
than willing to turn over her fortune to him. At
the compound in Pasco Sansenesco, Barretta put her in a tiny,
(28:57):
little attic room and charged her sixteen one hundred francs
a month for the privilege, just an outrageous amount of money,
especially in the late nineties. Right Erna's family tried to
talk sense unto her, but she was too far gone,
absolutely devoted to Beretta. Eventually he drained her of pretty
much every cent she had, and because she was in
(29:18):
her eighties too old to be put to work, he
just cast her aside, cut her off cold, and sent
her back home to Switzerland. She was completely devastated, especially
when she tried to claim welfare and was denied because
she couldn't prove where all her money had gone. So
this poor woman died with nothing. Oh awful. Arena's a
(29:41):
good example of how Beretta used classic cult tactics to
keep his followers under his control, to ensure that he
kept the tightest possible grip on them. Beretta forbade them
from communicating with their families. They all do this. It
takes away any potential voices of reason, leaving only the
cult leader's voice in the void, no one to validate
any doubts you might be having. You're much more susceptible
(30:03):
to the cult's manipulation.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
This all sounds super fun, right. Bretta did a pretty
good job of indoctrinating his followers, But of course there
were some who ended up wanting to leave, but Bretta
warned them against it. If you leave, he insisted, you'll
damn your soul to hell. You'll throw yourself to the
wolves of the evil outside world. You'll regret it. We've
(30:29):
seen this in just about every cult we covered. Scientology
uses this one hardcore. The outside world is pure insanity,
pure evil. You won't be able to survive out there.
And of course, making sure people don't have any money
is a great way to keep them stuck. Even if
they wanted to leave, even if they could get past
the indoctrination, they'd have trouble getting on their feet, and
(30:53):
the cult eater had other ways to stop people from leaving.
See in keeping with his oily seventies lounge singer Vibes.
Bretta had some interesting views on gender politics. Boy, if
you were a man, more power to you, fella, go nuts.
You could slam ass all over creation as much as
(31:13):
you wanted. If you're married, no problem. You could have
affairs as long as you pinky swore. You were boned
in the mistress with love. If you were a woman,
you were expected to stay in the kitchen making biscuits
and babies and bitch, you better keep it pure. If
you so much as glanced at a man, you were
treated like the horror of Babylon.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Of course, this was nothing more than Bretta's way of
keeping all the women in the colt for himself. He
was sleeping with just about every one of them, and
they all thought they were his one and only. One
of his former followers, a woman named Petra, talked about
her first sexual encounter with Bretta in the documentary Seduced
and Blackmailed. Petro was having some doubts, so one afternoon
(31:59):
Bretta took her for a walk in the woods and
had a little talk with her. So you know how
my spit has the power to heal, Borretta said, sure, Sure,
Petro said she'd heard about that. Well, think about it.
If my saliva can heal you, think about what my
(32:20):
other fluids might accomplish.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
You're making this shit up.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I wish I was God. This was the day Petro
started sleeping with Beretta. He built it as a healing ritual,
a way for her to purify her soul. Of course,
she had no way of knowing how much purifying he
was doing, and he had a nifty way of making
(32:45):
sure none of these women could get the upper hand
on him. If one of the women wanted to leave
the group, Barretta would tell her I've got some nice
little pictures of you and me filmed, of course without
their knowledge and consent. Sounds familiar, right, Yeah. He threatened
to expose the women if they laughed. He was dumb
(33:06):
enough to make these threats in writing. By the way,
some of the women eventually gave the blackmail letters to
journalist Romeo Reaganas, who passed them on to the cops.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Okay, so this was what was going on in the
background as heleg Scarby was doing his thing. His entire
motive was to collect as much money from Bretta as possible.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I don't think I'll ever get over the fact the suave,
savvy con man was getting conned. It's so good it
almost feels too good.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
It does. This case is like a Russian doll of
con games. It's like all it's con games all the
way down.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
This despite the fact that Scarby was married to a
woman in the colt and had a kid with her,
Like what, I can only imagine what his wife thought
about all this shit. If Bretta let him tell her,
it's possible that she didn't know. I guess so. As disciple,
heleg Scarby worked his con man magic on wealthy women
and sent the money to Beretta, mister emissary of Christ.
(34:05):
Lifestyle got a dramatic upgrade. Follower Petra couldn't help but
notice that while she and the other disciples were working
themselves to exhaustion and living on the bare bones necessary
for human survival, Beretta and his wife seemed to be
living like royalty. A huge mansion, lavish parties, a fleet
of shiny luxury cars, designer everything. They were having champagne
(34:27):
and caviare and entertaining guests, while Petra and the others
were working themselves sick for no pay. For God's sake.
The man had a helipad installed on his estate, a
freakin' helipad. But you know, as soon as those thoughts
would cross her mind, Petra would chastise herself. This was
just the devil trying to get at her. It was
(34:47):
one more sign of how broken she was, how little
she understood about God's plan and her place in it.
Who was she to question Beretta's wisdom, so she stuffed
her instinctive, perfectly reasonable reactions down and prayed harder. Plus,
Bretta had a ready answer for any concerns his followers
might raise about his recent lifestyle changes. We live in
(35:08):
a materialistic world, Beretta told his flock, So in order
to reach people, I have to fit in with that society.
If I walk around in rags, nobody will listen to me. Yeah,
just like nobody listened to that slouch Jesus right. So ridiculous.
But Beretta insisted that he was only buying all the
fancy stuff for appearance's sake. It was around this time
(35:32):
that journalist Romeo Ragnos got wind of the cult, and
he latched onto the story like a bulldog. He published
an article in a prominent magazine and basically presented Beretta's
group as a sect aka cult. A bunch of Bretta's
disciples wrote angry letters to the editor after the article
came out. One morning, Romeo went out to his car
(35:53):
and found all four tires slashed. Shades of scientology again.
Right despite the bad press Uretta was riding pretty high
at this point, but then he and Helg managed to
get themselves caught trying to blackmail Seson Clotton and wo
wom Now it was time to pay the piper. Helg
Scarby went to trial in two thousand and nine and
(36:13):
was sentenced to six years in a Bavarian prison for fraud,
attempted blackmail and attempted fraud. And he'd have to serve
every minute of those six years because, like a good toady,
he refused to give the authorities any information on a
naughty Baretta, and he was keeping his mouth firmly shut
about where he'd stashed all the money he took. Investigators
later found one point seven million euros in cash hidden
(36:36):
in the walls of Bretta's house, money the cult leader
claimed were his savings. He said he'd never even met
Susan Clotton and had nothing to do with the blackmail scheme.
I guess he just went with helg to pick up
the money that night, thinking they were going to stop
for slushie or something, and hell wasn't going to tell
us any different. He gushed to the press about how
much he owed Barretta for all he'd done for him,
(36:58):
all he'd taught him. He's like a father to me.
He gave me more than my parents ever did. In YadA, YadA, YadA. Yeah,
your relationship worked out great. Enjoy those six years in
the joint. Hel also apologized to all the women he
seduced and scammed. He said he deeply regretted it. Well,
that's fine. Then it's irritating to me that he was
(37:19):
only charged for Suzan Clawton's case. We know about four
other women he scammed. I suspect there were more. Bretta
was charged with forming a crime ring, one which had
committed crimes in multiple countries across Europe. The police confiscated
his fleet of luxury cars, which must have hurt the
most out of anything because he was obsessed with his
spricken cars. Most of his followers either devastated or relieved.
(37:43):
I'm not sure. Which left the group and went back
to their lives. Some unsung heroes spray painted you are
a bastard and bright red on a wall near his house.
He spent eight months in jail before being granted bail.
In twenty eleven, he went on trial for attempted agravat extortion.
He was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison,
(38:05):
and once he got out, he laid pretty low for
a while until twenty twenty one, when Beretta decided to
run for mayor of Pesco Sansenesco, still insisting on his innocence.
Now I looked, but I couldn't manage to find out
if he won. But I'm betting no. So that was
(38:25):
a wild one, right, Campers, You know we'll have another
one for you next week, but for now, lock your doors,
light your lights, and stay safe until we get together
again around the True Crime Campfire. And as always, we
want to send a grateful shout out to a few
of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Kuntas Bascherie.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
That is a a hundred percent. That is a roller
Derby name.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
You should heard. You should have heard the noise I
made when I saw that email come in from patron.
I was like, oh, that's an epic name. Lorie, d
Amy and Leah. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back.
And if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out.
Patrons of our show get every episode add free, at
least today early, sometimes more, plus tons of extra content
(39:11):
like patrons only episodes and hilarious post show discussions, and
the post show is often longer than the actual episode.
We just talk about all kinds of stuff, and when
you join the five dollars and up categories, you get
in more cool stuff, a free sticker, a rat enamel
pin or fridge magnet, while supplies last virtual events with
Katie and me, and we're always looking for new stuff
to do for you. So if you can come join
(39:33):
us at patreon dot com, slash true Crime Campfire, and
if you like what we're doing, leave us a nice review.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
It makes our day.
Hello, campers, Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true
crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie and I'm Whitney,
and we're here to tell you a true story that
is way stranger than fiction or roasting murderers and marshmallows
around the true crime campfire.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The Buddhist said, believe nothing, no matter where you read
it or who has said it, not even if I
have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense. Ignore that advice and you
might find that you're clouding your vision, that instead of
seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything
so that it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering
(00:42):
and unquestioned belief in anything, a philosophy, an institution, or
a person can lend us strength sometimes, but it can
also make us vulnerable, and there are plenty of people
out there just waiting to exploit that vulnerability. This story
is about two of them, each with a very different
mo O and the havoc they reeked in the lives
of the people around them. This is Swindles and Sacraments,
(01:05):
a story of deception and belief. So Camper's for this
one were in Munich, Germany. It's the spring of two
thousand and nine, and everybody has been riveted to the
case of Hege Scarby, a Swiss investment banker and jiggielow
(01:28):
and Suzan Clatton, the richest woman in the country. A
couple of years earlier, Scarby and Clatton had had a
brief little affair, and when Clatton tried to break it off,
Scarby tried to blackmail her with a sex tape he'd
recorded without her knowledge or consent. He must have thought
she'd give in without much backchat. After all, he'd done
this before with other rich women. All told, he'd stolen
(01:50):
or coerced about twelve million dollars out of the women
he'd seduced and blackmailed. But Suzan Claughton wasn't about to
let him get away with this. She ratted him out,
and now Munich was hosting the trial of the decade.
Not only was this a sensational story on the surface,
a look at the covert sex lives of the wealthy
and the shadowy world of the jiglos, but it had
(02:12):
deeper layers that nobody had seen coming. Bizarre movie of
the week type stuff about a secret of cult in
a quaint Italian village and a filthy, rich cult leader
who claimed he had God given magic powers. But we'll
get to that part later. First, let's get some background
on our dapper blackmailer. Helg Scarby is an unlikely guy
(02:33):
to play the starring role in this story. He gives
off a sort of Niles Crane energy, perfect little sued,
perfect little glasses, every hair firmly in place. Before his
court hearing, he bantered with the press, smiling and clearly
trying to use the same kind of charm he'd used
to conn his victims. Helg was an intelligent guy. Before
he began his career as a sweetheart swindler, he'd studied
(02:55):
law and served as a lieutenant in the Swiss Army. Later,
he took a job working on corporate mergers for Credit Suisse,
so he knew how to schmooz wealthy women. He felt
perfectly at home in the kind of spaces they occupied.
He knew all he had to do was put on
a nice suit and hang out in the kind of
places where you'd be considered riff raff if you made
less than ten million a year. His marks would find him.
(03:20):
One of Helg's first victims was an eighty three year
old countess named Verena Dupasquier Goebbels. She was Swiss, like
Helg's Garby, and for years she'd lived alone in a
suite at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Man,
doesn't that just sound like that sentence sounds like money?
The Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Lord, I couldn't
(03:40):
afford to step one toe in that place.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I feel like that's like where Rebecca starts.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Mm hmm, yeah, something like that. Despite all her money,
the countess didn't get out a lot. She had friends
who would visit her, sure, and sometimes she'd get an
invite to the Prince's palace yawn, But she didn't have
a partner in life, and she was lonely. She was
pretty much Helg's dream girl. One evening, he positioned himself
(04:08):
all alone at a table next to hers in the
hotel dining room, where the countess held court every night.
I'm sure he made sure to look pitiful, like a
little discarded puppy, and like she usually did in these situations,
Verena called him over to sit with her and her friends.
The next morning, she woke up to a flower delivery,
three lovely roses from Helge. She was touched by the
(04:30):
simplicity and humility of the gift. It wasn't fancy, it
wasn't calculated to impress her. This man was genuine decent.
The Countess was so excited she called her best friend,
who later told journalist Romeo reaganas that's how consciously he
manipulated her. Before long, Helg and the Countess were inseparable.
(04:52):
He escorted her to events, where she proudly showed him
off to her friends. Helg had impeccable manners, and he
seemed devoted to the countess, despite being forty seven years younger.
Verena didn't like the name hell. I don't either, so
she decided to call him Alexander instead. This absolutely cracks
me up. Just what's your name? Nah, I don't like
(05:14):
that you're Alexander. Now. It was bug nuts crazy, but
Alexander didn't seem to mind.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That is some like peak rich countess shit there, Like
it would fit right in in a movie like Oh,
I don't like your given name, so I'm just gonna
give you an entirely unrelated name that I prefer and
you will like it.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's such like crazy rich person entitlement. And she just
assumed it would be cool with him, you know. Yeah,
and it was, you know, it was whatever his darling
girl wanted. For her part, the Countess was in Capitol
l Live. She told her friend Margaret, I'm experiencing real
love for the first time. I've never been loved like this.
It's so touching. The only wrinkle was that Alexander had
(06:02):
to work all the time. He was a freelance consultant
for a big corporation and he had to travel a lot,
so he was always having to jet off and leave
for Verena alone, but she respected his work ethic, she
told her friend, Finally, a young man who thinks about
working and not about taking advantage.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Helg Scarvey later said he genuinely liked the Countess, which
makes you wonder how the hell he could do this
to her. He told the police she wanted a man
by her side who would protect her from all the parasites,
a man to show off, to manage her finances, and
a man who wasn't bothered by her age. He also
said this, which made me throw up in my mouth
(06:43):
a little bit. She wanted a man with whom she
could find sexual satisfaction. The woman was markedly clear headed
and her body was decidedly lively.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
My dude, freaking eye.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Oh lord, Yeah, apparently Helg was running a full service
operation lively fucking jeepers.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Lively. Oh, it's such a weird word to pick. It's
just that whole sentence is so so gross.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So we already told you that Helg was always running
off on business trips. A wink wink. Actually, he confided
in Verena, he was going on secret missions for the
Swiss government, but he had to keep that on the DL.
I think much like the CIA, No one works for
the Swiss government. Lord, big empty buildings.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know this shit again and over in a completely
different country. It is the same playbook. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And after one trip to Italy, Helg came home in
a tizzy. I'm in serious trouble, he told Verena. The
mafia found out I was with you, and they know
how wealthy you are. They're demanding two million francs. Dang,
don't you hate when that happens? You go on a
business trip to Italy and the mob decides to go
after you.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Oh, it's the worst.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Almost happened to me once, but I used my natural
charms and wits to get out of it. This story was,
of course, completely ridiculous, but the Countess had her love
goggles firmly in place. Hellk had already convinced her he
was a trustworthy and honest man, a rare treasure in
her world. She forked over the money without hesitation. Hellg's
(08:34):
response was to ask her to marry him. The Countess
was over the moon and she didn't think twice when
her new fiance insisted she go get a physical before
they made it official. He wanted to make sure his
bride was in the best of health, and he made
sure the doctor included one important note in her file
that the Countess Verena was of sound mind.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Why did I just feel a little chill?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, it is creepy. That same day, Verena in hell
Slash Alexander paid a visit to an attorney, where the
Countess ordered that her new fiancee be granted access to
twenty five million francs, just a little token of her
affection and a gesture to officially start the ball, rolling
on their new life together. Now Verena had people who
(09:23):
genuinely did care about her, and those people weren't born yesterday.
They knew a con man when they saw one, and
they were horrified to find out she was planning to
marry this guy. They tried to tell her, look, this
man isn't what he seems to be. He's a scammer.
He's done this to other women, but Verena didn't want
(09:45):
to believe it, so she didn't. She was about to
be forced back to reality, though. The Countess's dream romance
came to a sickening end one day when Hell came
to stay with her at a ritzy spa where she
was a case with her best friend.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
As soon as some of the other hotel guests laid
eyes on Scarby, they recognized him as a serial con artist,
a sweetheart swindler, and they told the front desk that
if he was going to stay there, they were leaving.
The hotel kicked him out, went to the Countess's room,
where they found the two lovebirds in their bathrobes, and
told him he had to leave right away. I'm sure
Verena was outraged as she watched her fiance pack up
(10:24):
his stuff and leave. I'm guessing he kissed her goodbye.
I told her not to worry. He'd see her when
she got home from her trip, but that would be
the last kiss he'd ever give her. The next day,
he vanished and cut off all communications with the Countess.
All her friend's warnings came crashing down around her, and
she was devastated and angry. She went to the authorities.
(10:47):
The police picked hellgup on charges of theft and tossed
him in jail to wait for trial. He was in
there for two weeks before his first hearing, and as
angry and hurt as she was when Verena saw him
in court, she Helg made sad puppy eyes at her
from across the courtroom, and he looked so thin and haggard.
After his two weeks behind bars, the Countess decided she
(11:09):
just couldn't go through with the trial. She dropped the
charges on the condition that Scarby pay her back all
the money he'd taken from her, at least everything he
hadn't already spent. She did get some of her money back,
but there were four million francs she'd never see again.
So Helg pretty much got away scott free after scamming
the countess, and before long he moved on to his
(11:30):
next target. Her name was Suzanne Clawton and she was
the richest woman in Germany at the time. Forty six
year old billionaire, major BMW shareholder and businesswoman, Suzan seemed
like the perfect mark for Helg Scarby. She was rich,
she was easy on the eyes, and she was married
with three teenage kids, so she had a family she
(11:51):
wouldn't want to embarrass, and she was the type of
rich person who likes to keep a really low profile.
Some sources even describe her as reclusive. Hell thought this
one would be child's play. Little did he know he
was fucking with the wrong one, but at first she
fell for him pretty hard. They met at a fancy
(12:12):
pants spa resort in Austria in two thousand and seven.
She had no way of knowing that the charming man
who seemed to share all her interests had researched her beforehand,
so he'd know just what to say to win her
over Creepy. Before long they were having a sneaky little affair,
meeting up for sex at the Munich Holiday Inn, which
cracks me up. By the way, there's a billionaire holiday inn.
(12:36):
I mean, maybe they're fancy in Germany. I don't know. Here,
they're like a step up from a motel six.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Maybe it added to like the dirty thrill of the affair, like.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Oh, that's very possible, actually, yeah, slumming it at the holiday.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
She's like, she's like, oh, this is how the normal
people live. Take off her pants, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, she wants to live like common people do. What
Suzan didn't know, of course, was that a man was
holed up in the room next door running the audio
visual equipment that would record her affair for posterity. Their
relationship had been going on for about two months when
Hell told her he had to make a quick trip
to the US. When he got back, he had a
(13:19):
hell of a story to tell her. He'd gotten into
a car accident in Miami, Florida. He told her, bad one.
A young woman in the other car was killed, and
she turned out to be the daughter of a mafia
boss man. This guy cannot catch a break. He can't
swing a dead cat without hitting a vengeful mafia don Now,
(13:40):
he told Suzan, the Capital f family wanted restitution. Otherwise, well,
you know what the mob is like. If they couldn't
get their revenge financially, they'd have to resort to other
much bloodier means. Now most of us might raise an
eyebrow at a story like this, but Suzan was in love, and,
as she later told documentarian Romeo raganas I thought he
(14:00):
was a man of the world. It didn't seem impossible
that he could have run a foul of some mafia types.
It really goes to show you that, very much like cults,
this stuff has nothing to do with intelligence. It's all
about emotion. Suzan was normally a very skeptical, logic minded woman,
but she fell for this bs hook line and sinker.
(14:20):
In the parking garage of the Holiday Inn where she
and Heald liked to have their little trysts, Suzan gave
him almost nine million dollars in cash seven million euros alone.
He insisted he'd pay her back as soon as he could, right.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And soon phew, Suzanne got a tax from Helk saying
he'd paid off the Bob and everything was fine. This
must have made Helk feel like she would be willing
to do pretty much anything for him. I mean nine
million dollars and she handed it over so easily. So
he did something a lot of con artists do when
(14:57):
they get a few successful scams under their belt. He
got cocky. He tried to talk Suzan into putting about
three hundred million dollars into a fund for him to manage.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, she bought the mafia story, but this was a
flaming red flag, and in a flash she realized what
Helg Scarby really was and she dumbed him. But Helg
didn't call his bestie and set up all night eating
Ben and Jerry's. He had a plan, b okay, He
said to Susan, give me fourteen million or I'll expose
(15:33):
our affair. You have a lot to lose, I have
a lot less. He showed her pictures of herself naked
with Scarby. Imagine how that must have felt for her
to realize that some creep had been watching them the
whole time they were together, taking pictures and filming.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Ugh.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Now, Susan Clotton is a smart woman, and she spent
her life in the cutthroat corporate world. She knows how
to take hit, and she decided she wasn't going to
let this little snotrag win. She told him, sure, I'll
give you the money, just please don't show anyone those pictures,
(16:12):
and then, satisfied that he believed he had her right
where he wanted her, she called the police. Experts like
Gavitt de Becker say, this is the best way, the
only way really to handle a blackmailer, slash extortionists, as
much as it might suck, you've got to just look
(16:33):
them in the eye and say, do what you gotta
do and deal with whatever backlash is coming, if it's
coming at all. I suspect a lot of blackmailers wouldn't
go through with the threat in the first place, like,
especially when it comes to revenge porn nowadays. Yeah, because
the consequences are really severe illegal, right, Yeah, And if
(16:54):
you call the police right away, they'll probably stop them
before they can do anything. But whatever the outcome, you
can't give in. If you give in, they own you forever.
You'll never be free of them.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Fun fact, extortion and blackmail aren't just two words for
the same thing. They're different. Extortion is when you use
something threats, violence, abuse of power, whatever to coerce somebody
into doing something, providing a service, giving you money, taking
some kind of action that the extortionist wants you to take.
An example of extortion might be marry my daughter, I'll
(17:28):
cut your legs off, or sleep with me, or I'll fire.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You, right, And blackmail is when you're specifically coercing money
out of the victim. So blackmail is actually a kind
of extortion, and the most common type we hear about
is right, Vinnie, give me five hundred books, or I'll
tell everybody about walking in on you watch and land
before time and crying like a baby. That would work.
In other words, pay me, or I'll tell your dirty
(17:53):
little secret. I suspect there's many a public figure who's
paid to avoid their skeletons being yanked out of the closet.
Both blackmail and extortion are illegal, of course, though the
specifics of that differ by state here in the US,
but in most places they're both felonies, and it's no
different in Europe. These are criminal offenses and serious ones.
(18:14):
And I don't really understand this kind of blackmail, by
the way. It's like, Okay, so you've got video of
us having sex. You're there too, I mean, and an
embarrassing for both of us. I mean, if I were
in this situation, I feel like I just say, Okay,
hss go for it, and when those sex tapes hit
the news, I'll just tell them, Yeah, this asshole tried
to blackmail me with this. He's a con artist who
(18:35):
works for a cult leader. Why don't y'all go look
into that. It's a lot more interesting than my boobs.
No shade to my boobs, obviously they're nice boobs, but
you know what I mean, I just think this strategy
would be likely to backfire spectacularly. For hell, all it's
gonna do is invite the kind of scrutiny that he
really didn't want. But I guess most of the women
didn't think it through that carefully. They just panicked and
(18:58):
gave in viusually. Given the type of women this chowd
went after elderly for the most part, Suzan was an
exception to that. Wealthy and probably pretty prim and proper
and concerned about their reputations. Suzan was concerned about hers too,
but not enough to cave to this loser. She later
said she went to the police not only for herself,
(19:18):
but to discourage other scammers from trying this tactic on women. So,
as you probably predicted, the police set up a sting
to catch Helg in the act of picking up his
fourteen mil Catch him they did, and they got a
little bonus treat too. When Scarby showed up to collect
his money, he had somebody else with him, an Italian
guy named Ernani Barretta. And when the authorities looked into Baretta,
(19:43):
it soon became clear where all the money Scarby stole
had been going. Our boy wasn't keeping the money for himself.
He was giving it all to a cult leader. On
(20:18):
paper or Nanni Baretta didn't seem like the kind of
dude who could attract a small army of devoted disciples.
He wasn't blue blooded, he hadn't had extensive education. Dude
was a car mechanic by trade. But he had psy
charisma and somehow he managed to convince people. He tapped
into a two way line of communication with God. He
(20:39):
was Christ's representative on earth, a prophet sent to heal humanity,
and he was very persuasive. People were drawn to him
like eager little moths to a flame. I don't see
it personally, as I usually don't with these cult leaders.
Dude looks I don't know, greasy, like a cheesy seventies
lounge singer with a side hustle as a cope dealer.
(21:00):
He looks like he wears too much Colonne, okay, or
possibly smells like hot dog water. One of the two.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
One of the two.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
He just looks greasy, but looks aside. Beretta claimed he
could read minds, He could heal both physical and mental illnesses.
He could bilocate, be in more than one place at
one time. He could be hosting a dinner party in
Italy while taking a nap in Switzerland. That's a neat
trick which I could do that. He could also go
into a sort of trance where he claimed he was
(21:29):
sucked out of his body through his hair and he
was balding, so that must have been tough and thrown
into the spiritual realm the afterlife. It was horribly painful
for him, he claimed, and his followers could see it.
He always bled copiously after these episodes. Once he got
back to his body, he'd lie in a little pool
of blood and prey. A former member of the cult
(21:51):
told the press today, we know it was all staged,
but at the time the scene seemed believable. He staged
other little miracles too. Once, when Borretta was traveling in
the US, one of his disciples back in Italy found
a bloody cross on his apartment door. He took it
as a sign that Bretta was in trouble, and lo and.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Behold he was.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
He'd ended up in the hospital in the US and
they were trying to steal his kidney. This is how
would you even know? It's such a ridiculous story. He
just needed a little cash to get back home, so
you know, pay up. And then there were the stigmata.
He got them every Friday, like oh tgif Stigmata time.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
His disciples lived with a constant gnawing guilt about the
stigmata and the other punishments Borretta had to endure for them,
but he assured them he was glad to suffer for
their sins. What a guy. He called himself Maestro de
la vita, life teacher. I am your highway to Heaven,
(22:54):
he told his disciples. Follow me, put your trust in me,
let me guide you, and I will bring you directly
to God. He started to gather his followers around him
in the early nineties in Zurich, Switzerland, holding esoteric meetings
where he'd preach, demonstrate his godly superpowers, and love bomb
(23:14):
potential converts. We've talked before about how cult leaders tend
to use the same playbook, and Ernani Baretta was no exception.
One of the classic cult tactics is to love bomb
the crap out of your prospective converts. Bretta let his
followers know they were a family with him as the
benevolent Daddy. He'd cook big Italian dinners and they'd all
(23:37):
eat by candlelight with opera playing in the background. He
was a wizard with pasta, so it was always delicious.
But once you've done the love bombing, once you've got
them hooked in, you get to work making them feel
like absolute worthless shit, making them feel like they need you.
(23:59):
You don't have any idea who you are, he told
one disciple. Bretta made sure everybody knew how deeply sick
and flawed and spiritually sunted they were, how desperately in
need of salvation. Salvation it just so happened that Bretta
would be happy to provide for the low low price
of you know, everything you had to give, plus whatever
(24:22):
you could borrow. And like a strict father, he required
his disciples to run every move they made past him first.
And I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that
Daddy Bretta demanded more than just loyalty from his crew.
If you wanted to be in his inner circle, you
had to fork over everything you had. That's how Jesus lived.
(24:45):
Bretta told them simply and humbly. He promised them that
he was using their money wisely to spread the good word,
and he had plans to build an orphanage too, for
kids who had lost their parents in the war Yugoslavia.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
This beautiful man getting over climped over here.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
That part is so funny to be because if you
asked me to write a screenplay and said, Okay, this
character is a con artist. We want you to think
of the most cliche lie he could tell his victims
about why he needs their money, I'd say, uh, he
wants to start an orphanage in a war torn country,
Like come on, man, work a little harder than that.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
One of his childhood friends actually told journalist Romeo Reganos
that Bretta had been money obsessed from the time he
was in diapers. The guy said, the only reason they
stayed friends is that he'd never done business with him.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
By the late nineties, Bretta had gathered a group of
about fifteen or twenty followers in Zurich, but he decided
to up his game. He gathered up about a dozen
of his most loyal followers and relocated to Italy, a
small picturesque place outside Piscara called Pisco sansone which has
to be one of the funnest words to say ever.
(26:03):
Say it with me, Pesco sansore esco. I love it,
and I'm apparently incapable of not saying it like in
a really bad Italian accent Pesco sansonesco. Oh No, that
doesn't sound nearly as good. God had told him to
go there. He claimed he'd had a vision of a
beautiful place where he could gather all his followers around him,
where he could further his work as a healer and
(26:24):
emissary of God. The heavenly Father wanted Bretta to build
this place, but he couldn't do it by himself. He
needed his closest disciples to help him, so his most
ardent followers quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and picked
up their whole lives to follow him to Italy. They
cashed in their pension funds and handed them over. One
(26:45):
of the disciples in this inner circle was Helg Scarvey.
Hell initially had some doubts about Borretta's claims. He wasn't
sure if this was a real prophet or a false
one sent by the devil to send him astray. But
one day Barret showed him the bloody stigmata on his
hands and it just blew Helg's mind. It's God's will
that you met me, Beretta told him. He said that
(27:08):
to everybody, And it's a funny way to phrase it,
isn't it Not it's God's will that I met you,
or that we met It's that you met me a
little bit of narcissistic leakage there. Anyway, Bretta took Helg
Scarby right under his wing, and before long he was
his right hand man. I suspect this is because he
realized Helg had an inn with rich women. Because of
(27:30):
his background and his job in finance, he could be
very useful. See, you didn't just have to hand over
your life savings to Ernani, you also had to work
for him. He wanted to turn Pesca Sansonesco into a
resort town, and he worked his followers like pack mules
toward that end. They pulled weeds, they painted, they washed dishes,
and served food for zero pay, of course, seven days
(27:53):
a week, and housing in tiny rooms heated by woodstoves.
If they were lucky, Beretta might let him go to
the movies once in a while. One of the things
they did at the property was host's weddings. This town
was super photogenic, and if you've ever worked in catering
or wedding planning, you know how much work that is.
It's absolutely exhausting, stressful, and sweaty. They were doing that
(28:14):
stuff seven days a week. In the documentary Seduced and Blackmailed,
we hear from the grandson of one of Bretta's most
loyal followers, who initially joined the group in Switzerland but
then followed them to Italy. Arena Berninger was a religious woman,
and like Bretta, she believed it was possible for some
people to communicate with the infinite. When she met Ernani Baretta,
(28:35):
she quickly came to believe that he was one of
those blessed few. She called him the Saint, an emissary
of Christ's love and the saint was thrilled to bits
to have her as a member of his flock. See
Missus Berninger was fairly well off and she was more
than willing to turn over her fortune to him. At
the compound in Pasco Sansenesco, Barretta put her in a tiny,
(28:57):
little attic room and charged her sixteen one hundred francs
a month for the privilege, just an outrageous amount of money,
especially in the late nineties. Right Erna's family tried to
talk sense unto her, but she was too far gone,
absolutely devoted to Beretta. Eventually he drained her of pretty
much every cent she had, and because she was in
(29:18):
her eighties too old to be put to work, he
just cast her aside, cut her off cold, and sent
her back home to Switzerland. She was completely devastated, especially
when she tried to claim welfare and was denied because
she couldn't prove where all her money had gone. So
this poor woman died with nothing. Oh awful. Arena's a
(29:41):
good example of how Beretta used classic cult tactics to
keep his followers under his control, to ensure that he
kept the tightest possible grip on them. Beretta forbade them
from communicating with their families. They all do this. It
takes away any potential voices of reason, leaving only the
cult leader's voice in the void, no one to validate
any doubts you might be having. You're much more susceptible
(30:03):
to the cult's manipulation.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
This all sounds super fun, right. Bretta did a pretty
good job of indoctrinating his followers, But of course there
were some who ended up wanting to leave, but Bretta
warned them against it. If you leave, he insisted, you'll
damn your soul to hell. You'll throw yourself to the
wolves of the evil outside world. You'll regret it. We've
(30:29):
seen this in just about every cult we covered. Scientology
uses this one hardcore. The outside world is pure insanity,
pure evil. You won't be able to survive out there.
And of course, making sure people don't have any money
is a great way to keep them stuck. Even if
they wanted to leave, even if they could get past
the indoctrination, they'd have trouble getting on their feet, and
(30:53):
the cult eater had other ways to stop people from leaving.
See in keeping with his oily seventies lounge singer Vibes.
Bretta had some interesting views on gender politics. Boy, if
you were a man, more power to you, fella, go nuts.
You could slam ass all over creation as much as
(31:13):
you wanted. If you're married, no problem. You could have
affairs as long as you pinky swore. You were boned
in the mistress with love. If you were a woman,
you were expected to stay in the kitchen making biscuits
and babies and bitch, you better keep it pure. If
you so much as glanced at a man, you were
treated like the horror of Babylon.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Of course, this was nothing more than Bretta's way of
keeping all the women in the colt for himself. He
was sleeping with just about every one of them, and
they all thought they were his one and only. One
of his former followers, a woman named Petra, talked about
her first sexual encounter with Bretta in the documentary Seduced
and Blackmailed. Petro was having some doubts, so one afternoon
(31:59):
Bretta took her for a walk in the woods and
had a little talk with her. So you know how
my spit has the power to heal, Borretta said, sure, Sure,
Petro said she'd heard about that. Well, think about it.
If my saliva can heal you, think about what my
(32:20):
other fluids might accomplish.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
You're making this shit up.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I wish I was God. This was the day Petro
started sleeping with Beretta. He built it as a healing ritual,
a way for her to purify her soul. Of course,
she had no way of knowing how much purifying he
was doing, and he had a nifty way of making
(32:45):
sure none of these women could get the upper hand
on him. If one of the women wanted to leave
the group, Barretta would tell her I've got some nice
little pictures of you and me filmed, of course without
their knowledge and consent. Sounds familiar, right, Yeah. He threatened
to expose the women if they laughed. He was dumb
(33:06):
enough to make these threats in writing. By the way,
some of the women eventually gave the blackmail letters to
journalist Romeo Reaganas, who passed them on to the cops.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Okay, so this was what was going on in the
background as heleg Scarby was doing his thing. His entire
motive was to collect as much money from Bretta as possible.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I don't think I'll ever get over the fact the suave,
savvy con man was getting conned. It's so good it
almost feels too good.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
It does. This case is like a Russian doll of
con games. It's like all it's con games all the
way down.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
This despite the fact that Scarby was married to a
woman in the colt and had a kid with her,
Like what, I can only imagine what his wife thought
about all this shit. If Bretta let him tell her,
it's possible that she didn't know. I guess so. As disciple,
heleg Scarby worked his con man magic on wealthy women
and sent the money to Beretta, mister emissary of Christ.
(34:05):
Lifestyle got a dramatic upgrade. Follower Petra couldn't help but
notice that while she and the other disciples were working
themselves to exhaustion and living on the bare bones necessary
for human survival, Beretta and his wife seemed to be
living like royalty. A huge mansion, lavish parties, a fleet
of shiny luxury cars, designer everything. They were having champagne
(34:27):
and caviare and entertaining guests, while Petra and the others
were working themselves sick for no pay. For God's sake.
The man had a helipad installed on his estate, a
freakin' helipad. But you know, as soon as those thoughts
would cross her mind, Petra would chastise herself. This was
just the devil trying to get at her. It was
(34:47):
one more sign of how broken she was, how little
she understood about God's plan and her place in it.
Who was she to question Beretta's wisdom, so she stuffed
her instinctive, perfectly reasonable reactions down and prayed harder. Plus,
Bretta had a ready answer for any concerns his followers
might raise about his recent lifestyle changes. We live in
(35:08):
a materialistic world, Beretta told his flock, So in order
to reach people, I have to fit in with that society.
If I walk around in rags, nobody will listen to me. Yeah,
just like nobody listened to that slouch Jesus right. So ridiculous.
But Beretta insisted that he was only buying all the
fancy stuff for appearance's sake. It was around this time
(35:32):
that journalist Romeo Ragnos got wind of the cult, and
he latched onto the story like a bulldog. He published
an article in a prominent magazine and basically presented Beretta's
group as a sect aka cult. A bunch of Bretta's
disciples wrote angry letters to the editor after the article
came out. One morning, Romeo went out to his car
(35:53):
and found all four tires slashed. Shades of scientology again.
Right despite the bad press Uretta was riding pretty high
at this point, but then he and Helg managed to
get themselves caught trying to blackmail Seson Clotton and wo
wom Now it was time to pay the piper. Helg
Scarby went to trial in two thousand and nine and
(36:13):
was sentenced to six years in a Bavarian prison for fraud,
attempted blackmail and attempted fraud. And he'd have to serve
every minute of those six years because, like a good toady,
he refused to give the authorities any information on a
naughty Baretta, and he was keeping his mouth firmly shut
about where he'd stashed all the money he took. Investigators
later found one point seven million euros in cash hidden
(36:36):
in the walls of Bretta's house, money the cult leader
claimed were his savings. He said he'd never even met
Susan Clotton and had nothing to do with the blackmail scheme.
I guess he just went with helg to pick up
the money that night, thinking they were going to stop
for slushie or something, and hell wasn't going to tell
us any different. He gushed to the press about how
much he owed Barretta for all he'd done for him,
(36:58):
all he'd taught him. He's like a father to me.
He gave me more than my parents ever did. In YadA, YadA, YadA. Yeah,
your relationship worked out great. Enjoy those six years in
the joint. Hel also apologized to all the women he
seduced and scammed. He said he deeply regretted it. Well,
that's fine. Then it's irritating to me that he was
(37:19):
only charged for Suzan Clawton's case. We know about four
other women he scammed. I suspect there were more. Bretta
was charged with forming a crime ring, one which had
committed crimes in multiple countries across Europe. The police confiscated
his fleet of luxury cars, which must have hurt the
most out of anything because he was obsessed with his
spricken cars. Most of his followers either devastated or relieved.
(37:43):
I'm not sure. Which left the group and went back
to their lives. Some unsung heroes spray painted you are
a bastard and bright red on a wall near his house.
He spent eight months in jail before being granted bail.
In twenty eleven, he went on trial for attempted agravat extortion.
He was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison,
(38:05):
and once he got out, he laid pretty low for
a while until twenty twenty one, when Beretta decided to
run for mayor of Pesco Sansenesco, still insisting on his innocence.
Now I looked, but I couldn't manage to find out
if he won. But I'm betting no. So that was
(38:25):
a wild one, right, Campers, You know we'll have another
one for you next week, but for now, lock your doors,
light your lights, and stay safe until we get together
again around the True Crime Campfire. And as always, we
want to send a grateful shout out to a few
of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Kuntas Bascherie.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
That is a a hundred percent. That is a roller
Derby name.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
You should heard. You should have heard the noise I
made when I saw that email come in from patron.
I was like, oh, that's an epic name. Lorie, d
Amy and Leah. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back.
And if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out.
Patrons of our show get every episode add free, at
least today early, sometimes more, plus tons of extra content
(39:11):
like patrons only episodes and hilarious post show discussions, and
the post show is often longer than the actual episode.
We just talk about all kinds of stuff, and when
you join the five dollars and up categories, you get
in more cool stuff, a free sticker, a rat enamel
pin or fridge magnet, while supplies last virtual events with
Katie and me, and we're always looking for new stuff
to do for you. So if you can come join
(39:33):
us at patreon dot com, slash true Crime Campfire, and
if you like what we're doing, leave us a nice review.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
It makes our day.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!