A French heiress was conned out of her multi-million pound fortune by her ‘stepmother’ who was helped by a witchdoctor, a french court has heard.
Cléophée Herrmann, 34, had inherited over £9milllion through her family’s former textile empire, but had been convinced to splash tens of thousands of it on a witchdoctor and a fortune teller to speak to her dead mother.
The court heard how the spending had left her so destitute that she was forced to work in a kebab shop in Colmar, France to earn money for her two-year-old son.
Her stepmother Josianne Seiler was found guilty of ‘preying’ on Ms Herrmann and sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay her €5.1 million, as well as €50,000 in damages.
While her two daughters, Mathilde Hickel, 33, and Julia Hickel, 40, received one-year suspended prison sentences for handling stolen goods and abuse of weakness, and ordered to pay Ms Herrmann €320,000.
Cléophée Herrmann (right), 34, had inherited over £9milllion through her family’s former texile empire, but had been convinced to splash tens of thousands of it on a witchdoctor and a fortune teller to speak to her dead mother
Colmar court heard that when the grandmother died, Ms Seiler took advantage of Ms Herrmann’s ’emotional emptiness’ to impose herself in the woman’s life as a quasi mother
Colmar court heard that when the grandmother died, Ms Seiler took advantage of Ms Herrmann’s ’emotional emptiness’ to impose herself in the woman’s life as a quasi mother.
She introduced her grieving stepdaughter to a fortune teller able to reach her deceased mother ‘on the other side’ and a North African witchdoctor.
During these sessions the stepmother ordered Ms Herrmann to to leave envelopes of cash in her letter box before each seance, with the sums rapidly rising from €1,000 (£833) to €10,000 (£8,330) and finally €50,000 (£41,650).
The witchdoctor and fortune teller told police that they only ever received a few hundred euros of this money.
Ms Herrmann blamed her niavty on the fact that she had no notion of the value of money as she had always been brought up with everything paid for.
The prosecution said she was in a state of total ‘vulnerability’ after the death of her two female guardians.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Herrmann said: ‘This is revenge and a relief. It’s been a long time coming. I wanted justice to be done. I will be able to move forward for my son and in honour of my family who are watching me up there.’
Ms Herrmann is the granddaughter of Fritz Schlumpf, who made his fortune in worsted wool before World War II alongside his brother Hans.
Both men were obsessed with cars and used most of their money to create and massive collection, consisting of 580 vehicles, including 123 Bugattis and 14 Rolls Royces.
However the pair were later convicted of fraud and embezzlement and forced to flee into exile in Switzerland, where they later died.
