Episode Five: The Windfall

Summary

Fraudacious – Episode Five: The Windfall

Podcast: Fraudacious
Host: Novel in association with BBC Studios
Date: March 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

Theme:
This episode delves into the unraveling of Ekaterina Barrett’s carefully constructed illusion of wealth and trust. After borrowing over £1.6 million from boutique owner Bridget Hutchcroft, Ekaterina refuses to repay, triggering a transnational hunt for justice. The episode weaves high society glamor, secretive offshore dealings, and courtroom drama, as journalist Vicki Baker and Bridget uncover the tangled origins of Ekaterina’s riches and bring her to the edge of prison.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A Surreal Encounter Before Court

• Setting: Harvey Nichols beauty department, London, July 30, 2024
• Bridget and Ekaterina, due in court against each other a few hours later, have an accidental run-in during beauty treatments.
  • Bridget: "I'm sitting there getting ready and I'm thinking, I know that voice." (02:20)
  • Ekaterina attempts to physically comfort/hypnotize Bridget, unnerving her friends with fears of renewed manipulation.
  • The court will shortly rule on whether Ekaterina lied under oath, with jail time at stake.

2. Tracing Ekaterina’s Hidden Fortune

• Bombshell disclosure: Bridget’s friend Roger uncovers a 2011 High Court judgment showing Ekaterina winning €62 million from Belgian steel heir Leo Lomart.

  • Roger: "You're very welcome to see the judgment. She got that in the British High Court." (05:22)
  • Document scrutiny reveals the funds were ordered from Lomart to "Lovelace Group," an opaque BVI company where Ekaterina later became director.

• Shady Company Structures

  • Roger: "She's very good at that maneuver. She worked around companies a lot. That was her sort of modus operandi." (07:23)
  • Bridget’s lawyer, Philip Barden, is shocked by the judgment’s irregular features — rapid admission of debt, minimal interest, and lack of clear context.
    • Quote: "I have never seen anybody start a piece of litigation by saying, yeah, absolutely, I admit that I owe it, I'll pay it. Why on earth would you do that?" (09:37)

• The Leo Lomart Connection

  • Interviews with a Dutch source reveal Lomart’s financial collapse and deep trust in Ekaterina, who promised him high-level jobs and helped drain his fortune.
  • Key manipulation: Photoshopped images of Ekaterina with Roman Abramovich circulated to amplify her perceived connections.
    • Bridget: "There was a photo of Ekaterina and Abramovich... But it's fake." (17:50)
  • Source: "He was promised he would be the new director of Lukoil in the Netherlands. He went around telling everyone." (17:15)
  • By 2022, Lomart had died destitute, but evidence showed Ekaterina maneuvered to become sole beneficiary of his Monaco apartment via Shepard and Sons.

3. A Battle on Multiple Legal Fronts

• Back to High Court: July 30, 2024, Bridget faces Ekaterina for a contempt hearing, alleging perjury and asset concealment regarding the Monaco apartment.
  • Bridget’s determined stance: "I work for everything I've got, ever since the age of 15. So I'm not gonna let some rich woman take my money off me." (25:37)

a. Faked Settlements and the Casino Gambit

• Ekaterina introduces surprise "settlement agreements," including an alleged agreement from Monaco halving her debt to Bridget—complete with falsified signatures and recycled old photographs.
  • Bridget: "She said she had my autograph, not my art, photographs of my signature." (27:40)
  • Judge ultimately rules the signature is a forgery: "She's sure it's a forgery. The judge also says Ekaterina deliberately lied on oath about the ownership of the Monaco apartment." (33:11)
• Court tension peaks when Ekaterina submits a salon selfie as supposed proof of a new settlement, which the judge promptly rejects.
  • Bridget: "It was like, that is just unbelievable." (30:39)
  • Judge’s dismissal: "The picture shows women are not speaking to each other. They're not even facing each other..." (32:55)

b. Contempt Verdict & Immediate Aftermath

• The judge finds Ekaterina guilty of contempt, forgery, and perjury to the criminal standard.
  • Dramatic moment: Court officers arrive with handcuffs, preparations for jail are visible, but sentencing is adjourned for further mitigation.
  • Bridget: "I feel satisfied. I feel very good. I feel I've won." (34:56)
  • Roger (contrasting note): "Disappointment... not happy. Very frustrating." (35:18)

c. Sentencing Twist

• Two weeks later: The court delivers a suspended four-month sentence, conditional on Ekaterina paying £100,000 and legal costs.
  • Roger: "The whisper around the courtroom was that it was going to be two years." (37:39)
  • Ekaterina is jubilant, but neither £100,000 nor the original £1.6m debt to Bridget is paid by 2025, risking further jail for non-compliance.
  • Bridget: "She won. I mean, she didn't win, but she's got away with it... with all her shenanigans." (38:33)

4. The Monaco Showdown: Shepard and Sons

• In 2025, Ekaterina is again in court — this time in Monaco — as administrators for Shepard and Sons, the company holding the Monaco apartment, attempt to seize and auction it after mortgage defaults.
  • French journalist Ocianne Zitteny reports:
    • "Barrett is still occupying one of the flats... She's basically squatting... The apartment is completely run down... multiple dogs living there... once valued at over 17 million euro, now down to 8 million euros because of its condition and lack of access." (43:33)
  • The company, now bankrupt, calls for other creditors — including Bridget — to make claims, but priorities remain unclear as many victims line up.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Bridget on the reality of scam victims:
  • "I know to a lot of people the fact I even had a million and I gave it away makes me sound as if I'm sort of posh. But I'm not... So I'm not gonna let some rich woman take my money off me." (25:42)
• Roger on Ekaterina’s tactics:
  • "She'll probably produce a whole load of doctor's letters saying that she died last week or something as crazy as that." (35:35)
• Leona Hamid on courtroom drama:
  • "One of the first things the judge says is, I've seen the email. I presume you've seen it... There's suddenly a lot of whispering around the courtroom." (30:11)
• French court lawyer on the state of the Monaco apartment:
  • "Excuse my language, your honor, but this is a total mess. It's a mess. A bordel in French." (44:05)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 01:29 – Opening at Harvey Nichols, Bridget’s beauty treatment and unexpected encounter with Ekaterina
• 05:22 – Discovery of the 62 million euro judgment and its questionable nature
• 15:03 – Dutch source reveals deeper manipulation of Leo Lomart
• 23:04 – Uncovering the Monaco apartment’s connection to Ekaterina’s fortune
• 25:02 – High Court, London: Start of contempt hearing, Bridget’s testimony
• 27:00 – Alleged forged settlement agreement emerges
• 30:11 – Dramatic courtroom twist: further “photo evidence” and judge’s skepticism
• 33:11 – Judge finds Ekaterina guilty of contempt and forgery
• 37:39 – Sentencing: four months suspended sentence with payment conditions
• 41:24 – Journalist Ocianne Zitteny covers Monaco court battle over Shepard and Sons
• 43:33 – Barrage of evidence about poor conditions in Monaco apartment, bankruptcy, and cascading debts

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Episode Tone & Style

• The episode maintains a crisp, investigative tone, highlighting both the grim realities and absurdities of high-society fraud.
• Bridget's resilience is matched by Roger’s world-weary skepticism; Vicki Baker’s narration bridges incredulity with methodical reporting.
• Courtroom moments swing from tense and dramatic to farcical, illuminating a world where illusion, charm, and legal maneuvering can upend lives.

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Closing Thoughts

The Windfall exposes the fragile façade of vast wealth: despite international intrigue and ostentatious displays, money can vanish as quickly as trust. The episode ends with Bridget refusing to give up hope and a hint that accountability — and perhaps justice — might still be on the horizon, especially as even more creditors and legal battles over the Monaco apartment emerge.

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For more details and investigation, listen to the full episode or visit Novel Audio and BBC Studios.

Transcript

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

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[Vicki Baker]

T Mobile production for BBC Studios. Inside Harvey Nichols, one of London's most high end department stores. The ground floor is where you find the beauty specialists and all the latest trends. This is where you can try collagen boosting, LED therapy, or get your nails done with a glazed donut effect. Mid morning on 30th July 2024 and Bridget is keeping things more simple.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

Eyebrows, eyelashes, you know, and dare I say, hairs on the chin.

[Vicki Baker]

After saying her hellos, she's directed to one of the reclining leather chairs. She's lying back almost horizontal with her eyes closed.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I'm sitting there getting ready and I'm thinking, I know that voice.

[Vicki Baker]

It's loud and very distinctive, with a thick Eastern European accent.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

The voice was ordering everybody around.

[Vicki Baker]

Yekaterina Barrett, the woman who Bridget is due to face in court later this same day. The woman who still owes Bridget £1.6 million.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I couldn't believe it. It was like, of all the places in the world, why do you have to come in to have the same treatments?

[Vicki Baker]

In just three hours from now, Yekaterina will have to stand up in the courtroom and face the High Court judge's verdict on whether or not she lied under oath. Bridget has compiled a case. Nekaterina could receive a jail sentence this afternoon.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

And then she came straight next to me.

[Vicki Baker]

Brigitte is still leaning back in her chair and the beautician is now hovering above her, preparing her eyebrows. Bridget can't properly see Katerina, but she can feel her.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

She's got hold of my hand with the nails, sort of rubbed my hand. I said it was like having a little sparrow. And she said, come with me. And she's like trying to hypnotize you. Come with me. I just need to talk to you for two minutes.

[Vicki Baker]

This is what Bridget's friends have feared. That amid the extremely long and drawn out court proceedings, Yekaterina might somehow manage to get Bridget on her own, where she can reboot her charm offensive and try to gain some sort of advantage. It seems Yekaterina is making her move. I'm vicki baker and from novel and BBC studios, this is fraudatious. Episode 5 disorder in court. 62 million euros. That's the amount of money that Roger tells me Ekaterina has somehow been awarded through the courts before in a different case, as Brigitte's best friend, he's been helping her sift through Truth and Lies to find out any clues about Ekaterina's real wealth. It seems to have become even murkier after Ekaterina's court appearance, when she implied she had no funds of her own. Now this feels like a bombshell.

[Roger]

You're very welcome to see the judgment. She got that in the British High Court.

[Vicki Baker]

Roger shows me a document, a date stamped Judgment from the UK High Court, 25 February 2011. That's just six years before she came into Bridget's life. The enormous settlement sum is written in black and white at the bottom.

[Roger]

62 million.

[Vicki Baker]

I can't get my head around this. Is this really true? Does this mean she really does have a multi million pound fortune? That's been our driving question from the start. How does she afford the trappings she displays? The bricks and mortar assets, never mind the fur coats. We know that despite past brags, Ekaterina now claims that all her money comes from her family. There's a need to get to the truth that's driving me. But Bridget has a much more personal impetus. She needs to get to the bottom of this so she can try to work out how to get her money back. Roger is determined to do all he can to help.

[Roger]

We wanted to try to find out where she had the gold buried, so to speak.

[Vicki Baker]

On the documents from 2011 that Roger's showing me, I see the name of the defendant is Leo Lomart.

[Roger]

He was this super wealthy magnate. He trusted her. The big mistake.

[Vicki Baker]

I know that Roger has spent time looking into this, but I don't see Katerina Barrett's name on the paper. The documents show the multi millions being signed over from one Leo Lomart to a company called Lovelace Group Incorporated. There is no indication of why or what for. There's just a line to say that Lovelace is a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. So how did she become Lovelace?

[Roger]

She became a director of that company.

[Vicki Baker]

This sounds like another very tangled web with opaque offshore companies.

[Roger]

She's very good at that maneuver. She worked around companies a lot. That was her sort of modus operandi.

[Vicki Baker]

I feel like I might be getting into the nuts and bolts side of how Yekaterina operates, something that runs in parallel with her financial interactions with individuals. It makes me think back to the assets hearing in 2023, the one where Ekaterina was grilled on the witness stand about her finances and what she did or didn't own. Ekaterina was asked about her links to various companies. Their ownership and purpose remain unclear. She mostly denied connections to them, but the answers often became muddled. I really want to know how Yekaterina ended up entangled with Leo Lamart. So does Roger.

[Roger]

How she managed to get into lamart, I don't know. Somehow she did. And it's incredible that she comes out of jail in Austria, but somehow comes across Lamar wherever. I don't know where she met him.

[Vicki Baker]

I know Roger is ahead of me in delving into this, but I need to do my own digging. Taking the documents at face value, they indicate that Leo Lamotte had some sort of business relationship with Yekaterina, which appears to have soured and ended up with a court case. He seemingly didn't pay her what she claims she was owed. And then Yekaterina won and potentially walked away with the rights to a fortune. I mean, it sounds incredible, and I'm still unsure what to believe here. Unfortunately, I'm not going to get any answers from Leo Lomott himself. The first thing that comes up when I search for him online is an obituary. He died in 2022. So where to start?

[Roger]

30 years. I've never seen that. Nerva.

[Vicki Baker]

This is Bridget's lawyer again, Philip Barden. I'm in his office in the City of London showing him the High Court document to see if he can help me make any sense of it. It's the first time he's seen this paperwork and his trained eye is homing straight in on some details he finds astonishing.

[Roger]

I have never seen anybody start a piece of litigation by saying, yeah, absolutely, I admit that I owe it, I'll pay it. Why on earth would you do that?

[Vicki Baker]

He's looking at the tick box at the end of one of the pages where Leo Lomart agrees to pay the full amount.

[Roger]

You owe somebody 62 million pounds and let's assume they issue proceedings against you. What are you going to do? You're going to defend the proceedings? You would want your lawyer to go into bat for you and say, well, look, look, look. Let's find out what they're prepared to accept. You're going to argue hard and viciously and you're going to seek to settle the claim for 10 million or 20 million and save yourself 40 million.

[Vicki Baker]

Philip also notices another detail.

[Roger]

The amount of interest is really small, which suggests there's hardly any time span between the issue of the proceedings and the offer. Very, very small.

[Vicki Baker]

If he agreed he owed her the money and agreed to pay her the money, why go to the court at all? Philip can't comment any further as he doesn't know the details of the case. He says there's also a possibility that the defendant, Lomart, had no assets or limited assets, and so decided to give up and walk away. But it's very unusual, he reiterates. I ask Philip if he can help find me the document in the court's archive system. He calls a colleague.

[Roger]

Oh, yeah. Hi. Not bad. How are you? Got a quick question for you. Just trying to track a judgment from 2011. The defendant is a Mr. Leo Cornelius. What's the surname?

[Vicki Baker]

L O M M. L O M

[Roger]

M A E R T. I'm asking

[Vicki Baker]

because so far we've drawn a blank. We can't find it in the court's archives. Philip's contact can't find it either. Is it real? Roger got this document from a trusted source, so I know he's convinced. Could this document have been paraded around to give the illusion of a fortune? Or is there something in it? And who was Leo Lamart? After a bit more online digging, we come across a series of articles published in 2014. That's three years after Lomott's apparent court case with Ekaterina. These are extremely enlightening. Here's an extract from De Telegraph. As the heir to Belgium's largest steel empire, he was incredibly wealthy.

[Leona Hamid]

But instead of a gigantic fortune, multi

[Vicki Baker]

millionaire Lommert appears to be millions of in debt to banks, shops and car dealerships. As recently as several weeks ago, this mountain of misery was estimated to be 70 million. It now seems more likely that those financial institutions, leasing companies, car dealerships, jewelers

[Leona Hamid]

and other institutions are collectively owed more than 100 million.

[Vicki Baker]

The story showed that things went badly wrong for Lomott. At the end of his life, he lost his entire fortune. I also find a very intriguing line in the same newspaper. Lamoth's downfall was, according to his family, a result of bad investments, repossessions, scamming, fraud, bad checks, blackmailed by Russians with whom he had shady deals as an outside investor. What happened and how does any of this connect to Ekaterina? Multiple sources have told me that they understand that a dispute between the pair arose after Lomart wrote a series of cheques to Lovelace Group, Ekaterina's company. They say Lomart signed them but never paid up. So that's when he was pursued for the money in court. After months of trying different avenues, I finally found someone who might be able to help me understand more. But he says he'll only meet face to face in the Netherlands. Just arrived in Maastricht. It's been three trains, five countries this morning, all before lunchtime. A very European journey. Come to meet someone who knew Leo Loma very well. We've been corresponding a bit, but he's been very reluctant to talk. We've agreed to meet in this cafe that's just opposite. We've been actually so close I can see it out the window. So, yeah, I'll head over. Fingers crossed. To my great relief, my source does agree to speak. And one of the first things he does is point out of the cafe window back towards the train station. He says he remembers Lamart having run out of money in the latter years of his life, being unable to afford a train ticket here. He asked to borrow some money because he had to go to meet someone. That person was Ekaterina Barrett.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

He was always saying, I have to go to England, I have to go to see Mrs. Barrett. I used to think, what do you do every weekend in London from Wednesday to Monday? Mrs. Barrett had so much influence on him, I could never understand why.

[Vicki Baker]

These are our sources words, they're voiced by an actor because he didn't Want to be identified?

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

He was a good man, Very smart, friendly, a diplomat. But he was a salesman, not an expert in finances.

[Vicki Baker]

My source says Lamont inherited a steel factory from his mother and his business did very well. It was bought by one company and another until it ended up with Barcelon Mittal, the world's second largest steel producer. He says Lamont was offered a role there and was tasked with being the contact for delivering steel to Russia. But he landed in a court case with Arcelon Mittel and he left the job. It sounds like he got out of his depth.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

He also had a project building apartments in Paris and in Bruges. A 20 million project. It failed. He had around 50 to 60 million, but he lost it all in 10 to 15 years. He was a very respectable man. How is it possible to lose all that money? I don't understand.

[Vicki Baker]

Wow. So it sounds like he didn't really have the means to be signing off 60 million euros to anyone in 2011. Maybe that is why he ticked the box. He'd lost everything by then. So how exactly does Yekaterina Barrett come into this story? My source is not sure how they met, but he says they certainly knew each other from the mid noughties. He says Loma talked about Mrs. Barrett all the time. He also talked endlessly about the shares he'd bought, apparently via her recommendation in Skolkova Innovation center in Russia.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

She asked him to get money and he'd get shares. He was planning to sell them. He never got one share.

[Vicki Baker]

He also says that Yekaterina told Lomart she could help him get a new job.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

He was promised he would be the new director of Lukoil in the Netherlands. He went around telling everyone.

[Vicki Baker]

This rings a bell. The Austrian police said Yekaterina posed as an agent of a Russian oil company in Vienna. Various people have told me she claimed to have connections to Luke Oil. My source says Lomart showered Yekaterina with gifts. Designer clothes, jewelry.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

He said Mrs. Barrett's family was poor, very poor, from Ukraine. But she was very hard working. She told him her family had been helped by a connection to Roman Abramovich.

[Vicki Baker]

That's Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, former owner of Chelsea Football Club. This isn't the first time I've heard Ekaterina claim he was some sort of relation. Brigitte says there was a photo of Ekaterina and Abramovich on display in her Mayfair apartment. Brigitte took a photo of it on her phone. I've seen it. Yekaterina and Abramovich are Smiling cosily, shoulder to shoulder. But it's fake. I found the original real version of this photograph. Abramovich was posing with his wife. Yekaterina's image has been photoshopped over the top of her. Also started to claim associations with Abramovich in his later years.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

We found all these handwritten notes. He'd written them. Dear Roman, thank you for asking me to be your son's godfather. It was nonsense. There were handwritten notes like that to Putin, too. Ahmedev, yes. The former Russian president was very, very sad. A lot of people trusted him. He lived in a tunnel. All that he said he saw became his truth. If you repeat it enough, it becomes the truth.

[Vicki Baker]

Until his dying day, Lomart talked about his Russian shares. He thought they would come good.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

He asked me to help investigate his finances, but he wouldn't tell me the full story. I found he had multiple different businesses, mostly registered offshore in the Virgin Islands. And I think 15, 20 banks had loaned him money all over the world, in London, Belgium and the Netherlands. And he hadn't paid them back, he had so much debt.

[Vicki Baker]

My source says he tried to look into Lomott's dealings with Ykatrina and Lovelace further. He contacted various lawyers who he thought were familiar with the matter, but he says he was warned off.

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

I can't remember their names, but they said, stop it, stop it. Very, very dangerous. And then I said, okay, I have my own life.

[Vicki Baker]

It sounds like Loma really trusted Ykatrina. He was protective towards her. Did he ever change his mind on her, I wonder?

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

I think he started to doubt at the very end, but he would not allow himself to say, I have failed. When he was in the Elders home in the last years, I looked him straight in the eyes. I said, I don't understand why you won't tell me what happened. You're an old man. He said, I promised I will never tell. What happened between me and Mrs. Barrett put two fingers in the air, swearing, it's a secret I will never tell.

[Vicki Baker]

It feels like a scene in a movie. I can imagine Orson Welles playing Leo Lomart. My source says he never found out if this secret that Lomart claimed to have was business related or personal. It's difficult to work out exactly what went on with Lomart's financial meltdown. And of course, we can't attribute everything to you, Katrina. There were all sorts of deals going on. He was making a series of bad choices. But she did come into his life at a time when he was in a vulnerable position, potentially looking for a fix. And it seems she had a huge impact on him. Three times during our chat, my Dutch source stops to Google a word in English. For some reason, it doesn't stick in his mind, but each time he's adamant it's the right word. It's a word Bridget used too. Squeezed. She felt squeezed by Yekaterina. And apparently Lomart was too. The big question is, did Ekaterina really get millions out of him? Ultimately, I haven't been able to independently verify the court documents I have seen, which indicate that he admitted he owed her 62 million euros. The court department tells me it only keeps files for seven years. But I have managed to speak to someone who confirmed that there were many meetings in London between lawyers and Yekaterina Barrett around 2011. And these were all about transferring Leo Lomart's assets to her control. I've also been able to connect Ekaterina to Shepherd and Sons, a company once owned by Leo Lomart. I know that she became the company's sole beneficiary and credit to Roger here. He first put me onto this. So what have I been able to find out about Sheppard and Sons? I know it's registered in Liechtenstein and it has various offshore subsidiaries. Crucially, I know it has assets, including a multi million euro apartment in Monaco, the one where Yekaterina has been living. So this is how she got the luxury Monte Carlo address. Suddenly, the pieces are falling into place. Leo Loma appears to be the key to the wealth on display when Bridget first met Yokaterina.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

It's just unbelievable. It's just staggering.

[Vicki Baker]

I spoke to Bridget about this discovery. Does it give you a little bit of hope that there is that money hidden away somewhere? You might eventually get your hands on it.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

We might, but I don't know. I don't live in fairyland. We ever get to find out, it'll be really interesting to say the least. But I don't let it be the only thing I breathe and think of every day, because otherwise I'd be crazy.

[Vicki Baker]

My understanding is that Ekaterina never did retrieve the full amount from Leo Lomas estate, not the full 62 million euros. I do also believe that she had access to money before this and even before Vienna. And I don't know the source of that. But the apartment in Monaco is of big interest to Bridget. She wonders if it could be sold to pay her back what she's owed. But Bridget needs Ekaterina to be honest about her connection to the apartment. In the summer of 2024, Bridget is getting ready for the contempt of court hearing. Will the judge find Yekaterina's story that the apartment belongs to her family credible? And if the contempt hearing doesn't go Ekaterina's way, will she be heading back to jail? At the BBC, we go further. So you see clearer with a subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app, you get unlimited articles and videos, ad free podcasts, the BBC News channel streaming live 24. 7 plus hundreds of acclaimed documentaries from less than a dollar a week for your first year. Read, watch and listen to trusted independent journalism and storytelling. It all starts with a subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app. Find out [e-mail] unlimited.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

Well, we're at the Royal Courts of Justice. Wonderful building. Great to look at.

[Leona Hamid]

Gorgeous.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

Yeah, lots to do. Sunny Day.

[Vicki Baker]

It's the 30th of July 2024. London is in the middle of a sweltering heat wave. It's now a few hours after Bridget's beauty salon appointment and her unexpected encounter with Yekaterina in Harvey Nichols department store. Bridget is waiting outside the High court for day two of the contempt of court hearing. She's feeling buoyant after her stint the witness box the previous day.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I felt quite good actually.

[Vicki Baker]

She's talking with my colleague, producer Leona Hamid.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I just thought I'll, you know, do my bit, you know, cuz I've had so many people running around for me, you know, finding information and I hope I came over because I know to a lot of people the fact I even had a million and I gave it away makes me sound as if I'm sort of posh. But I'm not. I work for everything I've got, ever since the age of 15. So I'm not gonna let some rich woman take my money off me.

[Vicki Baker]

It's amazing to hear how unfazed Bridget sounds. She sounds so upbeat and optimistic, especially about the prospect of this verdict.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I feel very positive and I'm hoping it'll be the end.

[Vicki Baker]

This case has been a battle of wills since Yekaterina first came into her life. So who has the upper hand now? The previous day in court dealt with the allegations from Bridget's team that Ekaterina lied under oath about her assets. The next session is focusing on something else that's arisen an extraordinary subplot. A few months earlier, Yekaterina presented some new evidence which has set the lawyers wrangling ever since. Ekaterina sent an email directly to the court attaching a new settlement agreement.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

She said to my solicitors that we had met that I'd agreed on having a figure of 800,000 and she was happy to end the case.

[Vicki Baker]

Is this possible? Bridget has always sounded so determined. She still sounds determined. £800,000. That's half of the High Court order. Remember that? Bridget had already secured a judgment compelling Ekaterina to pay her 1.6 million pounds. The new document that Ekaterina sent was typed up and signed with the names Bridget Hutchcroft and Yekaterina Barrett.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

She said she had my autograph, not my art photographs of my signature.

[Vicki Baker]

Bridget says it's completely untrue. She had never seen this document before.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

Just unbelievable. You just think, my God, she never stops. You know, it's like there's no end to her tricks.

[Vicki Baker]

Ekaterina, speaking via her lawyers, insisted the deal to halve the amount of money owed was real and it had been signed in Monaco. She said Bridget had recently returned to Monte Carlo with her. As evidence, she provided photos of the two of them looking very pally beside the Mediterranean Sea.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

And there were photographs that I had taken almost six years ago.

[Vicki Baker]

Bridget says she can easily prove this as she sent the picture to Roger at the time. And Yekaterina herself used the same picture as part of her original counterclaim to illustrate their early friendship. Sending this document seems like such a risky endeavour on Ekaterina's part. I'm wondering if it's like being in the casino taking a gamble. I've compared Brigitte's signature on this document with another example of Brigitte's signature side by side. They do not look alike at all. Brigitte's signature clearly reads B M Hutchcroft, whereas the version on Yekaterina's form is an illegible squiggle. It seems to end with entirely different letters and has all sorts of additional flourishes. But it's not my opinion that matters, it's what the judge says that will count.

[Leona Hamid]

When you go into the room, it makes you shut up a little bit because of the austere vibe. It's so quiet in there.

[Vicki Baker]

Producer Leona was in court that day. She remembers the moment Ekaterina walked in dressed to the nines.

[Leona Hamid]

She's wearing black, this like fitted gown with like structured shoulders, a cut out waist. She's got a blowout hair.

[Vicki Baker]

She also remembers the outfit had a hood which Yekaterina kept pulling up and down.

[Leona Hamid]

It's supposed to start I think at like 2pm and at like 1:57 there's this starts to be like this kind of. What's the word for it? Like a hurried Energy between Bridget and her lawyer.

[Vicki Baker]

There's suddenly a lot of whispering around the courtroom. And then the judge comes in.

[Leona Hamid]

One of the first things that the judge says is, I've seen the email. I presume you've seen it.

[Vicki Baker]

Email? What email? It seems like there's a new curveball. Ya. Katrina has raised the Harvey Nichols encounter. She says that earlier this morning, she and Bridget were in the beauty salon together and the two of them agreed on yet another settlement figure. This isn't even the settlement I talked about a few moments ago. Again, Yekaterina says she has photo evidence.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

It was like, that is just unbelievable.

[Vicki Baker]

Ekaterina says this time they agreed to settle on £1.5 million.

[Leona Hamid]

There's so much chaos on Bridget's side, like they're looking for the brow technician's number. They're like panic organizing in the background. It was, like, tense because it was such a twist. And the judge actually seems kind of annoyed by it.

[Vicki Baker]

I've seen the photograph.

[Ocianne Zitteny]

Ya.

[Vicki Baker]

Katarina presented to the court. It's taken by a third party. It shows Bridget leaning back in the chair with her eyes closed, while the beautician is busy threading her brows. Ekaterina is standing beside her, almost a meter away, posing to the camera with her hands on her hips.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I just couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. Nobody could. She obviously thought it might go through as evidence and was to show that, in actual fact, I was in cahoots with her. We were actually together, you know, even doing her beauty treatments, like two little girls who've just fallen out.

[Vicki Baker]

God. There have been many times while working on this story where I found myself seriously wondering if Yekaterina's version of events could be true. This isn't one of them. It doesn't make sense. Why would Bridget be negotiating now when she's hours away from having a judge pass her verdict in this contempt case? And why would Yekaterina suddenly agree to £1.5 million if the document allegedly signed by Bridget, offering To settle at £800,000 was real, as she has claimed? As is so often the case with Yekaterina, the situation is confusing. Bridget's team think it's just another delay tactic. Ekaterina has requested an adjournment so this new evidence can be considered.

[Leona Hamid]

And then Bridget's lawyer gets up and says, the reason this seems extraordinary is because it didn't happen. Bridget was actually accosted by the defendant. So then the judge pauses to reflect on the matter. So there's like, a couple of minutes where we all sit quietly while the judge is thinking about it. And then the judge says that she's rejecting the application for an adjournment.

[Vicki Baker]

The judge roundly dismisses the Harvey Nichols photo.

[Leona Hamid]

She says the picture shows women are not speaking to each other. They're not even facing each other in the photo. And even if she were to accept the settlement was being discussed, what would be the relevance of that to matters on which she has to decide? I can feel like there's a sense of relief.

[Vicki Baker]

Then the judge moves on to addressing what they're all waiting for. Her ruling on the contempt of court charges. Perjury and forgery. The previous document that Ekaterina provided, the one with the dodgy signature claiming that they'd settled for £800,000. The judge says she's sure it's a forgery. The judge also says Ekaterina deliberately lied on oath about the ownership of the Monaco apartment.

[Leona Hamid]

Judge says that she rejects that questioning during the initial court case was unclear. She says that Ekatrina had several opportunities to answer correctly and that she clearly had a motive to lie about assets.

[Vicki Baker]

The judge rules that contempt of court has been proved to a criminal standard. And while the judge is still talking, heads turn as two women slip through the door at the back of the court.

[Leona Hamid]

They're wearing black, they've got lanyards and a lot of keys and they've got sets of handcuffs that are quite visible. The excitement builds around me among Bridget's party because it feels like this is it, this is happening and the risk of a prison sentence sentence is real.

[Vicki Baker]

But then the judge speaks again. She says Ekaterina has referenced mitigating circumstances, which she needs to consider. The sentencing, the judge says, will have to wait until two weeks time.

[Leona Hamid]

The women with handcuffs set off on their way again to like whatever they were doing next.

[Vicki Baker]

So Yekaterina won't be taken to jail today, but Bridget's team feel that a custodial sentence is looking likely. And that's it. Everyone spills out onto the pavement outside the court again.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I feel satisfied. I feel very good. I feel I've won. Everything went my way. I think she's going to be given a prison sentence. She keeps fighting, even though it's her own fight. She makes these fights. She's the engineer of them, so she must just enjoy it.

[Vicki Baker]

Bridget's friend Roger is there too. And it's almost as if Roger has been sitting in a totally different room from Bridget.

[Roger]

Disappointment. The verdict was given, but the actual judgment of what the Sentence would be was delayed because he said, oh, there are mitigating circumstances. He didn't say what the mitigating circumstances were.

[Vicki Baker]

He's talking about Ekaterina's lawyer.

[Roger]

I think she'll get come up with some wonderful, elaborate story that she's got something wrong with her, or, you know, a budgie's dying or a pet cat's not well and that's why she can't go to prison. You know, gobbledygook. Listen, to come up with what she did this morning was quite unbelievable. She's got plenty of time now to come up with something better. And she'll probably produce a whole load of doctor's letters saying that she died last last week or something as crazy as that. I'm not happy. Not happy. Very frustrating.

[Vicki Baker]

Roger is at the end of his tether. Unlike Bridget, he thinks Yakaterina has the upper hand.

[Roger]

She will definitely go home tonight thinking she has won.

[Vicki Baker]

Who had won at this crucial juncture? I'll leave you to make your mind up on that. I don't know what your Katerina was thinking as she left. She's been found guilty of a criminal offence. Not for the first time in her life did she feel like she'd been wronged or did she feel relieved, like she got off lightly. Does she feel worried about the impending sentence and potentially going back to prison? Or is she confident she can avert it? I can't get inside Ekaterina's head as much as I'd like to know what's going on in there. But as for Bridget, I know she's in celebratory mode.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

I'll probably go to the pub and have some champagne.

[Vicki Baker]

Bridget wants people to understand how manipulative Ekaterina can be. And now she feels vindicated. She's already secured the piece of paper showing Ekaterina owes her all that money. But now she's also proven in the High Court that Yekaterina is a liar. Two weeks later, the same crowd assembles at the court once again. And once again they're on tenterhooks, waiting to hear what sentence the judge will hand down. And that's when the tables appear to turn. The judge begins to speak.

[Roger]

The judge then gives off her reasons and decides that actually she was going to give Barrett a suspended sentence of four months on the basis that she pays Bridget £100,000 plus her costs of this whole thing.

[Vicki Baker]

Four months suspended. The whisper around the courtroom was that it was going to be two years. The conditions are that, as Roger says, she must hand over a payment of £100,000 plus costs to Bridget by February 2024. Then she can avoid the jail term. Y Catarina is jubilant. She's blowing kisses across the courtroom. Outside the court team Bridget is less enthused.

[Bridget Hutchcroft]

She won. I mean, she didn't win, but she's got away with it. She's got away with. With all her shenanigans.

[Vicki Baker]

And Roger. Roger is gutted once again.

[Roger]

All she's got is really a mild slap on the wrist. So, yeah, very disappointed. But then really and truly, I think I've had enough disappointments with this situation, so why should I be surprised?

[Vicki Baker]

Just as Roger is going into full flow, he catches sight of Yekaterina exiting the building.

[Roger]

There she is walking past. Now she'll probably blow me another kiss. Will you give me a kiss? No, no, no. She looked away that time. Oh, well. So there you are.

[Vicki Baker]

Yekaterina has to pay £100,000 to avoid jail. This is apart from the money she owes Bridget a separate penalty. £100,000. Surely Ekaterina has that. If you've come into multi millions in your lifetime, as she appears to have done by a Leah Lomott, you could surely find 100,000 down the back of the sofa. By the time I start working on this story in early 2025, that specific £100,000 still hasn't been paid. The deadline has passed. Brigitte thinks this could lead Yekaterina back to jail if the judge issues an arrest warrant for non compliance. And as for getting her money back, Brigitte is still hoping that the Monaco apartment might be the key. The UK judge has reprimanded Yekaterina for trying to cover up the ownership of it. So where does this leave things? Could Yekaterina sell it and pay back her debts? At the BBC, we go further. So you see clearer with a subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app, you get unlimited articles and videos ad free

[Dutch Source / Unnamed Informant]

podcasts, the BBC News channel streaming live 24.

[Vicki Baker]

7 plus hundreds of acclaimed documentaries from less than a dollar a week for your first year. Read, watch and listen to trusted independent journalism and storytelling. It all starts with a subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app. Find out more at BBC.com unlimited. In May 2025, I receive a tip off that Yekaterina Barrett is facing a court case in Monaco. I contact French journalist Ocienne Zitteny and ask her if she can attend court on our behalf to find out more. We'd been told the hearing was open to journalists, but no One would give her the basic case details.

[Ocianne Zitteny]

I still tried everything. I called, I spoke to lawyers, the court clerk, the bailiff.

[Vicki Baker]

Ocianne, who works for French radio, is a godsend for us because she's dogged. She's determined to find out what's going on. Eventually, the persistence pays off.

[Ocianne Zitteny]

This is the case between Barrett and Shepard and Sohn.

[Vicki Baker]

Bingo. So now the big question is, what on earth went wrong here? Yekaterina was clearly involved with Shepard and Sons, having gained control of it via Leo Lomart. And now it's Shepard Sons vs. Ekaterina. To be honest, it doesn't wholly surprise me at this point. We've now seen multiple previously worn relationships in Yekaterina's life descend into court cases. This first hearing in Monaco is a little disappointing.

[Ocianne Zitteny]

It turns out that today was nothing more than a quick administrative step, just a formal exchange of documents between the lawyers.

[Vicki Baker]

We make a note of the next hearing date and a month later OCM returns to court and she sends her first update.

[Ocianne Zitteny]

The hearing starts and it's a little bit messy.

[Vicki Baker]

Ekaterina's lawyer, Clyde Biot, is first up and he attempts to get the case thrown out. He says Ekaterina hasn't been given enough time to prepare. Ekaterina isn't in the courtroom herself. On the other side, Charles Liqueur is representing Sheppard and Sons. The company has gone into bankruptcy proceedings and the administrators are trying to retrieve its assets. The court hears that the company bought three flats in the apartment building in Monaco back in 2007. Sheppard and Sons had mortgages on the properties, which Yekaterina has not paid. Says the lawyer. We've heard stories like that before. But here's where it gets more interesting. Because of the failed loan repayments, Monaco's court has already ruled that that the properties be seized and sold at auction.

[Ocianne Zitteny]

Here's the problem. Barrett is still occupying one of the flats and she is not just living there. She's refusing entry, blocking visits, not opening the door. Liquier described the situation as nearly impossible. He said she's basically squatting. There is no list, no title, nothing. And then he described the state of the property. He's seen it himself. He said the apartment is completely run down. Even in celebration in French, he insists on that there are multiple dogs living there. They defecate inside. The place is filthy. He said the property was once valued at over 17 million euro, but now it's down to 8 million euros because because of its condition and lack of access. And near the end of his argument, he turned to the judge and said, excuse my language, your honor, but this is a total mess. It's a mess. A bordel in French.

[Vicki Baker]

Yekaterina's relationship with shepherd and Sons is complicated. Being beneficial owner of the company does not mean she owns its assets outright. But this role may have allowed her to live in the apartment. I've discovered the mortgage on the Monaco property is gigantic. More than 10 million euros. And it's jointly held under the names Ykaterina Barrett and Sheppard and Sons. So did she take out a loan to pull equity out of the property? We've seen this before too. What I do know is that the mortgage was not paid. In August 2024, insolvency proceedings were initiated against shepherd and Sons in Liechtenstein, where it's registered. An official notice ran in the Public Gazette. It asked creditors to come forward anyone that felt they had a claim on the company's assets. When Bridget hears this news, she adds her name to the list, even though her dispute is with Yekaterina are not Sheppard and Sons. Multiple other people have come forward because they also say they owed money from Yekaterina. Brigitte was buoyed by this at the start. She loves to know she's not alone in this. But the downside is she could end up being pushed to the bottom of the queue. It sounds like everything could be crashing down for ya, Katrina. So many people are after her now. So many people want their money back. But where is she? I've heard that she's just arrived back in Monaco with an eviction date looming. Is she going to batten down the hatches and lock herself in the apartment? She's not backing down so far. What's her next move if she is in Monaco? I feel I need to track her down myself and see if she'll give me any answers face to face. Fraudatious is produced by Novel in association with BBC Studios. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio. The show is written and produced by me, Vicki Baker. The assistant producer is Valeria Rocca. The editor is Philippa Goodrich. Our fact checker is Dania Suleiman. Production management from Cherie Houston, Charlotte Wolf and Joe Savage. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson. Narration recorded by Nick Thackeray. Kron development by Sonny Ma, Jess Brown Swinburne, Anna Phelan and Willard Foxton. Additional production by Leona Hamid, Sasha Baker and Ziana Youssef. Our voice actor is Paul Graham. The series artwork is designed by Christina Lemkel. Our executive producer is Max O'. Brien. Fraudatious is a novel production for BBC Studios, the BBC's commercial subsidiary.