Episode Three: The Vienna Connection

Summary

Fraudacious — Episode Three: The Vienna Connection

Date: March 16, 2026
Host & Narrator: Vicki Baker
Production: Novel in association with BBC Studios

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Overview

In this episode, Vicki Baker travels to Vienna to investigate the murky past of Ekaterina Barrett, the enigmatic socialite at the heart of a growing financial scandal that has left multiple high-profile victims in her wake. The episode focuses on uncovering Ekaterina’s previous exploits in Vienna during the early 2000s, shining a light on her methods of integration into elite circles—and the personal and legal wreckage left behind. The story combines first-hand testimonies, investigative journalism, and deep dives into historic court cases, bringing listeners closer to the truth behind Ekaterina’s elaborate façade.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Discovery of a Fraudulent Past

• The episode opens with Olive Moorfield, a former opera singer, receiving a shocking hotel phone call revealing that her credit card is being used by Ekaterina Barrett in Monaco ([01:39]–[02:28]).

  • Quote:
    • “He said, Mrs. Moorfield, we don’t know, we have this credit card and she’s asking for more credit… I said absolutely not.” — Olive Moorfield ([01:39])

• This incident sparks a journey into Ekaterina’s past misdeeds in Vienna, which involved posing as an oil company agent to defraud multiple individuals.

  • Ekaterina’s MO included presenting forged documents and stories of pending commissions to solicit loans, all to finance a lavish lifestyle ([07:18]–[08:56]).

  • Quote:

    • "Her stories, the article says, were fairy tales and she used her victims' money to fund her lavish lifestyle." — Vicki Baker ([08:28])

2. Piecing Together the Vienna Years

• Vicki attempts to track down records, contacts, and witnesses in Vienna:

  • Attempts to locate people involved in Ekaterina’s old haunts—such as luxury stores and casinos—yield limited results, but eventually journalist Johannes Wolff provides some context from his reporting ([06:11]–[10:21]).

  • The press covered Ekaterina’s arrest for fraudulent loans and reported she was a citizen of Azerbaijan ( an additional passport among her multiple claimed identities).

  • Quote:

    • “It’s an easy, easy story. We get the information about this case, about Ekaterina, from the police.” — Johannes Wolff ([07:18])
    • "Everybody who knows this person had a problem, call the police." — Johannes Wolff ([07:50])

• The criminal justice system’s lack of transparency leaves questions about the verdict, but records eventually confirm Ekaterina’s conviction and incarceration in Vienna ([39:19]–[40:28]).

3. Inside the Artistic and Diplomatic Circles

• Ekaterina’s entrée into Viennese society was gained through connections with notable figures like artist Ernst Fuchs, whose flamboyant lifestyle and elite connections proved valuable windows into high society ([12:30]–[15:51]).

  • Lorian, Fuchs’ museum’s art historian, paints a picture of this world and suggests Ekaterina’s apparent “Russian” persona was part of her appeal.

  • Quote:

    • “He was the perfect key to open these doors.” — Lorian ([15:51])

• A fascinating anecdote about Ekaterina commissioning (and failing to pay for) a larger version of Fuchs’ painting "Adam Mysticos" reinforces her pattern of financial manipulation ([14:58]–[15:51]).

4. Victims Speak: Olive and Kurt’s Story

• Olive Moorfield and Dr. Kurt Mark (Honorary Consul of Barbados) share their harrowing experiences with Ekaterina. Olive’s skepticism clashes with Kurt’s willingness to trust, ultimately leading to significant financial losses ([18:44]–[28:29]).

  • Key moments:

    • The “fake” Hermès bag at a luncheon sets Olive’s suspicions off ([21:51]–[22:22]).
    • Olive details how Ekaterina pressured for a visa, ingratiated herself with the family, and effectively embedded herself in their lives.

  • Quotes:

    • “She breathed vulgarity. There was just something not right.” — Olive Moorfield ([22:22])
    • “She was always here. You couldn’t get rid of her.” — Olive Moorfield ([23:39])
    • “He bought Ekaterina a computer, a copy machine, and… gave her Olive’s credit card.” — Vicki Baker ([24:26])

• Olive discusses Kurt’s vulnerability as a doctor used to trust and kindness, and the toll Ekaterina’s manipulation took on their marriage ([27:30]–[30:24]).

  • Quote:
    • “These kind of people do that to people. They're very, very destructive.” — Olive Moorfield ([29:58])

5. Emotional and Psychological Fallout

• Kurt and Olive explain the emotional impact—the sense of confusion, loss, and the altering of personal relationships that fraudsters can inflict beyond monetary harm ([30:24]–[31:43]).

• Olive shares a philosophy for resilience: “Bigleitungsprocess. It means that you are accompanying each other through life.” ([30:52])

6. Confirming Ekaterina’s Conviction

• Court and address records reveal Ekaterina was indeed sentenced and jailed in Austria for fraud.
  • Quote:
    • “Her primary address is registered at the women’s prison Schwarzel… she was an inmate.” — Vicki Baker ([39:19]–[40:28])

7. Interview with Mitch Barrett, Ekaterina’s Ex-Husband

• Mitch Barrett, ex-model and artist, insists he was kept in the dark about Ekaterina’s schemes and recalls being manipulated and emotionally dependent due to a brain injury ([35:13]–[38:49]).
  • Quote:
    • “She kept me out of everything to do with business. It was like closed doors on me.” — Mitch Barrett ([36:10])
    • “I really feel, I really feel empathy for that. …You don’t want to believe that you’re wrong about somebody.” — Mitch Barrett ([38:49])

8. Bridget’s Legal Battle and Unresolved Questions

• Bridget, the more recent London victim, reflects on learning Ekaterina’s criminal past:

  • Quote:
    • “Not surprised. But, like, wow, you know, she’s aimed for the top… Everybody is a step.” — Bridget ([41:46])

• The episode concludes with Bridget reaching a financial settlement with Ekaterina (£1 million plus costs) but only receiving a fraction of this, reigniting fears that the appearance of wealth is as powerful (and elusive) as wealth itself ([42:40]–[43:59]).

  • Quote:
    • “It’s amazing for me that she can do this for 20 years, 25 years or whatever… She’s doing it on her own, and she’s getting away with it.” — Olive Moorfield ([33:16])
    • “I only believe I’ve got what I’ve got when I’ve actually got it.” — Bridget ([43:54])

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Most Memorable Quotes (With Timestamps)

• “I wanted to divorce my husband.” — Olive Moorfield ([02:28])
• “Her stories… were fairy tales and she used her victims’ money to fund her lavish lifestyle.” — Vicki Baker ([08:28])
• "She breathed vulgarity. There was just something not right." — Olive Moorfield ([22:22])
• “These kind of people do that to people. They're very, very destructive.” — Olive Moorfield ([29:58])
• “Bigleitungsprocess. It means you are accompanying each other through life.” — Olive Moorfield ([30:52])
• “She kept me out of everything to do with business. It was like closed doors on me.” — Mitch Barrett ([36:10])
• “She’s aimed for the top… Everybody is a step.” — Bridget ([41:46])

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:39] — Olive Moorfield discovers fraud on her credit card
• [07:18] — Journalist Johannes Wolff recounts police strategy for catching Ekaterina
• [15:51] — Art historian Lorian explains high society’s allure
• [18:44] — Meeting in the home of Olive and Kurt, the diplomat couple
• [22:22] — Olive assesses Ekaterina’s social performance
• [29:58] — Olive reflects on the destruction caused in her marriage
• [36:10] — Interview with Mitch Barrett on his life with Ekaterina
• [39:19] — Archival documents prove Ekaterina’s imprisonment
• [41:46] — Bridget shares her reaction to Ekaterina’s criminal record
• [42:40] — Discussion of the out-of-court settlement and Bridget’s skepticism

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Tone & Language

The episode maintains an investigative, personal, and often reflective tone, balancing methodical journalism with moments of candid emotion from the contributors. Vicki Baker guides the narrative with empathy and curiosity, while interviewees like Olive Moorfield are heartfelt, direct, and sometimes wry in their observations.

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Conclusion

Episode Three unravels Ekaterina Barrett’s Vienna years, establishing a pattern of deception and manipulation stretching back decades. Listeners are drawn into the emotional devastation suffered by her victims, the power of charm and performance in high society, and the challenges of seeking justice across borders and social strata. The story is not simply about financial fraud but about trust, reputation, and how the myth of wealth can be weaponized. The haunting question lingers: even when the truth is revealed, can anyone really stop Ekaterina?

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For more, visit Novel Audio or tune in for the next episode of Fraudacious.

Transcript

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[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

is a novel production for BBC Studios. It's the early 2000s and the phone is ringing in Olive Moorfield's Vienna apartment. The home is the epitome of timeless elegance, an early 20th century block with high ceilings, wood paneling and a wrought iron caged lift. This is Olive's account of what happened next. She picks up the phone and on the end of the line is the reception desk at the five star Hotel de Paris in Casino Square, Monaco.

[Olive Moorfield]

And he said, I have a credit card here and there is a lady who is using your credit card. I said what? And he was silent. He said, Mrs. Morphert, we don't know we have this credit card and she's asking for more credit on it and can we extend that? And I said absolutely not. I did not know that this woman has my credit card. He said, oh my God.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Olive doesn't know her credit card is even missing until that moment. But she says she realizes immediately who has it and she knows how she got hold of it. As Olive puts down the phone, one thought runs through her head.

[Olive Moorfield]

I wanted to divorce my husband.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I'm Vicki Baker and from novel in association with BBC Studios, this is Fraudatious. Episode 3 the Vienna Connection. I'm walking along the elegant ringstresser in central central Vienna. This historic boulevard is home to some of the city's most majestic buildings. The State Opera, Parliament, City Hall. When a horse and cart passes by, I recognize it's a gimmick for tourists, but it does add to the time warped feeling that this part of Vienna seems to embrace wholeheartedly. On a surface level, I imagine nothing has changed Since Yekaterina Barrett lived here in the early 2000s. But looks are deceptive. A lot of time has passed. We're talking almost 20 years before Bridget gets entangled in a legal battle with her. To Bridget, going back in time feels crucial to understand who she's up against. What did Yekaterina do here that led to a police mugshot of her appearing in the newspaper? It's going to be a challenge to find people who remember her. I've landed in the city armed with some snippets of information about her life here. Apparently, Yekaterina had a new British husband who was an artist, and they moved here together in 2001. First into a hotel and then onto a street called Goldschmidtgasse. It's just off one of the central shopping avenues, Graben, and a stone's throw away from many of the luxury stores. If I were to ask you if you know the name Yekaterina Barrett, if that rings any bells.

[Whole Foods Market Announcer]

To be honest, no.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I make a few inquiries in nearby businesses where I know she had dealings. But people there tell me they weren't around at the time, or they can't remember, or they say they can't remember. I try the casino, another of her known haunts, a five minute walk away. Hi, how are you? The doorman is very friendly, but he can't speak to me. He hasn't been in the job long enough anyway. Okay. It's worth a try. On my way through. All right.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Take care.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Yeah, you too. Thank you.

[Olive Moorfield]

Bye.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Bye. This feels like my sign to call it a day walking the streets. I need to find another lead. I've read various Austrian newspaper articles that followed Yekaterina's arrest. They say Yekaterina posed as an agent of oil companies in Vienna in order to fraudulently obtain loans from private individuals. This sounds very relevant to Brigitte's case. Brigitte knows about these newspaper reports, but she's never seen the mugshot. Well, this is the thing I wanted to show you. That's the picture that was in the Austrian press when she got arrested.

[Olive Moorfield]

Oh, my God.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Have you seen that before?

[Bridget (Victim)]

No. I can't read this, can I?

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It's in.

[Bridget (Victim)]

Yeah.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

German.

[Whole Foods Market Announcer]

Look at her.

[Bridget (Victim)]

You wouldn't think it was her, would you? I mean, you do. I can tell. How old would she be then?

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Say, in her 40s, I think.

[Bridget (Victim)]

Yeah, see, she doesn't look that good, does she? You know, she doesn't look good at all.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

She doesn't look very glamorous. I mean, she looks pretty miserable.

[Bridget (Victim)]

Very miserable.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I need to find some people who know more about this arrest. Of the three journalists who wrote about Yekaterina's case in the Austrian press, one is dead. One insists he can't remember any more than is in the article already, and the other one he agrees to meet. Can I get a coffee?

[Olive Moorfield]

Of course.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Like coffee? I'm meeting the journalist in one of Vienna's traditional coffee houses, Cafe Schwarzenberg. It dates back to 1861, when Austria sat at the helm of a vast empire. Coffee here is served in elegant china cups placed on silver trays by waiters wearing bow ties. And unlike most cafes in today's world, there are no customers on laptops. Well, none except me. I've brought mine so I can share some scans of the newspaper clippings.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Yeah, yeah, that's the story.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

This is Johannes Wolff, the man behind the byline. I'm showing him the article he wrote more than 20 years ago. The headline is Loans obtained through alleged oil deals. And somewhat to my surprise, he does remember it.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

It's an easy, easy story. We get the information about this case, about Ekaterina, from the police.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Johannes tells me the police contacted the news desk because they believed Yekaterina had left a trail of victims across the city. The police wanted to make an appeal for more information.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

That's why we also put a picture from her into the newspaper. This is a police photo. Yeah, she is in police jail.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Pre child attention.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Yeah, that's the one at the end, I think I wrote. Everybody who knows this person had a problem, called the police.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

In the article the police say she claimed to be connected to an oil company, but said her commission payments were slow to arrive, so she needed some help to get out of a tight financial spot. The police said she presented people with paperwork, including bank statements and confirmation of expected commissions. Their investigation showed these were all forged. Her stories, the article says, were fairy tales and she used her victims money to fund her lavish lifestyle. This is ringing lots of bells. Ekaterina is referred to as a 48 year old citizen of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan felt like an unexpected detail at first. I know she was born in Ukraine and she now has UK citizenship, but I have since been told by other sources that she often travels on an Azeri passport and I'm not sure what her connections to Azerbaijan are.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

I can't remember that I wrote any other article about this case afterwards. This was the only story we made about Jekarta Runner. There must be a trial about this, but I don't know nothing about that.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I tell Johannes I found There was another article that was written from the courtroom midway through the trial. It's from the Austrian press agency, the national news service. It confirms the charges against Ekaterina. Serious commercial fraud. She's described as an impostor. One of the alleged victims referenced in the Austrian newspapers is a diplomat for a small Caribbean country. This is intriguing. And as for Yekaterina herself, she appears to have been defiant in court. I have business in Israel, in Dublin. I kept getting money, she said. And then, more casually, she also said, sometimes things go uphill, sometimes they go downhill. Yekaterina's life in Vienna does sound like a rollercoaster. And the court reporter notes that she seems to have reached the bottom by the time she was standing in the dock. So I guess things weren't looking good for her in the trial. But was she ultimately convicted? We haven't been able to find any follow up via the Austrian press archives. She could have been found not guilty, maybe.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Yeah.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

We have to keep that in mind.

[Olive Moorfield]

Yeah.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

What we're trying to do is get official information from Austrian authorities, but it's tricky.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Yeah, yeah. That's always the same authorities. Yeah. They say we have to protect all peoples. We can't say about them.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It's similar in the uk. Of course. Criminal records are not disclosed readily and for good reason. If people never reoffend, they deserve the right to rebuild their life without the press raking up their past for no reason. There is public interest in knowing when there's a repeated pattern. It didn't end.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Yeah.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

At that point, I think it only really becomes interesting when you start to piece it together. When you've got someone who is denying the facts, it's problematic.

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very probable for us, for media people to get some information about themselves.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

A fake oligarch, Is that what we're dealing with here? Or an oligarch's broker. Is this a role she's been playing for some time? Long enough to garner her millions and buy the Mayfair apartment? That would be quite on ruse. She never offered Bridget a cut of any oil money. But other aspects of this story seem very familiar. Especially the idea of Yekaterina being a wealthy woman in need of a short term bridging loan. For Bridget, this information is extremely helpful. It makes her believe she was specifically targeted by someone with experience and an agenda. But how did Yekaterina insert herself into tight knit Viennese high society? I found someone who ran a gallery in the city in the early 2000s. They told me they remember Yekaterina turning up In a long mink jacket, wearing a big diamond ring, and often in the company of a famed local artist. Maybe he is the key. We're going behind the scenes.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

Yeah, that's very much behind the scenes.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Officially, I'm heading into the basement of a villa that once belonged to the artist Ernst Fuchs. Fuchs died in 2015, but his former home and studio is now a museum in the far west of Vienna. Lorian, the museum's art historian, is guiding me down a concrete spiral staircase to see something that's not on public display. We make our way through a bare bones storage area, past old chairs, tables, a bicycle.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

And there we have it.

[Olive Moorfield]

Oh, wow.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It's a huge golden Rolls Royce. Fully gold, fully customized and gleaming. It's absolutely immaculate. Everything shines.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

Everything is shining. Yes.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

This was Fuchs prized possession. It takes a certain type of character to order a gold Rolls Royce.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

My grandmother would have hated it because she was more on the side of the old money kind of mindset. But he had this very opulent one, and that was also part of his appearance.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Ernst Fuchs was a huge figure in the Austrian art world. One of the founders of the Vienna school of fantastic realism and a good friend of Salvador Dali. I've seen pictures of him wearing his trademark hat made of folded paper and shaped a bit like a fez. He was flamboyant, eccentric and absolutely obsessed with nobility.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

There was this kind of admiration for Russia, and the old Russia especially. And I can imagine that for him she was coming from this world. And I think for him it might have been this kind of fascination. Also,

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I can see how Yekaterina might have captured his attention if she was, as the newspaper suggests, pretending to be in with the oligarchs. We head back upstairs to the museum. The building is a work of art in itself, built in the late 1800s by the renowned Art Nouveau architect, Otto Wagner. Think Corinthian columns, enormous stained glass windows and gold leaf on the walls. I've asked Lorian to show me one painting in particular, one of the most famous, Adam Mysticos.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

It means Adam in Paradise.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It shows a bear like figure of Adam, arms extending like a tree, holding up a naked woman. Its bright colors pop electrically. I've been told by multiple well placed sources that Ekaterina commissioned a version of this prized painting for herself, a much bigger version, but she never paid for it. Fuchs, who was apparently very disappointed, never handed it over. Lorian tells me he hasn't heard of Yekaterina before now, so he can't speak about her relationship with Fuchs or any deal that might have been done over a painting. But he knows this replica exists. Other people who knew Fuchs say there was unlikely to be an official paper trail because that wasn't his style. I asked Lorian what would have been the benefit of knowing Ernst Fuchs in this period.

[Lorian (Art Historian)]

He was a established member of polite society. He was every he knew all members of the important society in Vienna. So he was the perfect key to open these doors.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I suppose I've been told by other people that one of the doors that opened was that of the home of the Honorary Consul of Barbados. This sounds like the person mentioned in Johanna's newspaper article. I find out his name, Dr. Kurt Mark. It turns out he still lives nearby with his wife, Olive. She's a former opera singer and film star. The first time I speak to her, it's on the phone. She's in her mid-90s and hard of hearing. I end up shouting as politely as I can, trying to explain why I'm in Vienna and why I want to meet. I'm struggling to make myself understood, but one word gets through ya. Katrina.

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It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains. A man straps himself into a car on the world's most dangerous racetrack. He whispers to himself, it's time to

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

put my balls on the dashboard as

[Toto Wolff Promo Voice]

he starts the engine.

[BBC Podcast Promoter]

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[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I'm outside a huge front door encased in wrought iron. It's about 20ft high. There's an embossed sign next to the doorbell. Dr. Kurt Mark, dermatologist and a Crest Consulate General, Barbados. I'm definitely in the right place. So far I've heard allegations about how Yekaterina manages to avoid paying debts to people who are low paid or vulnerable. But Kurt Mark is a Doctor, A diplomat, another member of high society. If Yekaterina really did manage to get money out of this man, I really need to know how. Before long, his wife Olive appears at the window above.

[Olive Moorfield]

Push the door open.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Okay. I make my way through the grand entrance hall, up a sweeping staircase. Olive. Olive greets me warmly, dressed in a casual, loose fitting pink jumper and matching pink headscarf. Whatever image you have in your head of an old Viennese opera singer, scratch it. Olive Moorfield is a black woman from Pittsburgh. She came to vienna in the 1950s to study opera and went on to become a star.

[Olive Moorfield]

Such a big house.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It is a big house. Oh my gosh. You've got a beautiful grand piano.

[Olive Moorfield]

Look. Wait. Everything in here, all of these paintings. That's all Fuchs. Oh.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I explained to Olive how I found them, that I know about their close friend Ernst Fuchs, and I know that Kurt was somehow involved in Yekaterina's court case. And that's what I want to talk about today. Olive leads me into a small galley kitchen, apologizing that this is the only refuge from some ongoing renovation works. Sitting at the kitchen table, tucked into a slide in bench, is Kurt.

[Olive Moorfield]

Move over, sweetheart.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

He's not from Barbados. He's a white Austrian man and he has a white gauze bandage wrapped around his head. How is the head, Kurt? Does it feel okay?

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

I fell on the floor and I

[Olive Moorfield]

have a big wound.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Kurt is 97 now. Olive is 95. They met backstage in the theater more than 60 years ago when someone sent for a doctor during a production.

[Olive Moorfield]

We met in 1962, we married in 1965, and we have a relatively very good marriage and we're still together and we consider ourselves lucky.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

But it's not long before Olive admits that one of the biggest hurdles their marriage has faced is Yekaterina Barrett.

[Olive Moorfield]

You know how to pick them. Quit.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I must say, I get the sense that there's going to be plenty to unpack here. Olive, in particular, is keen to talk. She remembers exactly when she met Yekaterina for the first time, when she was in her 70s and Yekaterina was in her 40s.

[Olive Moorfield]

I was having a luncheon in the Hotel Imperial, which is one of our most beautiful official hotel, and Fuchs called Ernst.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Fuchs told Olive he'd met someone who needed help with contacts in the city. She remembers him singing Ekaterina's praises.

[Olive Moorfield]

And I said, well, look, I'm having a luncheon this afternoon, a lady's luncheon, so just send her and we'll talk to her and see what she's like, if we can help her. She came to lunch. She was very warm, very sweet.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

But Olive remembers something didn't feel right. She can pinpoint that feeling to an exact moment.

[Olive Moorfield]

She took her back, put it on the table.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

This is Hermes, Yekaterina announced, according to Olive. Hermes, the high end French designer.

[Olive Moorfield]

And we all looked at each other and we changed the subject and the bag began to collapse. And I whispered to my girlfriend, hermes bags do not collapse.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Olive suspected the bag was fake, but that was not the issue.

[Olive Moorfield]

She breathed vulgarity. There was just something not right.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It was the performance that Olive disliked. The attempt to boast.

[Olive Moorfield]

Occasionally someone walks in, you say, wow, what a beautiful Chanel or whatever. But to put it on the luncheon table, which was for us, like, who is this woman?

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Maybe if it was down to Olive, that would have been the end of the story. The end of their dealings with Yekaterina. But Olive and Kurt both say that Yekaterina then insisted she needed a visa for Barbados. And Kurt, of course, was the only man in town who could help.

[Olive Moorfield]

I gave her a visa. It's no big deal, but you have to come here to get it. Jeff is a tourist.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Why did she need that?

[Olive Moorfield]

She was faking. She faked. She wanted in? Yes. And she never used it. What she wanted really was in here, in this home.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

According to Olive, Yekaterina was in constant contact with them from this point.

[Olive Moorfield]

She was always here. You couldn't get rid of her. And she would do things like, oh, Olive, can I come? And I'm bringing the dinner with. I said, oh, that's lovely. Okay. So she bought the dinner with the waiter, he served the food and so on.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

So why did you keep having dinner or keep meeting with her if you didn't like her? Olive points at her husband, raising her eyebrow.

[Olive Moorfield]

You have to tell this. I'm not. She borrowed money from you? Yeah. It was something like, wasn't it €73,000 or €80,000 or something. Yeah.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

According to the Austria press agency, the prosecution in the trial put the figure at €122,000. Kurt and Olives say he bought Ekaterina a computer, a copy machine, and he later gave her Olives credit card. How did she get that much of an in? I really want Kurt to transport me back to that time and to tell me exactly what he remembers Ekaterina saying to him. But he isn't on top form after his fall and he's not speaking his first language. I ask him if Yekaterina mentioned Working for an oil firm. He can't remember that, but he says she did present him with a cheque, suggesting she had access to a massive fortune. Olive also recalls this

[Olive Moorfield]

about the 18 million. Remember, she gave you from the bank of. Was it the bank of Scotland?

[Johannes Wolff (Journalist)]

It was fake.

[Olive Moorfield]

It was everything fake.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Olive says she wasn't aware of what was going on at the time, but she does remember Kurt calling her and telling her to go and buy something nice, as if he'd just come into money.

[Olive Moorfield]

And so I went to my favorite crystal shop and bought a service for 12. That's how far she had bought him, made him believe that he had 18 million.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I feel I have to ask them if this was Kurt's incentive for helping her in the first place. Did you think that there was going to be a financial benefit for yourselves in the future from this connection, from lending her money? I mean, if we're being honest, was

[Olive Moorfield]

that part of it was at the time, the leading scientist for everything that had to do with dermatology. He was also given the Austrian gold medal for that. So it certainly was not the money, because we had more than enough money. We weren't billionaires, millionaires, but we had a very comfortable life. So it certainly was not motivated by the fact that he needed money, was it? No. Well, why did you do it? Why do you think you did it?

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I don't know anymore. He says it's hard for any of us in this room to comprehend. It reminds me of what Bridget told me about finding it hard to understand her own actions. A scam, if it is indeed a scam, is often confusing. Afterwards, when you have a fuller picture, you can't think why you fell for it. And while part of the success is often down to the scammer's charm, the circumstances are also critical. What was it that she plugged into that made you want to help her or work with her?

[Olive Moorfield]

He had this Professor Fuchs. Yeah, yeah. First Professor Fuchs, who was his closest friend and who would not harm any of us.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

But Olive also has another theory about the circumstances. As a doctor, Kurt was used to dealing with life and death situations. It could be very intense. And people often repaid his work with kindness. Perhaps that is why he wasn't as on guard. They expected people to be kinder. They were used to being treated well.

[Olive Moorfield]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think that's the psychology of it. Yeah.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

By Olive's account, Ekatrina tried hard to win her over, too. But perhaps because of that bad first impression, she continually failed. For Olive, the red flags were mounting, thick and vast. She says she was visited by a restaurant worker who Yekaterina had booked to make them a private dinner. He said he hadn't been paid.

[Olive Moorfield]

I was always pushing her, pushing her because she was such a liar. And psychologically, it made you feel, especially as a black woman, it made you feel like, well, they're dumb and she doesn't know any better.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Bridget, Roger and Sona have all talked about Ekaterina's controlling behavior and her intensity, which can come in between people. You said at the beginning of the conversation that Yekaterina coming into your lives was the biggest problem you'd have ever had in your marriage.

[Olive Moorfield]

Yeah. Yeah, because there was all this stuff happening. There's this person in our lives that wasn't there before, that we didn't know. She's lying all the time. And my husband was on her side. He didn't really believe that I was saying to him, she's a phony, she's fake. She's cheating you, and you should stop. My husband was telling me the whole time, you're jealous of her. And I was. Excuse me, but I was really a very attractive woman. And I kept thinking, why would he think I would be jealous of a woman like that?

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Did you fight about it?

[Olive Moorfield]

I don't think so. I simply. I was hurt. And when I'm hurt, I walk away. And I walked away. But my relationship to my husband changed. These kind of people do that to people. They're very, very destructive.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I feel like Kurt has been through it, too. He says he feels stupid for believing Ekaterina. And again, all these things ring bells for me. After speaking to Bridget, people who encounter Ekaterina can lose more than their money. They can feel like they're losing their minds or their relationships. There is so much impact beyond the financial. Olive tells me she got over the upset by embracing a German concept that she finds beautiful.

[Olive Moorfield]

It's called Bigleitungsprocess.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It means that you are accompanying each other through life. Olive says that's what marriage is.

[Olive Moorfield]

When you see that feel that I am here not to own him, and he has to do what I say or I have to do that. But as a process of moving with him through life, you turn and you realize you're dealing with a human being and not with God. So I think a lot of it has to do with that as well, my accepting a lot.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Have you forgiven Kurt now for that mistake?

[Olive Moorfield]

But that was 20 years ago. Well, yes, of course. A lot of beauty has happened in Between.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I'm amazed Olive has been so frank. I wonder if it comes with age. By your 90s. Some people just tell it like it is. But back to the nitty gritty. I want to know more about what happened in the criminal case itself. Was Ekaterina found guilty? Kurt tells me he was a witness during the trial. He says he was not there for the verdict, but he recalls Ekaterina being sent to prison afterwards. That's the women's prison just outside of Vienna. Kurt says the sentence did not stem from money she took from him, but from other acts of fraud she had.

[Olive Moorfield]

Maybe. Had she then for Kauft ownership. Yeah. She bought furniture on credit without money, and she resold it without paying the bill. And that's what took her actually into jail. I didn't know this. I just found out.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I ask Kurt if he got his money back. He says no. After the trial, he says he thought about bringing a civil claim, but this did not go ahead. The problem for Kurt is that as much as he may regret it and feel conned, ultimately he gave Ekaterina Olive's credit card. And unlike in Bridget's case, it seems the other payments he made to Ekaterina weren't recorded anywhere as loans. It's tricky territory, legally. I tell Olive and Kurt about Bridget's case.

[Olive Moorfield]

It's amazing for me that she can do this for 20 years, 25 years or whatever. She's doing it on her own, and she's getting away with it. For us, it is over. Okay? We walk away from it. And we don't care about Katharine. We just don't care about her. I don't care what happens to her. What I care about is what she's doing.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

So that's the reason why you're willing to talk to us? You want to try to stop her,

[Olive Moorfield]

try to stop her.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Is she stoppable?

[Olive Moorfield]

You need a lot of help. She's heavy.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Olive gets it. She's 95, and I've just landed at her doorstep with a story from years ago. And yet she nails the issue at the heart of the story. She says it should be easy to stop ya, Katarina. But it's not going to be.

[Olive Moorfield]

You know, she's that kind of brilliant. Evil.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Evil is a strong word, but it certainly seems to be how people who consider themselves victims of Yekaterina feel. I leave Olive and Kurt's apartment feeling like I've heard an important account. One that seems less about money and more about the profound emotional impact. I'm also left wondering about a Houseguest they say they had during this period when everything was hitting the fan. Olive told me she liked him.

[Olive Moorfield]

He was warm and sweet and kind and very well behaved.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It feels like he'd be the last person they would take in to live with them at this point. But Olive felt that he didn't have anywhere else to go and he remains grateful to this day.

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

Kurt and Olive, you know, especially Olive, like, really took. Took me in and basically just wanted to help me. I mean, Olive, yeah, she's. She's a very, very understanding woman.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

The man they took in was Mitch Barrett, Ekaterina's ex husband. I've tracked him down, living in the Brighton area. I want to speak to him because everyone keeps mentioning him. They tell me he was an ex model and a talented artist who was studying under Ernst Fuchs, which I realise must account for how Yekaterina entered this Viennese social circle. I've got so many questions and I can't help wondering if he was also in on it, some sort of accomplice to Yekaterina.

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

She kept me out of everything to do with business. It was like closed doors on me.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I already know the two of them had an acrimonious divorce, from what Bridget has told me, but I'm not going to go into that. Mitch tells me he can't do a full interview as he fears legal repercussions from Ekaterina. But he says he does feel he needs to clear his own name. So what did he know about her deals?

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

Very, very little. As far as she was concerned. I was getting on with my stuff and she was getting on with her stuff.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

His stuff was his art. He said he'd thrown himself into it after experiencing a serious brain injury in Cannes in the year 2000, just a month after they were married. He says after that he escaped into his own world, avoiding as much stress and confusion as he could.

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

It was like a need to know basis. So she thought if I didn't need to know, she didn't have to tell me. And questioning kind of got a bit frustrating because you didn't really get direct answers from her.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

But what about her arrest? Didn't that ring alarm bells?

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

I actually felt sorry for her. I was convinced that I don't know what it was, but it was almost like feeling that maybe she didn't deserve that maybe she had been wrongly arrested. So I don't know. It's just. I didn't feel at that point that she deserved to be arrested. I think I was more convinced by her and Believing her. I think it wasn't until, like later years when it became, you know, a lot more situations, that I started to really think, this is not right.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Yekaterina and Mitch were married for 19 years, but they spent long periods apart living separate lives. Towards the end, I did want to

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

try and get away from Katrina. You know, there's like so many times I wanted to get away from her and I found it very, very difficult because she was always able to pull me back. And a lot of time it's because I was very reliant upon her.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

This, he says, is down to the brain injury which left him vulnerable and dependent. That's as much as he feels he's able to say. He lives a quiet life now with his new partner still working as an artist. But I do get the chance to ask him about Bridget's case, which he knows about Bridget.

[Mitch Barrett (Ex-husband of Yekaterina)]

Yeah, I really feel, I really feel empathy for that. And I can understand, and I think a lot of people can't understand. They think, well, how can anybody be that stupid or not know or suspect? But again, it's like, you know, it's just, you don't want to believe that you're wrong about somebody.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

I know you. Katerina has in the past denied being arrested in Austria. Back in the uk, I contact the Austrian courts and the Justice Department to try to confirm the jail sentence. No one can tell me because they say they're not permitted to provide information on individual criminal cases. But I have seen a sentencing document that clearly indicates that Ekaterina Barrett was convicted of fraud there. And one useful thing that Austria does keep is a careful register of residents addresses. Via a source, we were able to obtain Ekaterina's details from December 2004 to June 2005. Her primary address is registered at the women's prison Schwarzel. So that's post trial, which indicates a sentence was handed down. I ask an Austrian investigator how conclusive this is. He says, unless she's got a job working as a prison guard and had an apartment there paid for her, she was an inmate.

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[Toto Wolff Promo Voice]

It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains. A man straps himself into a car on the world's most dangerous racetrack. He whispers to himself, it's time to

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

put my balls on the dashboard as

[Toto Wolff Promo Voice]

he starts the engine.

[BBC Podcast Promoter]

In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance, unconscious. In 15 years, he's a billionaire.

[Toto Wolff Promo Voice]

This is Toto Wolff, Formula One's most powerful team boss and the breakout star of Drive To Survive.

[BBC Podcast Promoter]

This week on Good Bad Billionaire. How Toto Wolff made his billions. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

So Yekaterina is a convicted fraudster. I feel like I've been through a similar journey to Brigitte in trying to pick through Ekaterina's time in Vienna. I'm just a few years behind. How did you feel about learning about her criminal past in Vienna?

[Bridget (Victim)]

Not surprised. But like, wow, you know, she's aimed for the top, you know, she's not aimed for anything below that. And everybody is a step.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

By 2021, Brigitte and Ekaterina's lawyers are working at very high cost to mediate between the two of them. If they're unable to find a solution, they're heading for a showdown in a courtroom. A trial would be enormously expensive.

[Bridget (Victim)]

I was willing to do it because you can shout, literally, from the mountains when you're telling the truth, because you don't have to fool anybody. The stakes were rising, but I could have lived with myself if I'd lost all my money because I was in the right.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

And you wanted that to play out in a courtroom?

[Bridget (Victim)]

Yeah, yeah. Yes, In a courtroom. Yeah.

[Olive Moorfield]

Yeah.

[Bridget (Victim)]

In the theatre, even anywhere. Yeah, podcast.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

But before it comes to trial, there's a breakthrough. The legal teams manage to reach a compromise. It's an out of court settlement. Ekaterina agrees to pay Bridget £1 million plus costs. For Bridget, it's a moment of mixed feelings.

[Bridget (Victim)]

I don't think it was anything near what it should have been.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

It's much less than the 1.4 million she said she loaned. But it feels like progress. The big question now is, will Yekaterina actually pay up? In the back of Bridget's mind is the warning her lawyer gave her at the start that any agreement they manage to win is ultimately just a piece of paper. It doesn't guarantee you'll get your money back. It's now down to Yekaterina to honor this deal. Not long after, Bridget receives one installment, £100,000. Did that give her some hope?

[Bridget (Victim)]

No, not really. We thought it's such a drop in the ocean, but then You've got to wonder, where did she get that from?

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

So you didn't think, okay, first instalment. The next one's coming.

[Bridget (Victim)]

No, I only believe I've got what I've got when I've actually got it.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Bridget's skepticism is well placed. After the £100,000 drops tumbleweed Bridget hears nothing more from her. Ekaterina leaves London. There are no further payments. Bridget wants not just her money. She wants answers. If Ekaterina isn't going to transfer any cash, Brigitte will need to force her to sell some of the things she owns. There should be rich pickings from her luxury properties around the world. But is the world Yekaterina lives in real? Or is it fantasy? 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. Cron development by Sonny Marr, Jess Brown Swinburne, Anna Phelan and Willard Foxton. Additional production by Leona Hamid, Sasha Baker and Ziana Youssef. The series artwork is designed by Christina Lemkel. Our executive producer is Max O'.

[BBC Podcast Promoter]

Brien.

[Vicki Baker (Narrator/Investigator)]

Fraudatious is a novel production for BBC Studios, the BBC's commercial subsidiary.