Sometimes you have to ask: what good is it being psychic? As I'm not psychic, I will probably never know the answer to that question, but being psychic apparently doesn't protect you from having your accountant run off with $200,000 of your "hard-earned" money. Such a fate has befallen self-proclaimed psychic Rosemary Altea, who was exposed on Penn & Teller's Bullshit! as having a stacked audience for her reading.
From the Rutland Herald article:
Denise Hall of East Arlington faces one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return after investigators with the U.S. Attorney's office say she stole money from self-proclaimed spiritual medium Rosemary Altea - using four credit cards to obtain cash advances, forging checks and giving herself unauthorized electronic paychecks all under Altea's name for the past seven years, according to court records.
So, for seven years, a bookkeeper was able to swindle money from Rosemary in ways that most of us would detect simply balancing our checkbooks.The sad thing is that Rosemary "earned" enough money from her readings to actually allow for $200,000 to be stolen. And while I don't approve of anyone breaking the law in such a manner, it is hard to feel too much animosity for Denise Hall. After all, consider how Rosemary got the money in the first place.
A little poking around shows that Rosemary influenced one Llewella Day, a dying cancer patient in Vermont, and after one meeting, Ms. Day donated her $750,000 farm to Rosemary under the condition that it remain a farm with structures intact. This last-minute change of will surprised and angered Ms. Day's family, who took Rosemary to court, and sadly lost.
In celebration of her legal victory, Rosemary demolished the farm buildings and house to create a "healing center." Which brings to mind the obvious admonition: Rosemary, heal thyself.