Monday, December 09, 2024 - A cryptocurrency trader has been found guilty of murdering his mother in order to claim over a million dollars in life insurance and maintain an illusion of living a ‘perfect life’, a court heard.
Colleen Rebelo, 58, was found d3ad in the shower by her
youngest son at her home in Perth, Australia, on May 25, 2020.
It was later discovered that her son, Andre Zachary Rebelo,
took out three separate life insurance policies worth a total of $1,200,000
(£500,000) against his mother in the week before she died, and named himself as
the sole beneficiary.
Although Ms Rebelo’s death was sudden and unexpected, it was
never treated as suspicious by first responders who attended her home on the
day she died, and an autopsy was unable to identify the cause of death.
At the time of the tragedy, Rebelo and his former partner
Grace Piscopo, an Instagram influencer who has more than one million followers,
appeared to be living a carefree lifestyle of luxury.
In Social media posts, they can be seen enjoying lavish
holidays, driving flashy cars and living in pampered opulence.
But behind the scenes, the couple were struggling to
maintain the facade of their ‘glamourous’ and ‘perfect’ life and had debts of
over $120,000, a jury heard.
Just days after his mother’s death, Rebelo, 28, started
asking the insurance companies to pay out their policies, including one worth
$500,000 AUS (£252,000).
In his pursuit of the money, Rebelo provided the insurers
with fake records about his mother’s health and death, phoney copies of her
medical records and coroner’s report, and even left the insurer a voicemail
using an AI voice generator to impersonate Ms Rebelo’s psychologist.
It wasn’t until years later that an employee at an insurance
company suspected the supermarket delivery driver turned cryptocurrency day
trader was fraudulently trying to claim life insurance against his mother.
Police began investigating the circumstances surrounding Ms
Rebelo’s death following a report of suspected fraud from the insurer, and her
son was arrested in connection with her murder two years later.
During a two-day trial at West Australia’s Supreme Court,
Rebelo pleaded guilty to fraud but denied killing his mother.
His twin sister and his two brothers testified that they
knew nothing of the insurance policies taken out on their mother, and his
father maintained his son’s innocence.
Addressing the jurors, prosecutor Brett Tooker painted a
well-outlined picture of the ‘plastic fantastic’ lifestyle Rebelo portrayed on
social media and how he would do anything to maintain it.
‘To the outside world they
were rich and beautiful, but the truth was different,’ he told the court.
‘Andre was in dire financial
trouble, he had lived his life on credit, he had a personal loan and credit
card debt of more than $40k he was being pursued by debt collection agencies at
the time of his mother’s death.
‘He was crypto currency day
trader … he had bankrolled his social media profile.
‘By May 2020 he must have
thought his world was closing in around him.’
Andre Zachary Rebelo was taken into custody on Tuesday this
week before facing Fremantle Magistrates Court later the same day charged with
one count of murder over the death of his mother
His then partner, Ms Piscopo also took the stand during the
eight-week trial and said her former partner had told her he was at his
mother’s house on the morning of her death.
However, secretly taped conversations between the pair
months later suggested this was not true and that he hid his location from her.
Leading up to his mother’s death, Rebelo owed more than
$40,000 on a personal loan and in credit card debt.
Ms Piscopo owed $70,000 on a car and $40,000 to the
Australian Taxation Office, although she was unaware of that because Rebelo
managed the couple’s finances.
Speaking outside the court, Rebelo’s father Antonio told
reporters he still believed in his son’s innocence.
‘It’s sad, and disappointing for everyone. Very sad for
everyone,’ he said
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