Psychic Found Guilty of $150K in Fraud

Soothsayers beware: A New York psychic was found guilty today of swindling her clients out of more than $150,000 with stories of past lives and "negative" energy, CBS News reports. Sylvia Mitchell, convicted of grand larceny and scheming to defraud, is stuck in jail without bail before her sentencing on Oct. 29. The AP reports that the verdict hinged on a prosecutor's argument that Mitchell, operating out of Greenwich Village, "finds people's weaknesses, and she exploits them to her advantage."

But her attorney maintained that Mitchell did what she promised: try to help them. And who can prove she never did? Either way, her clients paid big bucks: One testified to paying more than $120,000, but still lost her investment-bank job and her love interest; another said she gave Mitchell $27,000 in order to lose a dependency on money that she carried from a previous life (as an Egyptian princess, no less). Mitchell's attorney says she plans to appeal the conviction—which, as it stands, could land her up to 15 years in prison. (More psychic stories.)