Rose Marks: The Psychic Who Took $17.8 Million From Clients

Who is Rose Marks, and what did she do?

Imagine your marriage has just ended, or your father is ill, or you have lost a child. You walk past a small shop with a sign offering readings for $20. The woman inside is warm and seems to understand you at once. She says there is a dark weight on you, something old, something on your money. She can lift it. It will take a sacrifice.

Nobody walks in planning to hand over their savings. That is what makes this case so important to understand. It shows how a gentle first step turns, one promise at a time, into something nobody would agree to all at once.

This page sets out the case from the court record and the reporting on it, chiefly the Associated Press, the Sun Sentinel, ABC News, CBS Miami and the Orlando Sentinel. We separate what a jury found, what was alleged, and what Marks and her lawyers said in her defence.

We do not name the private victims who testified, and we do not name the family members who pleaded guilty to lesser charges. The story is about the method, so you can recognise it.

What are the key facts about the Rose Marks case?

Who: Rose Marks, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, "a/k/a Joyce Michael" in the federal indictment (ABC News, 28 August 2013).

The business: shops in Fort Lauderdale and in New York City, including one next to the Plaza Hotel. The Fort Lauderdale shop, Astrology Life, advertised life coaching and $20 special readings (Associated Press via Fox News, 1 September 2011).

Services offered: tarot, palm, astrology, numerology and spiritual readings, according to the indictment (ABC News, 2013).

Arrested: August 2011, with eight family members, who all later pleaded guilty to lesser related charges (Sun Sentinel, 3 March 2014).

Charges: conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and filing a false tax return (ABC News, 2013).

Verdict: guilty on all 14 counts, federal court in West Palm Beach, 26 September 2013 (CBS Miami and AP, 26 September 2013).

Losses: about $17.8 million documented by victims; prosecutors said the true figure was higher (Sun Sentinel, 2014).

Sentence: just over 10 years, by US District Judge Kenneth Marra, on 3 March 2014. Prosecutors had asked for 22 to 27 years (Sun Sentinel, 2014).

Restitution: more than $17.5 million (Orlando Sentinel, 19 December 2016).

Released: 14 January 2022 (Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, checked 29 October 2026).

What did Rose Marks promise clients, and what was true?

The promise was spiritual. The mechanics were financial.

What clients were told. The indictment, quoted by ABC News on 28 August 2013, says Marks "represented herself as a psychic and clairvoyant, gifted by God to communicate with spirit guides to assist her clients through personal difficulties." Clients were told they "would need to make 'sacrifices', usually consisting of large amounts of money (but also at times including jewelry, gold coins and other property) because 'money was the root of all evil'." CBS Miami summarised the trial testimony the same way: she convinced people that money was the source of evil and that they should give her cash and valuables to be cleansed and returned. Most of it was not returned.

What happened if they stopped. The indictment alleges that if clients stopped paying, Marks's "work" could become "undone and result in harm to the client or client's family or loved ones" (ABC News, 2013). When the family was charged in 2011, the Associated Press reported the indictment's wording that clients were warned they "would contract terrible diseases, suffer horrible financial hardships, and endure terrible catastrophes", that sick relatives would not recover and that they would stay haunted by evil spirits.

Who was targeted. The indictment says the family offered services to walk-in customers, "some of whom would be suffering from mental and emotional disorders, who had recently gone through personal traumatic events and/or who were emotionally vulnerable, fragile and/or gullible" (ABC News, 2013).

Some of the stories told in court were so extraordinary that the judge himself wondered aloud how anyone believed them. Victims testified that Marks claimed she could swap people's souls between bodies, stop a woman from conceiving through IVF, and use her powers to keep the tax authorities away (Sun Sentinel, 3 March 2014).

But the people who believed her were not who you might expect. Judge Marra noted that many were well educated. The Sun Sentinel listed a US Naval Academy graduate with a Columbia MBA, a British lawyer, a grandmother working as a secretary at an accounting firm, and several executives. What they had in common was a moment of pain: bereavement, a broken relationship, illness in the family.

How did a $20 reading become $17.8 million?

The case shows a clear ladder. Each rung looks small from the one below it.

1. The cheap reading. A storefront advertising life coaching and $20 readings (AP via Fox News, 2011).

2. The diagnosis. A curse, an evil spirit, a family hex. The AP reported one client was told the women of her family had been cursed by a jealous sister generations back, and that it was "getting worse with each generation", according to the indictment.

3. The sacrifice. Money, gold coins, jewellery, even heirlooms. The same client handed over her mother's wedding veil and jewellery, prosecutors said.

4. The promise of return. The valuables would be cleansed and given back, sometimes multiplied.

5. The fear of stopping. Stop now and the work is undone, and disease or disaster follows (indictment, quoted by ABC News and AP).

6. The money moves. Prosecutors said the family laundered money through upscale car businesses belonging to a friend (AP, 2011). Marks was convicted of money laundering and money laundering conspiracy.

7. The lifestyle. In 2011 authorities seized Tiffany and Cartier rings and watches, $1.8 million in gold coins, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, luxury cars including a red Ferrari and a white Rolls-Royce, and two South Florida properties (AP via Fox News, 1 September 2011).

That white Rolls-Royce is why so many people search "Rose Marks psychic Rolls Royce". It stands for the gap between what the clients were told, that their money was being purified, and where it actually went.

Look again at rungs two and five. The curse creates the need. The fear of stopping keeps you paying. If you ever feel both at once, a problem only this person can fix and a disaster if you walk away, you are standing on the ladder.

What happened to Jude Deveraux?

The best-known victim was the romance novelist Jude Deveraux, the author of 37 New York Times bestsellers at the time of the trial (ABC News, 2013), who became a client in 1991 and testified against Marks.

According to the Sun Sentinel's report of the sentencing on 3 March 2014, Deveraux testified that Marks convinced her she was secretly having romantic email exchanges with the actor Brad Pitt and the former Secretary of State Colin Powell. She said Marks also exploited her grief after her eight-year-old son died in an accident in October 2005, claiming the boy was not in heaven and that Marks could move his soul into another person "to keep him out of the flames".

Deveraux could prove she had given Marks $12 million, the Sun Sentinel reported, and said she had given more but had disposed of years of records before the investigation began. CBS Miami reported her trial testimony as about $18 million over several years.

The judge's view of her evidence is part of the record too, and it is fair to include it. Judge Marra said he did not find Deveraux "a very reliable witness" on the larger sums she described, and he did not rely on them when setting the sentence (Sun Sentinel, 2014).

Her story is hard to read. Please do not read it as a story about a gullible woman. Read it as a story about what grief does to all of us, and about the kind of person who goes looking for it. Marks's own lawyer said in 2011 that Marks had consoled Deveraux after her son's death, and that there were times Marks "would spend four or five days in her hotel room helping her" (AP via Fox News). Comfort and control can look the same from the inside.

What did Rose Marks and her lawyers say in her defence?

Marks fought the charges at trial and later apologised at sentencing.

Before the trial. Her lawyer, Fred Schwartz, told ABC News in August 2013 that Marks had psychic powers that had run in her family for over 1,500 years. "She said she uses psychic powers to help advise people as a life coach and that she's a spiritual advisor," he said. "She was more of a life coach." He said family members, not his client, provided some of the services, and that she denied the charges. In 2011 another defence lawyer, Norm Kent, said the family ran a legitimate business licensed by the city of Fort Lauderdale: "Fortune telling is a protected activity." He accused the authorities of building the case only from negative stories and ignoring the help the family gave grieving clients (AP via Fox News, 2011).

At sentencing. Marks wept and apologised to her victims, saying her former clients had been some of her best and closest friends. "At the time, I didn't realize what I was doing was wrong," she said. "Now, I realize that I caused a lot of hurt and disappointment." She blamed alcohol, prescription drug abuse and a gambling addiction that she said took hold after the deaths of her husband and young grandson (Sun Sentinel, 3 March 2014).

On appeal. In a later challenge, Marks claimed her trial lawyer had talked her out of a plea deal and defended her poorly. A magistrate judge recommended rejecting the claims as "wholly without merit", writing: "This is a case where [Marks] steadfastly refused to plead guilty and insisted upon a trial. Now that she has been convicted and sentenced, she is unhappy with her decision to proceed to trial" (Orlando Sentinel, 19 December 2016).

The defence raised a real point that is worth keeping: fortune telling for a fee is legal, and the Sun Sentinel noted that prosecutors did not go after the family for telling fortunes. They went after them for promising clients that money would be returned after cleansing rituals when, prosecutors said, the family had no intention of returning it. The jury agreed on every count.

What happened after the verdict?

Here is the case from arrest to release.

August 2011: Marks and eight relatives are arrested. A judge denies bail to the family members (AP via Fox News, 1 September 2011).

Late August 2013: trial begins in West Palm Beach. More than a dozen alleged victims are expected to testify (ABC News, 28 August 2013).

26 September 2013: guilty on all 14 counts (CBS Miami and AP).

3 March 2014: sentenced to just over 10 years. Judge Marra rejects the prosecution's request for 22 to 27 years, saying he did not believe the fraud was sophisticated (Sun Sentinel). Charlie Stack, the retired Fort Lauderdale detective who opened the investigation, said he hoped the sentence sent "a clear message... that these types of crimes will not be tolerated".

December 2016: a magistrate judge recommends rejecting her challenge to the conviction; she owes more than $17.5 million in restitution (Orlando Sentinel, 19 December 2016).

14 January 2022: released from federal custody (Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, checked 29 October 2026).

The other eight family members all pleaded guilty to lesser, related charges and were sentenced separately (Sun Sentinel, 2014). We are not naming them here.

How do you spot a curse removal or cleansing scam?

The Marks case gives you a checklist that works on a shopfront reader, a phone psychic or a stranger in your inbox.

1. A curse you did not know you had. If a reader tells you about a curse, hex or "dark energy" on your money or family in the first session, and then offers to remove it for a fee, slow right down.

2. Your money is the problem. "Money is the root of all evil" and "your money is cursed" are lines designed to get your money into their hands.

3. They want to hold your valuables. No real spiritual practice needs to keep your cash, gold, jewellery or heirlooms. Cleansing, prayer and blessing can all be done with your possessions staying with you.

4. A promise of return. "It will come back to you, three times over" is the hook that makes a huge payment feel safe.

5. Fear of stopping. Warnings that the work will be undone, or that illness or disaster will follow if you stop, are pressure tactics.

6. Secrecy. Being told not to tell family or friends is a classic way to cut you off from the people who would stop you.

7. The price keeps rising. Each "sacrifice" leads to a bigger one.

If you or someone you love is caught in this right now, stop paying first, then talk to someone you trust outside the situation. In the US you can report it to your local police and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Many victims in the Marks case did not come forward at first because they felt embarrassed, prosecutors said (Sun Sentinel, 2014). There is nothing to be embarrassed about. You were targeted at a moment of pain, by people who did it for a living.

What can you do instead if you feel cursed or stuck?

If you feel that something heavy is following you, you are not alone, and you do not need to pay anyone to start feeling lighter.

Our guide Spiritual Cleansing Baths explains three traditional cleansing baths, where they come from and how to do them safely at home, for the cost of some herbs and salt. Candle Color Meanings covers simple candle rituals for protection and new beginnings. And if a run of bad luck is wearing you down, talking to a doctor or a counsellor is a strength, not a failure of faith.

Real astrology is free maths: your birth chart is worked out from your birth date, time and place, and you can see yours on our free birth chart page with no email. We sell one thing, Your Year Ahead, a reading computed by software from your birthday and the real sky. It shows one price before you pay, it never asks for more, it cannot lift curses and does not claim to, and you can ask for a full refund within 30 days. Its page says plainly that it is a tool for reflection, not a prediction.

The clients in this case were looking for what all of us look for in hard times: someone to tell them it would be all right. You deserve that comfort. You deserve to get it from people who never ask you to hand over your savings for it.

Questions people ask