In November of 2022, wealthy cryptocurrency dealer and business manager Andre Zachary Rebelo
was arrested following an investigation into his mother’s death 2 years earlier. The 26-year-old,
who was in a high-profile relationship with Australian social media influencer Gracie Piscopo,
was remanded into custody to face Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court on 1 count of murder, as well as
fraud charges related to the deadly crime. Back on May the 25th of 2020, 58-year-old Colleen Rebelo
was found dead inside her multi-million dollar home in the Perth suburb of Bicton. Her death
hadn’t initially been considered suspicious, as her body didn’t present with obvious signs
of injury. However, investigators uncovered that Rebelo had forged his mother’s will in the days
following her demise, flouting her documented wishes to have her body buried to instead have
her cremated, thus destroying crucial evidence that could have revealed her manner of death.
The man was accused of falsifying other records pertaining to his mother as well,
including in requests for information and a death certificate. It was also detailed how his charges
were, at least in part, linked to attempted life insurance fraud. Following her partner’s arrest,
Piscopo publicly indicated she was in “utter disbelief” about the allegations against him,
which she said had “deeply affected” her and the couple’s 3-year-old son.
#5 - Glaidson Acacio dos Santos
In the summer of 2021, Brazilian authorities began investigating a cryptocurrency
investment firm run by Glaidson Acacio dos Santos. Through his lucrative operation,
dos Santos obtained generational wealth that allowed him to lead a lavish lifestyle, including
a sizable collection of luxury cars and high-end watches. However, when investigators started
taking a closer look at dos Santos’ dealings, suspicions began to arise. In August of 2021,
Brazil’s federal police conducted a raid of the company’s business compound, wherein they seized
many of the man’s expensive personal belongings, along with $28.7 million in cryptocurrencies and
approximately $3 million in cash. The considerable confiscation was reported as the largest crypto
seizure in the nation’s history. Dos Santos was playfully dubbed the “Bitcoin Pharaoh”
after it emerged that his company was nothing more than a highly profitable pyramid scheme,
with which he’d conned more than 122,000 investors out of their money. He and 4 co-conspirators
were arrested in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most expensive neighborhoods following the raid. Then,
in December of 2021, reports surfaced that dos Santos and his associates were being charged in
connection to a murder plot targeting the man’s crypto rival, Nilson Alves da Silva. The latter,
who was 44 at the time, had been shot twice while stopped at a red light earlier that year,
on March the 20th. Da Silva was taken to the hospital, and although he was initially
pronounced to be in critical condition, he ultimately pulled through and survived.
Investigators determined that the attempted hit had been put out after da Silva began to
spread rumors about dos Santos’ imminent arrest. The various charges levied against the former
cryptocurrency magnate were still pending in Brazilian court, as of the latest updates.
#4 - Áurea Vázquez-Rijos
On September the 22nd of 2005, millionaire real estate developer Adam Anhang was leaving the Pink
Skirt Nightclub in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico when he was suddenly stabbed and beaten to death in the
middle of the street. At the time of the attack, Anhang had been accompanied by his estranged wife,
Áurea Vázquez-Rijos, who sustained only minor injuries. In the immediate aftermath,
local authorities zeroed in on 22-year-old Jonathan Roman Rivera, a dishwasher at the club,
as their prime suspect. Anhang had purchased the Pink Skirt as a gift to his wife,
so Rivera was known to the victim and his family. As the investigation progressed,
suspicions also fell upon Vazquez-Rijos herself, who stood to reap substantial financial benefits
from her soon-to-be ex-husband’s death. Rivera was convicted of murder and sentenced to 105
years in prison. However, an independent FBI investigation subsequently exonerated him,
and instead indicted Alex Pabón Colón. It eventually emerged that Colon had been offered
$3 million by Vazquez-Rijos to carry out Anhang’s murder. Facing the inevitability of prosecution,
Vazquez-Rijos fled jurisdiction to Italy. While abroad, the woman reportedly sued the
parents of her dead husband, claiming they’d cheated her out of her rightful inheritance.
Her case was ultimately dismissed, however, and in 2013, she was arrested in Spain. In court,
prosecutors detailed how Vazquez-Rijos had directly communicated with Colon and other
co-conspirators on and before the day of Anhang’s murder. She, her sister, and her
sister’s ex-boyfriend were each found guilty of multiple counts, including conspiracy and the use
of an interstate facility in murder-for-hire. In March of 2019, the US Justice Department released
a statement, revealing that Vazquez-Rijos had been sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
#3 - Ed Buck
Ohio-born businessman Ed Buck was arrested in 2019 following a series of suspicious incidents
at his home in West Hollywood, California. After beginning his career as a model and
actor in Europe, Buck worked for a friend’s data service company, which he subsequently bought out
of bankruptcy and renamed “Gopher Courier”. Five years after the purchase, Buck sold Gopher Courier
for a significant profit. Now a millionaire, Buck shifted his focus to the political sphere,
leading the effort to recall Arizona Governor Evan Mecham from office over allegations of racism and
corruption. According to The Arizona Republic, the anti-Mecham campaign made Buck a household
name in Arizona politics in the late 1980s. He subsequently relocated to West Hollywood,
where he unsuccessfully ran for city council in 2007. The millionaire largely stayed out of
the headlines in subsequent years, until a young African-American man named Gemmel Moore was found
dead at his apartment in July of 2017. Emergency crews came upon Moore, an escort, lying naked on a
mattress in Buck’s living room, with an adult film playing on the television. The police uncovered
adult toys, syringes, and plastic bags filled with what was suspected to be methamphetamine
at the residence. Although the LA County coroner’s report placed Buck at the scene of Moore’s death,
the District Attorney declined to prosecute him. When news of the incident surfaced, rumors began
to circulate regarding Buck’s alleged history of luring young, black, gay men to his apartment,
where he would inject them with methamphetamine for his own twisted gratification. In January of
2019, another African-American man, identified as 55-year-old adult film actor Timothy Michael Dean,
was found dead in Buck’s home under similar circumstances as Moore before him. The following
September, Buck was taken into police custody and charged with three counts of battery causing
serious injury, administering methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house. The arrest occurred
after a 37-year-old man was injected with meth at Buck’s residence, but fortunately survived. In
April of 2022, having been convicted of 9 federal charges, Buck was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
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#2 - Peter Chadwick
The lives of an affluent family from Newport Beach, California were irreparably destroyed
one day in October of 2012. Real estate developer Peter Chadwick, who’d earned millions of dollars
during the course of his professional career, hadn’t picked up his sons from the bus stop
after school, nor had his wife of 21 years, Quee Choo. The following morning, Peter got
in contact with San Diego authorities, telling them Quee Choo had been murdered by a house
painter named Juan, who’d subsequently forced him to remove his wife’s body from their house,
which rested within a purportedly secure gated community. Law enforcement immediately found
Peter’s story suspicious, and after further investigation, he was arrested on suspicion
of committing the murder himself. Upon being freed on a $1 million bond, Peter fled south to Mexico,
where he remained on the run for several years. According to official reports on his time as
a fugitive, the man used a number of aliases to avoid recognition, including the name Paul Cook.
He moved from small town to small town until eventually settling in the city of Pátzcuaro,
4 hours west of Mexico City, where he bought a condo and found a job. To explain his solitude,
Peter claimed that his family had been onboard the infamous Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that
disappeared in 2014. In May of 2016, he was involved in a car crash that claimed the life
of a local woman named Claudia Soto and left her sister in a coma for 15 days. Although he wasn’t
ultimately found to have been criminally liable for the deadly accident, Peter left Pátzcuaro in
the aftermath, fleeing to a town called Valle de Bravo. Shortly thereafter, however, the man
saw an investigative report on TV detailing the US Marshals’ attempts to locate him. Panicked by
the news of the escalating manhunt, Peter skipped town once again. In August of 2019, he was finally
tracked down by the authorities, after nearly 5 years on the run. He later pleaded guilty to
strangling and drowning his wife following an argument over the possibility of divorce. In
February of 2022, then-57-year-old Peter was sentenced to 15 years to life behind bars.
#1 - Andrew Rodriguez
A self-described “multi six-figure earner” from New Braunfels, Texas was arrested for running
over a man on a moped on the night of June the 5th of 2021. 34-year-old Andrew Rodriguez,
who reportedly earned his millions through cryptocurrency investments,
had gone to Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday. While driving to a party with his fiancée,
24-year-old Sabrina Juenger, in the passenger seat of his Lamborghini Huracan, Rodriguez
reached speeds of up to 141 miles per hour. As he blazed down Russell Road near Decatur Boulevard,
the man slammed into the back of a moped being ridden by 58-year-old Walter “Jay”
Anderson. The impact of the collision was such that Anderson was cut in half,
with his torso reportedly landing more than 200 feet away from the rest of his body. The moped
was crushed beneath the Lamborghini. Upon the arrival of law enforcement, Rodriguez
emerged from the wreckage and said, “I just killed someone”. Although it’s unclear whether Rodriguez
was administered a sobriety test at the scene, officers immediately noted the smell of alcohol,
as well as the fact that the man’s eyes were watery and bloodshot. He subsequently faced a
felony charge of DUI resulting in death, the second DUI on his record. Back in September
of 2015, the self-made millionaire had been pulled over while driving drunk in El Paso,
Texas. Rodriguez’s Mercedes had expired tags, and he “had trouble keeping his balance” while
speaking with the police. He later pleaded guilty to DUI, for which he was given a suspended 1-year
jail sentence. His probationary period had concluded in January of 2019. For the fatal
Las Vegas accident, Rodriguez was given a prison term of 6 to 20 years. Anderson’s family expressed
dissatisfaction with the punishment, claiming the drunk driver should have been charged with murder.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather inherit a large estate and lead a comfortable,
but purposeless life OR work extremely hard for decades, affording you and your descendants
financial security in the process? Let us know in the comments section below!