Court sentences Tinder scammer to six years in prison after executive suffers R$ 1.5 million loss in SP

Renato Sérgio Leandro, 57 years old, has been imprisoned since May in a Provisional Detention Center (CDP) in Mauá, in Greater SP, after having his arrest ordered by the Court, as part of the process in which he was convicted on October 19th.

g1 tries to locate his defense, but received no response. At trial, he admitted the crime and apologized to the victim (see below).

Renato Leandro was denounced by now 59-year-old lawyer R.L, one of his many victims in the city. She asked not to be identified, due to the shame and psychological situation she has experienced in the last five years, in the search for the forger's conviction.

At the time she met Renato, the commercial executive had just started law school.

According to the process, Renato Sérgio and the victim met on Tinder in June 2021. At the time, R.L was divorced and without a partner for five years and said she was seduced and emotionally involved by the accused.

"As soon as we met, he showed himself to be a rare and gentlemanly man, who seemed to have fallen from the sky. He opened the door for me to get in and out of the car, took me home, paid for dinners... Right from the first meeting, he started saying love vows, exchanging compliments and giving a lot of attention", he told g1.

"It was pandemic time and things had just reopened. Everyone was going through those days of uncertainty and loneliness. Meeting a guy who looked like a prince seemed like a dream, which then turned into the worst nightmare of my life", said the woman.

In the process, the lawyer, who until then was only in the 3rd semester of Law, said that Renato Sérgio started telling stories about his family problems.

"He introduced himself as a university professor of psychology and behavioral psychologist, father of three children living outside of Brazil. And he also took care of his mother, who was fighting cancer. A few weeks after we met, he stated that his health insurance company didn't want to pay for part of the treatment and he was desperate", recalls the girl.

The first loan requested was for R$10,000, which he paid almost in full a few days later. But this mother got worse and every week he came with news about the struggle with the elderly woman's medical insurance.

"At some point, he stated that he had received compensation of R$1.3 million from his mother's operator and that he was just waiting for the court's approval to receive it. He then asked for a loan of R$12,000 to give as a gift to the hospital where he was going to leave his mother, until the insurance company deposited the money. He suffered, sent tearful messages, at the same time as he swore of love and stated that he had finally found his soulmate", said the woman.

"It was all so believable and real. He came home, took me to his work studio. Nothing seemed strange about this story. He got involved with me and I decided to lend him the money. Everything was fine, he had a history of being a good payer and had a supposed 'judicial shortcoming' in his favor. He even offered me a family jewel from his grandmother, which he said was worth R$50,000, as a guarantee. But the jewel was no more than R$ 150 reais, I found out later", recalled the girl.

Renato Sérgio Leandro, 57 years old, has been detained since May in a Provisional Detention Center in Mauá, in Greater SP. — Photo: Reproduction

Trip to Canada

His problems, however, did not stop there. The forger said, days later, that he was going to travel to Canada for the wedding of one of his children. He spent a few days without daily contact with his supposed girlfriend and only sent sparse messages.

These messages became rare, until one day he wrote saying that he had made a stopover in the United States to visit a friend and had a heart attack. He was sent to a private hospital that was charging him more than R$200,000 in hospital expenses.

With no one to turn to, Renato Sérgio Leandro said, as reported by the victim of the legal process, that he would only be able to return to the country and leave the USA after paying the bill.

"I didn't have that money and I didn't know what to do. The days went by and the hospital bill only increased. And he said he was desperate to return to Brazil and see me. It was then that he suggested that I take out a loan from my bank to help him", the woman recalled.

R. L. says that the dilemma of helping the supposed great love of his life hammered in his head for several days. The messages of affection and delicacy surrounded her, until the woman finally took out a bank loan of R$322,000 to help her boyfriend.

The promise was that the installments would be paid with the payment of the million-dollar court sentence from the mother's agreement.

The money was sent to the current account in his name in 29 bank transfers registered in the process and, as soon as the money was transferred, Renato Sérgio Leandro disappeared.

"In the first few days it was a mix of worry and despair, because I didn't know if he was alive or dead. As the whole story seemed credible, I had a hard time believing that I had fallen for a scam", said the lawyer.

Confirmation only came later, in November 2021, when a friend saw the scammer's photo in a TV Record report.

The one on the screen when the report was shown said: “Man seduces women to get money” and brought a series of testimonies from women who were in the same situation as her.

"We never want to believe that we were the victim of a scam. Especially of this nature, by a man who took advantage of our weakness to manipulate, lie and steal from us. It's one of the worst feelings in the world, it can't even be described. Everything collapsed", said the lawyer.

Renato Sérgio Leandro is in prison for scamming women he met on social networking sites. — Photo: Reproduction/Social Networks

Courage to fight

Because of the loan, R.L had to sell his own car to cover part of the interest on the overdraft debt.

Even so, he was unable to pay off the bank loan and the accumulated debt now exceeds R$1.5 million, due to bank interest.

She had psychological problems, went into depression and even thought about taking her own life.

But instead of just lamenting and crying over the pain of the very serious blow, the lawyer was the first to file a request for an investigation with the Civil Police and the Public Ministry.

She looked for other victims, found the forger's relatives and included them all in the process that ended with the conviction of Renato Sérgio Leandro, with the help of a delegate and a clerk from the 9th Police Station for the Defense of Women, also in the West Zone.

The three discovered that, in fact, Renato was divorced, father of five children and worked as a masseur.

In the interrogation given to the Court on the day of the trial, Renato Leandro himself reported having already been arrested, prosecuted and convicted of extortion in the 1990s, when he served a semi-open sentence.

One of the witnesses heard at the trial is an ex-wife of the defendant. She said that she met him as a massage therapist at Shopping Eldorado and stated that he had lost his mother during the Covid-19 crisis.

During their union, he had never borrowed money and shared all the household expenses when he started living with her.

According to the ex-wife stated, the accused disappeared without further justification in mid-2019 or 2020, returning to look for her only after 2021.

During this period, she received several messages on social media from other women saying they had been victims of Renato Leandro's scams. But he didn't know any of them and didn't know the whereabouts of his ex-partner, whom he tried to help psychologically after his reappearance.

In the sentence that sentenced the forger, judge Monica Tucunduva Spera Manfio sentenced the defendant to five years in prison for embezzlement, in addition to one year for psychological violence against the woman, denying the defendant the right to appeal in freedom, at the risk of continuing the criminal activity.

Renato Leandro was also ordered to return R$322,260.00, as compensation for the victims' losses.

"The facts went beyond the scope of a simple financial loss, having an intense impact on the victim's emotional stability and personal autonomy. Using the trust and feelings she had for him, the accused involved her in successive situations of supposed urgency, keeping her convinced that the amounts would be refunded. As a result of the debts she incurred, she lost her job, had to sell her car and faced intense emotional suffering, even considering an attempt on her own life", declared the judge.

Already trained as a lawyer and with an OAB in hand, R.L said that she voluntarily acted as an assistant prosecutor for the prosecution during the process. She also sues the forger in the civil sphere, to attempt a monetary correction of the amount sentenced, in order to try to pay the bank that still owes.

"I don't know if I will recover this amount at some point, because I don't know if he has the resources or assets to be seized and paid. But I feel relieved as a woman, to know that Justice was done. There were so many comings and goings at DDM, to speak with the clerk Célia [Dominicali], who listened to me, helped find the victims, welcomed me. Knowing that Justice was done took a weight off my shoulders. It's a victory for the union of so many women", she stated.

“We hope that, after this report is published, more women will come forward to the police station or prosecutor's office to report this embezzler and deepen our rights”, he said.

What the convicted defendant said

Renato Sérgio Leandro, 57 years old, has been detained since May in a Provisional Detention Center in Mauá, in Greater SP. — Photo: Reproduction/Social Networks

The report was unable to find Renato Sérgio Leandro's defense. But in the sentence to which g1 had access, he admitted at trial that he had made mistakes and deceived the victim to get money, but denied that he had started the relationship with financial interest.

He stated that he used the amounts to pay for the treatment of his mother, who later died, and said he was sorry and willing to return the money. According to him, the debts with the lawyer accumulated and the situation became a “snowball”.

The massage therapist also reported having faced emotional problems and depression.

He stated that he did not remember several lies he told the victim nor that he promised legal compensation in excess of R$1 million.