A 55-year-old woman, convicted of leading a criminal organization that peddled deadly medical advice through a fake AI, has been arrested in Ostia, near Rome. She received a definitive nine-year prison sentence for charges including criminal association, unauthorized practice of medicine, and death as a consequence of another crime, committed between 2019 and 2021.
The investigation, coordinated by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office and conducted by the Piedmont capital’s Postal Police, targeted the ‘Unisono’ cult. The group operated in the Turin area and on social media and messaging platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Authorities state the arrested woman, identified as the group’s leader, convinced victims to follow health directives from a purported artificial intelligence named “Marie,” falsely claimed to alter human DNA via quantum servers. Dozens received arbitrary and dangerous medical instructions from her, including drug dosage alterations, cessation of prescribed treatments, and refusal of oncology therapies. In one fatal case, a woman was persuaded to abandon chemotherapy and reject necessary surgeries.
The organization also included an IT technician, a physiotherapist, and a treasurer, who have already been convicted. The estimated illicit turnover is €100,000, though actual figures may be higher.
Assunta Esposito, Director of Turin’s Cyber Security Operations Center, stated: “This morning’s arrest concludes an extremely complex, multi-faceted investigation, also emotionally impactful as it revealed stories of human suffering – the stories of people turning to this ‘healer’ in hope of a cure. These individuals were psychologically subjugated, removed from their families, placed in a state of true psychological subservience to be better manipulated. I recall the case of a tetraplegic man subjected to public humiliation, a tactic used to justify the lack of improvement from her supposed treatments.”