MOSCOW, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Eleven people were charged with fraud as Moscow police broke up a ring of psychics who claimed to solve personal problems through magic, police said.
The suspects were detained in a series of 15 police raids in which computers, documents and client lists were seized. The alleged psychics told clients they could solve family and other problems through magical seances, and brought in around 200 million rubles ($6.3 million), the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.
The clients included about 400 people from across Russia and from other former Soviet republics, a police statement said.
Although fraud is punishable in Russia by a 10-year prison term, superstition and fortune-telling play a prominent role in Russian folk tradition, RIA Novosti noted.
