KEY WEST, Fla A man was held on a $1 million bond and authorities were searching for a psychic in connection with a plot to defraud a wealthy Swiss woman of $200,000 for taming her evil spirits, police said on Thursday. Louis George, 61, was being held at the Monroe County Jail while authorities searched for his alleged partner, 41-year- old self-described psychic Paula Marion, Monroe sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.

Marion, who ran a tarot card and palm reading shop in a small house on Key West's historic Duval Street, and George were alleged to have used fake money to convince Yvonne Cavin, 52, to pay more than $200,000 to appease the bad spirits around her, a sheriff's department statement said. Marion befriended Cavin in the summer of 1995 through free psychic readings, investigators said.

She eventually convinced Cavin that she would have to put up $15,000 in cash to tame the spirits plaguing her. The psychic loaned Cavin the cash and the phony money was burned in a ceremonial bowl. Cavin later wired money to the psychic to reimburse her, police said. A few months later, Marion told Cavin she would have to put up another $160,000 to appease the spirits.

Marion and George again loaned Cavin $160,000 in a briefcase left on the steps of a Miami church. Cavin was instructed not to look in the case or it would invalidate the ceremony, the sheriff's statement said. She again wired money to reimburse the pair. During the time she knew Marion, Cavin was the victim of other scams and lost $200,000 in total, police said.

Cavin began to fear she had been scammed when she saw Marion's husband driving a new Mercedes sports car shortly after one transaction, the statement said. This certainly is a major fraud case as far as we're concerned, Herrin said. But this fraud or type of fraud happens all across the country. (Reuters)