An Australian crypto trader, Andre Zachary Rebelo has been found guilty of killing his mother to claim over a million dollars in life insurance and maintenance.
The 58-year-old mother, Colleen Rebelo was found dead in the shower by her youngest son at her home in Perth, Australia, on May 25, 2020.
It was later discovered that her son, Zachary took out three separate life insurance policies worth a total of $1,200,000 (£500,000) against his mother in the week before she died, and named himself as the sole beneficiary.
Rebelo’s death was sudden and unexpected, but it was never treated as suspicious by first responders who attended her home on the day she died as an autopsy was unable to identify the cause of death.
At the time of the tragedy, Zachary and his former partner Grace Piscopo, an Instagram influencer who had more than one million followers, appeared to be living a carefree lifestyle of luxury.
Social media posts showed them enjoying lavish holidays, driving flashy cars, and living in pampered opulence.
But behind the scenes, the couple were struggling to maintain the facade of their ‘glamourous’ and ‘perfect’ life and had accrued debts of over $120,000, a jury heard.
Just days after his mother’s death, Zachary started hounding the insurance companies to pay out their policies, including one worth $500,000 AUS (£252,000).
He provided the insurers with fake records about his mother’s health and death, phony copies of her medical records and coroner’s report, and even left the insurer a voicemail using an AI voice generator to impersonate his mother’s psychologist.
It was not until years later that an employee at an insurance company suspected the 28-year-old supermarket delivery driver turned cryptocurrency day trader was fraudulently trying to claim life insurance against his mother.
Police began investigating the circumstances surrounding Rebelo’s death following a report of suspected fraud from the insurer, and her son was arrested in connection with her murder two years later.
During a two-day trial at West Australia’s Supreme Court, Zachary pleaded guilty to fraud but denied killing his mother.
His twin sister and his two brothers testified that they knew nothing of the insurance policies taken out on their mother while his father maintained his son’s innocence.
Addressing the jurors, prosecutor Brett Tooker painted a detailed picture of the ‘plastic fantastic’ lifestyle Zachary portrayed on social media and how he would do anything to maintain it.
“To the outside world they were rich and beautiful, but the truth was different,” Tooker told the court.
“Andre was in dire financial trouble, he had lived his life on credit, he had a personal loan and credit card debt of more than $40k he was being pursued by debt collection agencies at the time of his mother’s death.
“He was a cryptocurrency day trader, he had bankrolled his social media profile. By May 2020 he must have thought his world was closing in around him,” he added.
Zachary’s girlfriend also took the stand during the eight-week trial to testify that her former partner had told her he was at his mother’s house on the morning of her death.
However, secretly taped conversations between the pair months later suggested this was not true and that he hid his location from her.
Leading up to his mother’s death, Zachary owed more than $40,000 on a personal loan and in credit card debt.
Zachary had told the court he decided to claim life insurance for the benefit of the whole family, but feared he was defrauding the insurers because he thought his mother had committed suicide.
After he was found guilty, Zachary was remanded in custody following the verdict and will be sentenced on April 4, 2025.