Woman worth £500,000,000 kept locked up in beach house by chauffeur is finally free
'I got up, picked up my bag and walked out the back door. He wanted to follow, but I walked faster than him.'
An octogenarian multi-millionaire who dropped off the radar for two years was actually being held hostage by her driver, it’s been revealed.
Regina Gonçalves, 88, says her former driver José Chaves kept her apart from her family for a decade and kept her captive in her own home for two years.
She managed to slip past Chaves and sneak out of the back door of her home in Copacabana, Brazil, in January – and since then she’s been recovering at her brother’s house.
She spoke to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper last week, where she described leaving through the back door and calling a taxi to make her getaway.
‘I got up, picked up my bag and walked out the back door. He wanted to follow, but I walked faster than him,’ she said of her bizarre escape.
Regina returned to her apartment last week, and while Chaves, 53, hasn’t been arrested, he’s been ordered to remain 250ft away from her at all times.
However she claims he is still in control of her assets, and that during her captivity he sold off her $1.9million (£1.5million) jewellery collection, sold a mansion in São Conrado below market value, and emptied her bank account.
Regna was married to Nestor Gonçalves, the owner of Copag, a card-making company.
The couple had no children and Regina inherited his fortune, which is currently valued at $500million (£399million).
Regina was known for hosting lavish parties, but these suddenly ended in May 2022 and Rio de Janeiro police received an anonymous report indicating that she was missing.
She stopped responding to phone calls and messages with Chaves communicating on her behalf, saying she was unwell.
Regina said she first hired Chaves in 2011 after he was recommended by friends.
Diário do Rio online news portal reported that Regina wed Chaves in 2021 before he allegedly began plotting on stealing her fortune – but Regina denies that they were ever married.
In her interview with Folha de São Paulo, she said: ‘He was never my husband, he was a chauffeur. I am the widow of the great businessman Nestor Gonçalves.’
Her family claims that Chaves subjected her to psychological and domestic violence and threatened her.
In a video entered in court, Regina and Chaves agreed they would assume guardianship and legal representation over the other person in the event either of them became mentally incapable.
But friends and family believe Regina was coerced into the agreement after Chaves allegedly drugged her.
Regina’s nephew Álvaro O’Hara tried to report his concerns to police after she gave him a note begging for help, but he stopped after one of Chaves’ ‘henchmen’ followed him to the police station, and he says there have been three attempts made on his life since.
He said: ‘When I arrived at the mansion, I was approached by a guy armed with a silencer on his revolver.
‘The only reason I wasn’t killed was because one of the condominium security guards thought the movement was strange, passed by on a motorcycle, honked the horn, pressed the bell and the guy ran away scared.
‘My aunt lived coerced, oppressed and humiliated in private prison. She suffered all types of psychological and physical violence.’
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