Fraudacious - Novel in association with BBC Studios

When London boutique owner Bridget Hutchcroft befriends a glamorous client at her Knightsbridge dress agency, she believes she has met a Russian socialite with vast wealth and powerful connections. Ekaterina Barrett glides through luxury apartments, London’s finest hotels and European high society dinners with unwavering confidence. Chauffeurs wait outside. Extravagant goods pile up. Money, it seems, is no object.

Until it vanishes.

Bridget generously lends her wealthy new friend more than a million pounds, but it proves to be a disastrous mistake.

When Ekaterina refuses to pay the money back, Bridget’s loyal circle of friends step in. Journalist Vicky Baker joins them in a frantic search for answers. It turns out Bridget is not the only one claiming to be severely out of pocket thanks to the broken promises of her mysterious former friend.

What follows is an international investigation stretching from London to Vienna, the Netherlands and Monaco. Courtrooms, casinos and opera houses all reveal fragments of an increasingly bizarre story.

Witnesses describe charm turning into control. Court appearances descend into farce. Documents emerge that challenge everything Ekaterina has claimed under oath. At the centre of it all is a burning question. If Ekaterina now insists she owns nothing, who is funding the lavish life she continues to live?

Fraudacious follows Bridget’s fight for justice as the legal battle intensifies and Ekaterina’s world begins to fracture while she continues to maintain her innocence. Each episode peels back another layer of performance, power, and deception, revealing how easily wealth can be manipulated and how devastating the cost can be for those who are lured in.

This is a story about trust and illusion. About how the promise of wealth can be as potent as the real thing. And about whether the truth can finally catch up with someone who has spent a lifetime trying to stay one step ahead of everyone on her trail.