Broke Perth-based Crypto Trader Sentenced to 25 Years for Murdering Mother in $1.15M Insurance Plot

Being broke surely shows the extent to which crypto traders would go to just buy the dip. Or show ex-partners that they’re doing well in the industry despite prices going south every other day.

On this occasion, a Perth man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of his mother, a crime committed in a bid to secure a $1.15M payout from life insurance policies he had taken out on her. 

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Andre Zachary Rebelo, 29, was convicted of killing his mother, Colleen Rebelo, in her Bicton home in May 2020, following a seven-week trial at the Perth Supreme Court.

According to reports, Rebelo maintained his innocence regarding the killing and admitted on the first day of trial to forging documents in an effort to claim a $500,000 payout from one of the policies. 

Judge Calls Murder ‘Egregious and Shocking’

Evidence later revealed that Rebelo had taken out three life insurance policies against his mother in the week preceding her death, naming himself the sole beneficiary. Prosecutors deemed his actions as desperate, driven by mounting debts and a “desire” to prove his success as a cryptocurrency trader to his ex-partner, influencer Grace Piscopo.

During sentencing, Justice Bruno Fiannaca condemned Rebelo’s actions as the “ultimate betrayal” of a mother who had devoted her life to her children. The judge described the offense as a calculated and cold-blooded act, noting that Rebelo had staged his mother’s body in the shower to disguise the killing as a natural death:

You killed your own mother, in a particularly egregious and shocking nature. This is a crime that right-minded people would regard with horror, murdering your mother was the ultimate betrayal of her trust and everything she gave.

Justice Bruno Fiannaca

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