Catarina Migliorini, 21-Year-Old Brazilian Woman Who Auctioned Off Virginity, Says She Was Defrauded

A Brazilian woman who auctioned off her virginity last year is now claiming that she was defrauded and victimized. Catarina Migliorini, 21, says she was misled by the filmmaker who catalogued her story for a documentary, and that she never ended up sleeping with the man who purchased her virginity and remains a virgin.

In an e-mail correspondence with the Huffington Post, Migliorini said Justin Sisely, the Australian filmmaker who helped her auction off her virginity for his film “Virgins Wanted,” had misled her and taken advantage of her for his own gain. "I felt I was a victim. ... I was misled by Mr. Justin Sisely," Migliorini said. "I believe he is trying to defraud me and others."

Migliorini made headlines in October when she supposedly sold her virginity to a Japanese millionaire identified as “Natsu” for $780,000. Sisely helped set up the auction, along with one for a young man named Alexander Stepanov. In a Q+A with Bloomberg Businessweek, Siseley addressed the nuanced legality of arranging the auction.

"There’s a fine line there in terms of legalities," Sisely said. "We do not intend to break laws. We have created the right processes so we can achieve it. My understanding is solicitation is illegal, depending on where you are, and prostitution is not illegal, in Australia. Soliciting is putting a person in a situation where they otherwise wouldn’t do something sexually, and prostitution is sex for money."

Catarina also said Sisely described Natsu to her before she agreed to go through with the deal, but that when she finally met Natsu for the first time in a restaurant, she found that Sisely’s description had not been truthful. Natsu and Migliorini never consummated the deal, she said.

But Migliorini's complaints don’t stop there. She also alleges that she was manipulated by Sisely into going through with the auction, despite earlier promises that she would not necessarily have to.

“Justin made me believe this was a serious documentary about young virgins and said that there might or might not be an auction at the end of the documentary,” Migliorini said. But without her consent, Sisely went ahead and publicly announced the auction before they met up again.

“I agreed to go along with it, because Justin said it would be the best way to draw attention from the media about the project,” she said.

As per her arrangement with Sisely, Migliorini was promised all the money from the bidding as well as 20 percent of the sales from his documentary. However, that money allegedly never came through and Miglorini now believes that she was "Catfished" by Sisely, and that Natsu is not a real person.

It’s not the first time Migliorini and Sisely have disagreed in public. In an interview with the Huffington Post after Migliorini announced that she would donate the majority of her earnings to charity, Sisely suggested it might have been an inauthentic gesture.

"I was surprised she said that because in all my dealings with her, she made it clear that it was a business decision for her," Sisely said then. "Now, given how big this story is in Brazil, she's trapped. If she doesn't give any money to charity, she's going to look bad."