LI psychic charged under little-used NY anti-fortunetelling law after allegedly scamming a woman out of $62K

A self-proclaimed Long Island psychic was charged with grand larceny and fortunetelling — a little-used misdemeanor in New York — after allegedly scamming a senior citizen out of tens of thousands of dollars, officials said. 

Hemanth Kumar Muneppa, 33, of Queens, was arrested at a bank in Hicksville, where employees spotted the alleged scam as the victim — who had already been bilked for $20,000 — was trying to withdraw $42,000 more to pay for psychic services, officials said.

The unidentified woman had received her first pricy reading days earlier, and returned for additional services at Anjana Ji on South Broadway, where Muneppa demanded another $42,000 and drove her to a nearby bank to withdraw it.

Lucky for her, the financial institution’s alert employees warned the woman she was most likely being scammed and alerted the cops. 

Anjana Ji is a psychic service that advertises astrology, “evil spirit removal,” “love spell caster,” and more, according to its website. 

Prosecutors said Muneppa “knowingly and unlawfully engaged in a scheme to defraud and obtain money from the victim by falsely representing himself as a fortune teller with the power to combat evil and dark spirits.”

Muneppa pled not guilty to the charges at his arraignment Friday and released without bail, however is forced to wear an ankle monitor.

The fortunetelling charges are a rarity in Nassau County, and broader New York, with the law stating that unless it is purely for entertainment purposes, receiving money to tell fortunes or give readings is a crime at the state level.

Prosecuting fortunetelling can be difficult, even through grand larceny statutes, and has been challenged on grounds that it violates the First Amendment, according to the Columbia Undergraduate Law Review.

“It is virtually impossible to prove that a fortune teller, who insists that her actions are spiritual or possibly religious in nature, does not actually believe in her practices,” the article from May says.

Another accused fortuneteller was busted in New York City earlier this week for allegedly bilking some one out of $50,000 over a few years with bogus reading — and was initially charged under the law.

But the little-used charged was dropped when Pamela Ufie, 28, was arraigned and she wound up being charged with one count of grand larceny and two counts of fraudulent accosting, according to court documents.

Officials are asking anyone who may have been a victim of Muneppa or Anjana Ji in the alleged fortune-telling scam to contact the Nassau County Police Second Squad at 516-573-6200.