Daniel Carter is a man who fell for a woman named Lena, who turned out was part of a scam to get his money.
History[]
Carter ran a nonprofit building homes for disadvantaged communities. He had been a widower for a few years. His friend told him about a website, Yourczarina.com, which allowed him to meet women from Russia. On the site, he found Lena and chatted with her online, eventually meeting her in Russia. After meeting her in Russia, he convinced her to move to New York City and they lived together for two months. However, Lena was supposedly kidnapped after their engagement party and held for ransom.
Russian Brides[]
Carter paid her ransom and he was supposed to get her back at the carousel at Chelsea Piers. However, instead of the kidnappers and Lena, he was met by Detectives Olivia Benson and Nick Amaro of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit, who had found a woman who was brutally raped and murdered to the point of being left unrecognizable, but her tattoos led to Daniel. He was distraught over Lena's presumed death despite paying her "kidnappers" the ransom.
It was revealed Lena pulled a scam on Daniel to pretend she was kidnapped for ransom and run when she took the money. Daniel helped discover this when he ran a search online and saw a profile on a different website, Russianswans.com, and saw Lena on the site under the name "Irene", with a different haircut and color, along with a necklace he gave her. Her accomplice, mobster and sex trafficker Liev Bodrov, killed one woman in prostitution to make her look like Lena to reinforce the con, as they had repeated with other men. Bodrov was eventually killed during a standoff with police, and Lena was arrested when she tried to escape after shooting another cop. Carter is then asked to testify against Lena and though initially reluctant, eventually agrees to do so. (SVU: "Russian Brides")