A best-selling ‘sexposé’ author has been arrested in the Bahamas for allegedly kidnapping her son and fleeing around the world for almost two years, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Barbara Stcherbatcheff, an American expatriate, investment banker and former newspaper columnist, who wrote a book she subtitled ‘The Devil Wears Pinstripes’, disappeared in February 2023 along with her eight-year-old son, Valentin Stankowski.
The blonde divorcee, 42, picked up the young man at her ex-husband’s home in Zurich, Switzerland, but did not return him at the end of a scheduled week-long visit, according to authorities.
Interpol issued a missing person alert with a ‘yellow notice’ listing several countries (United Kingdom, Ireland, Croatia, United States, Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica) as possible places the fugitive mother could have taken Valentín.
But DailyMail.com can reveal the mystery of the tug-of-war was finally solved on Tuesday when Bahamian cops stormed an exclusive gated community on the island of New Providence and tracked down the couple.
Stcherbatcheff was staying 5,000 miles from her home in Zurich with a local man described as her new boyfriend, a police source told DailyMail.com.
She was arrested in exclusive Lyford Cay, a private haven that is home to an array of super-rich expats, including members of the Bacardi family and British businessman Joe Lewis. Homes there can cost up to $70 million.
Former residents include Sean Connery and author Arthur Hailey.
Barbara Stcherbatcheff, 42, was arrested in the Bahamas for allegedly kidnapping her ten-year-old son Valentin and fleeing across the world for almost two years.
The boy was declared missing (Interpol even issued a ‘yellow notice’ in 2023) after his mother picked him up from his father’s house but was unable to take him back.
Valentin, who has dual Swiss and British citizenship, turned 10 in October. He was found unharmed.
He is being cared for by the island’s authorities while they await the arrival of his father Daniel Stankowski on a flight from Switzerland, our source added.
Stcherbatcheff, a former columnist for The London Paper and author of the 2009 Sunday Times bestseller, Confessions of a City Girl, was arrested.
Interpol has not released any further details, but the former couple are believed to have been caught in a heated custody dispute before Valentin disappeared.
Stcherbatcheff appeared in a Bahamian court on Wednesday, giving her name as Barbara Lynn Murphy and insisting that she had not gone by Stcherbatcheff in years.
Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux informed the little suspect that Swiss authorities were seeking her extradition on charges of child kidnapping and theft.
Prosecutor Darnell Dorsette said Valentin was safe and well in social services custody.
For now, Stcherbatcheff will remain locked up in Nassau’s grim Fox Hill prison, the same rat-infested jail where fellow American Lindsay Shiver is being held as she awaits trial for allegedly plotting her husband’s murder.
Stcherbatcheff is a former columnist for The London Paper and author of the 2009 Sunday Times bestseller, Confessions of a City Girl. She published the book using the pseudonym ‘Suzana S’ to offer a wild, insider’s account of the city of London that won critical acclaim.
Stcherbatcheff grew up in Woodstock, Illinois, attended Colgate University in New York, and attended the prestigious Tuck Bridge program at Ivy League Dartmouth.
He emigrated to the UK to pursue a career in investment banking and later became a journalist, writing for Newsweek and The Daily Telegraph.
From 2008 to 2009, Stcherbatcheff wrote an anonymous ‘City Girl’ column for The London Paper exposing the excesses of life in finance.
She developed the theme further in Confessions of a City Girl, which she subtitled The Devil Wears Pinstripes using the pseudonym Suzana S to offer a wild, insider account of the city of London that won critical acclaim.
“When city girl Barbara Stcherbatcheff first set foot on the Square Mile she had no idea of the fight for survival she would face over the next five years,” reads the book’s promotional blurb.
‘But despite the erotic dance clubs and the million-dollar losses; divorce in the City and the worst recession since the 1930s, City Girl was still standing. He took on the boys at their own game and won.
Stcherbatcheff gave multiple interviews after the book’s publication, telling German newspaper Der Speigel: “Most people imagine me a little crazier.
«As a city girl, for example, I used bad words when I lost money. But my male colleagues were much worse.
“They banged on tables, threw the mouse across the room and smashed monitors when things weren’t going well.”
For now, Stcherbatcheff will remain locked up in the grim Fox Hill prison in Nassau, in the Bahamas.
In 2011 she held the Guinness World Record for running a marathon dressed as an animal, completing the feat in three hours, 42 minutes and 11 seconds dressed as a peacock.
A year later, Stcherbatcheff recorded a news segment for the BBC criticizing the “sheer arrogance and stubbornness” of her male counterparts in the wake of a financial scandal that led to the resignation of former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond.
“I worked in the financial center of London for five years, surrounded by fast cars, luxurious lifestyles and champagne that many people envy,” explained Stcherbatcheff.
‘Sounds great right? For the boys, absolutely. But fun and games have a dark side.’
Her antidote to the greed and risk-taking that she said was endemic in banking was to install women in top positions.
“They say trading is a man’s game, but I don’t believe in the hype,” Stcherbatcheff added.
‘Everyone knows that women are more intuitive, less aggressive, selfish and power-hungry than men.
“What this means is that women tend to be more consistent traders and don’t rack up big losses.”
In 2011 she set the Guinness World Record for running a marathon dressed as an animal, completing the feat in three hours, 42 minutes and 11 seconds dressed as a peacock.
in a 2014 article for Newsweek Stcherbatcheff explained why she and a growing number of Americans were renouncing their citizenship due to the burden of filing complicated tax returns from abroad.
In 2016 she moved back to Switzerland, where she worked as head of corporate communications for international investment firm RobecoSAM, according to online profiles.
On X, formerly Twitter, Stcherbatcheff described herself as a “journalist, author and economic commentator.” Marathon runner’ but her profile has been inactive since 2014.
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