Her boyfriend locked himself in a Dubai hotel bathroom, sent her home, then vanished forever. Years later, police revealed 'Eric' wasn't real
'He asked for my number and said if he memorized it, we had to make plans. I thought it was a neat trick,' Arcanjo recalled
When people say, 'My partner has a double life,' many would assume the partner is cheating or has another family. Unfortunately for Brazilian woman Stephanie Arcanjo, her partner's 'double life' was something she never could have imagined. She had been together with Eric Fauchene Lopes for almost four years. Arcanjo said she had felt secure in the relationship and believed they were building a future together. But during their Dubai vacation, he started acting weird. He locked himself in the bathroom and kept flushing the toilet. When he came out, he told her she needed to leave right away. That was the last time she saw him, Arcanjo told The Observer, who published a report on September 20, 2026. Three years later, the federal police summoned her, and she learned his real identity.
Planned a future
Stephanie Arcanjo lived in São Paulo and worked weekends at a nightclub, where she met Eric Lopes. She had a teenage daughter and said her relationship with the girl’s father had been turbulent, leaving her wary of dating. But she said things were different with Lopes. "He asked for my number and said if he memorized it, we had to make plans. I thought it was a neat trick." He called her the following day. Their relationship progressed, and Arcanjo quit her nightclub job. She worked with Lopes at his jewelry store. A year later, he convinced her to move to Brasília for their business. He also had dreams for their 'future.' "He always said we would move to the US one day, still working with stones, perhaps opening the shop there."
Suspicious toilet flushing
She noticed certain changes in Lopes' behavior when Russia invaded Ukraine. Several scandals about Russia's covert operations in Brazil came up. "He started acting differently. He travelled more. He would come back increasingly silent, withdrawn." He also stopped her from uploading photos of them on social media, got angry when she did not straighten her curls, and she blamed the war. One time, he ditched their golf plans for last-minute travel. He came back with a new phone, but Arcanjo was too afraid to question him. Months went by, and things seemed normal.
For New Year's Eve, he went to Dubai for business meetings, and Arcanjo followed later. Things were going well during the first few days, but on December 30, 2022, he locked himself in the bathroom for a long time. "He was constantly flushing the toilet. I don’t know if he was talking on his cell phone or getting rid of something. When he came out, he said I had to go back to Brazil, and I was to pack my bags immediately."
Calls from Kazakhstan
Ever since the Dubai incident, things had been radio silent. Arcanjo heard from Lopes a month later from a Kazakhstan number. He convinced her they were still together. "Even though he couldn’t come to Brazil, he’d find a way for us to keep the relationship going." He also gave her legal permission to terminate their apartment contract, asked her to sell their cars and business, and to send him the money. It took Arcanjo four months to complete everything. When she reached out, he said, "You’ll never hear from me again. I’m going to disappear." Broken-hearted, Arcanjo looked for him everywhere, but couldn't find him. She slowly rebuilt her life and moved back to São Paulo.
Why Brazil became a useful cover
Brazil became an important base for Russian “illegals” — deep-cover intelligence officers who built convincing Brazilian identities before being deployed elsewhere. A New York Times investigation, discussed by PBS, found that Brazil’s diverse population made it easier for operatives to blend in, while its passports offered broad visa-free access. Investigators also found weaknesses in the country’s birth-record system that could be exploited to create convincing identities. One of the best-known cases involved Sergey Cherkasov, a Russian intelligence officer who lived under a Brazilian identity before securing an internship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Another alleged operative, Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich, lived in Rio with a Brazilian girlfriend and ran a 3D-printing business before disappearing during a trip to Malaysia. Greek authorities later linked him to a Russian identity and said his wife was another suspected undercover operative living in Greece.
'At least I’ve got it out there'
In September 2025, Arcanjo was working at a bakery when she received a summons from the federal police. She had just gotten her life back on track and was worried he had derailed it once more. "I was so scared, I thought he might have been 'trafico.' I thought my life was about to be destroyed all over again." But she found out that Eric Fauchene Lopes was one of at least nine suspected Russian ‘illegals’ identified during Brazil’s counterintelligence investigation. Lopes' real name was Aleksandr Andreyevich Utekhin. Now, Arcanjo worked as a community organizer and cleaned apartments on the side. When asked if she was afraid of telling the truth, she said, "I am, but I think it’s important if something happens to me, at least I’ve got it out there."
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