My previous post and the publicity around the name of Cristiano De Angelis have uncovered a staggering number of testimonials from people throughout Asia. All of whom without exception had negative (sometimes very negative) things to say about the man and his behaviour¹As an aside, the fact that he was able to so easily slip from one person to the next and leave such a trail of universally negative experiences, without anybody successfully connecting the dots until now, raises some serious question about the safety mechanisms built into Couchsurfing..

To clearly show that my friend’s incident in Kyoto is not an isolated claim, I have taken the liberty to gather all sourced testimonials posted on CS threads or in the comments to my original blog post, and copy them below in chronological order. People (understandably) concerned about the credibility of my sole voice may want to look through these: while they may not fall under criminal law, they all paint an unambiguously negative portrait of a rude, untrustworthy, sexually aggressive and deceitful individual.

There is also a clear evolution: as he gets farther from home (and, presumably, from people who may recognise him and report his behaviour to his friends and family), Mr. De Angelis becomes increasingly rude and aggressive in his encounters.

Every single quote comes with a link to the source and to the poster’s public Couchsurfing profile (every single one of them have themselves flawless profiles, sometimes totaling hundreds of positive reviews from visitors):

#1 – Faro, Portugal, mid-2011

I met this strange “person” same months ago in one meeting at Artistas as well.
I remember my sister was with me and said this guy started have a sexual conversation with her. Of course i spoke with the guy and he stop. But was not nice and bad example for my sister start hearing about couchsurfinf..

#2 – Bangkok, Thailand, late 2011

I hosted him one night in Bangkok and I had my first negative experience hosting this guy. His profile looked good with a lot of references. I felt uneasy the very first minute I met him but I tried to tell myself that i thought too much cus my previous CSer was terrific.

Luckily that nothing “that far” happened to me and you know what I did. He tried to talk sexually topic with me and i felt very uncomfortable. I had to tell him I am homosexual and not interested in guys!!! I didnt know what to do so I thought that might turn him off. I was alert the whole night cus I didnt trust him. He used my computer and Internet a lot, talked very loud on skype, made a mess in my apartment and bathroom. He also complained about the a/c, mattress and the floor. I wrote it clearly that I can only provide floor space and mattress and in the middle of the night he asked to sleep in the bed with me which of course I strongly said no.

After he left, talked to few friends that I was going to leave a negative comment for him. Before doing that, I wrote to two people in Europe who hosted him and left negative comment. They shared with me the bad experience. But the two hosts were men. So the experience was something about his rudeness and srtangeness. I then left him a negative comment. Later he must have seen the comment I left, he had been trying to call me day and night but I didn’t answer his phone because I did not want to speak with him. I assumed that he would ask me to change the comment as he did to one host in Germany. This host left him a negative comment and he called him asking him to change it which he refused. After that day & night with many calls from Cristiano, the net few days, I found that his profile with a lot of references was deleted.

[…]

For the ignorance of being a good couch surfer like helping keep the place clean, respecting your host, taking care of your own bill and etc., I could try to deal with these things because people are raised differently but the only thing I feel that it is insecure and agaisnt the morality is that it concerns sexual harrasment. I did not like when this person tried to talk to me about the sexual topic and I had to try to change the subject. The funny thing was I felt something not right about it and I had to say that I am homosexual and not interested in men. I mentioned that more that one time because he was not certain if I meant it. During the night, he compained about the mattress and the floor that it was too hard for him to sleep (I put my couch condition in my profile. He should know what he can expect before sending me a resquest and shoul not complain about something you know in advance.) and then asked if he could sleep in the bed with me. Of course i firmly said no and it sounds like I had a cold hard leaving him sleep in a bad condition. I could not sleep the whole night. I thought about asking him to leave immediately at 3 am in the morning which I am sure some of you might support me doing this but let me tell you why I did not do it. I thought that if i made him angry or whatsoever, what harm might come to me? I was alone in my place in the middle of the night, and I took him into my place.

After he left, I talked to some friends on CS, and even wrote to two people who left negative comments asking for the experience they had with him. My friends encouraged me to leave a negative comment and I eventually did it. I thought well before I did it. Before accepting to host him, I read his profile and saw that most of the comments were positive. Thats why I hosted him. However, after seeing the negative comment I left, he called me so many times, all day and night. I did not answer because I knew what he would ask me and I did not want to talk to him anymore. One of his hosts who left a negative comment told me that he got a call from this person asking him to change the comment. Few days later, I found out that his profile was deleted.

Mandy Itthikaiwan [original post 1] [post 2]

#3 – Siem Reap, Cambodia, October 2011

Ohmygoodness! He sent me a couch request, and had I not been hosting someone else at the same time, I probably would have hosted him! We met for dinner one night, thankfully with a third person, and both of us were really put off by his arrogance, his racial comments (which he claimed were based on his extensive research funded by various governments), and his general demeanor. He had been in town for most of the day, but had not found a hotel and was still carrying around his bags that night. He asked again to surf with me, even though I had already clearly declined. Despite his being very rude and offensive, I am surprised that he would go so far as to assault another person. Despicable.

Linda Te [original post]

#4 – Kyoto, Japan – late December 2011

Masato Miki dealt with Cristiano De Angelis and very reluctantly hosted him. He blogged about it (in Japanese) at the time and described in great details how rude, pushy and unpleasant Mr. De Angelis was (I will try to post an exact translation of his posts later on).

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#5 – Kyoto, Japan – late December 2011

Cristiano De Angelis sexually assaulted my friend M., as detailed in this post. For obvious reasons, M. wants to remain anonymous (but she does have a public CS profile and has hosted or met dozens of Couchsurfers without a single issue ever). Feel free to peruse my own public profile, instead.
Here is a copy of one of the first message she sent me, shortly after the encounter, when I noticed she seemed upset and inquired over Facebook about whether anything had happened with her Couchsurfing guest (I, and other friends, met with her in person shortly afterward, where she further confirmed the exact nature of the assault):

First of all, he came to Kyoto one day earlier as I said and called me many many times which annoyed me so much.
Because I was working all day long, I couldn’t answer his phone call and also it was from someone else, not him, who called me.
When I was back home, I wrote a message to him about the place and time to meet up.
On the next day, I was working all day long too. I got many phone calls again during I was working and annoyed me again.
then, when I was going to the meeting point, I got another call by stranger’s mobile. I said I was coming but he was shouting to ask when I would be there. It was big stress after my work because of his loud and angry voice.
I met him and brought him to home. After a while, we went out to my friend’s party and enjoyed the time there.
After we went home, I put FUTON for him on the floor and I went to my bed to sleep. All of sudden, he came into my bed. I refused it so many times, but he didn’t go out. Besides, he forced me to have sex with me although I refused it so many times too.
You know, with man’s power, women can’t do anything.
Also when I was sleeping, he undressed me and I think he took some picture because I remember the sound of camera when I wake up.
Next morning, I said to him to leave my place as soon as possible. but he was saying some thing to stay at my place. I was hurrying for work and left before him but he said he would also leave in 10 min.
After my work, it was around 23:00, he was still at my place.
I asked the reason why he was still there. He said he lost his ticket to go to Tokyo and thought I might have had one. but it was impossible to have it with me because I only saw it for like 10 seconds and returned it to him. I think it was just an excuse to keep staying at my place.
In anyway, I asked him to leave from my place because now it was clear that I didn’t have his ticket.
but he refused it and asked me to stay here on that night too.
He said he prepared dinner and wine for me although there weren’t dinner nor wine after I looked around my room and knew it was all lie and excuse.
He kept saying all excuse he could think of, but I didn’t want to hear it and asked him to leave as soon as possible.
Then he took his things and left, but just before he left, he asked me not to write any negative reference.
I refused it of course because he deserves to get negative reference.
I put it on his page and he also wrote negative referent to me too. It’s so disgusting because I didn’t do anything wrong.
Now he deleted his profile page and I think he will create another one soon.
That’s all what happened to me

#6 – Tokyo, Japan, January 2012

I just had the nightmare couch surfing of my life!
This guy asked me to host for a night and supposed to leave in the next day but never left. I trusted him and gave him the keys of my place. I arrived home after the third night and discovered he brought some girl he found in the street to to have sex in my place. He also offered the champagne he found in my refrigerator to serve to this girl. Also never brought back home a fruit or a piece of bread. Used all my toiletry products, Just lived like it was his own house. Complained about my sofa bed was too hard, the air conditioner was not in the temperature he liked, my pillows was too soft. He don’t drink tap water and empty my mineral water container and my wifi signal was not that good. When i asked to he leave my place at 4am in the morning he ridiculously asked me he could stay till morning and offered me US$10 ! to pay for everything. Totally selfish and no sense. I will think twice before host anyone from couch surfing again, The Park Hyatt and the Hilton is just at the corner!

He’s just deleted his profile! Shameless
Anderson Katayama [original post]

#7 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – January 2012

I actually hosted this guy for a night with my two other housemates and yes, we can actually attest to what was written with him being delusional and eccentric and incredibly strange and sometimes rude. Thankfully, I’ve spoke to Abbey (Ambassador of KL) after Cristiano deleted his profile and I was highly suspicious of him but without any real evidence that this guy is a sociopath.

He didn’t try anything on me or on my housemates though he did mention that he’d marry me someday when he becomes the President of Brazil. We were already very suspicious and didn’t leave him alone at home or anything. We slept with our doors closed.

Ying Tey [original post]

There are about 4-5 more testimonials (including 2 positive/neutral ones) that were posted in the comments to my original post. However none of them provided any identifying information or way to verify their accuracy. I have contacted their respective authors by emails. I will update this list if/when confirmation comes in (or if any other story surfaces, which wouldn’t surprise me at this point).

PS: while all the testimonials above have been copied without the slightest alteration, their presence in this post does not in any way imply that their authors necessarily condone the full content of my original post and the strong wording of my accusation. I alone take full responsibility for the claim of criminal conduct by Cristiano De Angelis that I outlined in it.

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Update (01/18/2012):

Because this is just too incredible to let it stay buried in the comments, allow me to quote Mr. Cristiano De Angelis himself, ostensibly defending his behaviour in Kyoto:

Ok then that is enough. Let say all then (did not want say it before because I am a gentleman) because I am starting to be fed up with this story and with all of you that behave like little children and maybe you jealous of me.

1)She really liked me from the beginning and she asked me to go to bed with her!
She said never had a brazilian boyfriend and she knows brazilian are latin lover and powerful sex machine and could not sleep with me in another room because was thinking all the time about me. Keep in mind I am also young and quite attractive so that drove her crazy. So i did make her happy and did not to be unpolite and say not to a girl!
Do not know what happened in the morning in her mind, maybe she felt ashmed and so took my train thicket to make me feel guilty of something … maybe to make me feel guilty that I am so attractive??
2)Now,how many of you had a host or has been hosted by someone you felt attractive and had a night stand? I think more or less all of you, couchsuring is real life like meeting someone out, sometimes you feel attraction with someone and lot of people want and go for it but in the following morning maybe they feel hembarassed because in their culture is not cummon to behave like that. One day when I will go back to Japan ( and I will because I like Japanaise girl), I am sure she will host me again because I sow into her eyes from the fist minute how much she was attracted by my phisical appareance. I know all the girls usually act like that…

Cristiano de Angelis [original comment] [Logged IP: 87.19.221.162 (Rome, Italy)]

With such a defense, who needs accusers?

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Update (01/19/2012):

#8 – Faro, Portugal – August 2011

Ele e horrivel!!! Nunca mais!!!

He has lack of manners and verrrrrry rude attitude. Arrogante!
Fortunatelly, I Did’t have sexual problem with him.

Ele nao me falou,a mas parecia querer ficar mais umas noites no meu lugar. No dia que ele teve de sair(eu falei pra ele que teve que sair e ele nao pode ficar mais commigo.), as todas coisas deles estava deixadas no meu quarto quando eu voltei a tarde.
Mas consegui mandar ele fora do meu lugar, mas tive uma experiencia ruim.
Puta que pariu. E ele!

Another more thing I want to say, he used my room very dirty.
He is very weired person. I’ve never met a arrogant person like him. I think he doesn’t have any respect for other people or country. He always talked loudlly bad things about Portugal in Faro.
He just abuse CS.

Kaori Takegami (via email)

Translation of the Portuguese text (by Prabal):

He is horrible, never again
He told me no, but seemed to want to stay a few more nights at my place.On the day he had to leave (I told him I had to leave and he can not stay with me more.)- All the things one was left in my room when I came back that afternoon.
But I managed to send him out of my place, but I had a bad experience.
God damn it. And him!

Update 01/23/2012:

As mentioned above, Mr. De Angelis is well aware of the existence of these accusations and this post (in fact, my logs show that he obsessively checks this blog for updates and comments). Recently, he posted in a few places (this blog included) a list of alleged positive references from his previous Couchsurfing profiles (that he had himself deleted), revealing information that only he had access to, with the nice side-effect of unambiguously proving that he is, indeed, the author of those other comments.

If there is one thing that has become clear from this story (and the dozen testimonials above), it would be that Mr. De Angelis’ word should not be taken at face value. I sent each Couchsurfer a short note, trying to give only few details on the story so as to not unduly bias their opinion, while imparting a sense that a quick and truthful reply was important. I was only mildly surprised when the replies started coming back:

So far, nine of the people listed in his positive references replied to my message. All these people have well-established CS profiles, with many positive references from unrelated parties and I have no reason to doubt their word.

Out of these nine, one person (Ricardo) unreservedly vouched for his character based on his longstanding relationship with him (in fact, they have been in close contact ever since all this broke out). Four other (Radostina, Leo, Mariana and Anita [who does not want her CS profile disclosed]) stated that the reference was accurate, that they had met him (however briefly or long ago) and that he had behaved in a polite and unremarkable way with them.

Unlike negative testimonials, I am not quoting the above five people’s “non-negative” messages for one major reason (beside trying to keep the length of this post manageable): I absolutely refuse to acknowledge Mr. De Angelis’s twisted arithmetic of character references, where one can offset a few deeply negative references by some positive ones. This is not how things work: being a halfway-decent human being some time, does not allow one to behave like a scumbag the rest of the time. What your mum or best friend has to say about you when you are on your best behaviour is not relevant: it is what you do to people when you think nobody is watching, that matters. At any rate, all these positive references are widely available (here for example), since Mr. De Angelis has made them the central element of his defense.

More importantly, here is what the remaining four had to say about their “positive” reference and Cristiano De Angelis:

Mochan wrote:

私は、掲示板で問題になっている男性と、その他のＣＳメンバーと一緒に数日間日本国内を旅行しました。

とりたてて公にするような大きな問題はありませんでした。

私は、彼よりもわがままなＣＳメンバーと会ったことがあります。
私は、彼よりも、お金に汚いＣＳメンバーに会ったことがあります。
そして私は、彼よりも何十倍も無礼で、腹の立つＣＳメンバーに会ったことがあります。

私は、思います。

彼に関して、みなさんが様々なことを書かれていますが、この件は、Couchsurfingのルール改定や運営改善、この地球に生きている全ての人間の成長のチャンスだと。

他の人間と明るい未来を信じる方向で、こういった問題に取り組むのか？

それとも、いわゆる常識の枠組みの中からこぼれてしまう人を異端として排斥するのか？

Couchsurfingというヴァーチャル・コミュニティーの総意が、どんな判断を下すのか、わかりませんが、彼のみの問題や一般論・感情論の視野狭窄に陥ることなく、十分な情報収集（人間行動学・心理学など）と、長期的視野による判断で、Couchsurfingの究極のmission達成が、成し遂げられることを願っています。

(I will post a translation later: the gist of it is that Cristiano wasn’t exactly forthcoming in presenting Mochan’s “positive” review)

Aron wrote:

I hosted him despite two negative references which appeared pretty harmless and I felt that otherwise he seemed to fit the other descriptions that people had left of him. He was a nice guy and filled with what I would consider ‘positive’ energy, however in hindsight he was acting a little inappropriate around my 22 year old female cousin who I was also hosting at the time. He was charming enough and didn’t cross what I would have considered ‘the line’ but he definitely made her uncomfortable a few times and at one point came into my bedroom where she was sleeping and got into bed with her and tried to kiss her. At the time I just considered this a cultural misunderstanding as I know that people from southern Europe and South America are a bit more persistent with women so it didn’t really bother me but, at the same time, having met the guy myself I could see how the right circumstances and cultural differences could certainly have caused an inappropriate situation as he is definitely a bit pushy. Ultimately however, I’m quite surprised by the accusation and don’t think that he is a ‘bad person’ but I suppose I could be wrong.

Flavio wrote:

I just read your blog in regards of Cristiano De Angelis.
I felt shocked because I met him more that once and I hosted him one time before having a fight with him. I am shocked because I hosted him in february 2011 and despite he deserved a negative reference I didn’t gave him.
My brief account:
1)I met him during a cultural walk of Venice and I noticed him annoying women because he asked them to go out having a drink with them after 10 minutes he met them, and I suggested that was not the right behaviour since he would not have got have chance of getting to know a girl having such a wild approach.
2) I met him during a drink organized by couchsurfers in Venice, nothing to say, he seemed just proud of his country and mocking others.
3) After he wrote me many times, I allowed him to be host at my place in Venice one night in February 2011 during the carneval.
I told him he needed to leave before 15 next day because I was expecting 4 friend for the big celebration. We went to a party the night before and he forced a girl to kiss him (she was drunk) and them she left. Nothing happened then. Next day he begged me to leave him my keys and I gave them to him on the condition to be given back before 17 pm because I had a big celebration and dinner with my frinds (it was the best day of carnival, they were coming from far awat). He met with a girl he knew and begged me to allow him to come to my place once he had persuaded her to stay.
I am a very direct person and I told him that he needed to give me my keys before 18 otherwise I would have thrown him into a canal (I spent all day with my friends). I had to wait until 21, calling him 20 times and threatened him again and again for meeting him and having my keys back. His plan was to bring that girl to my place, he begged me many many times to give him the chance to stay alone with her. I heard months after that he managed to take that girl to another couchsrfing’s home and have sex with her, because he wrote that he was worried that his availability helped him to get her.
[…]
Actually I never left him any positive reference. I should have given him a negative when he behaved in a way I found unacceptable.
I yelled at him and told him never ever to try to contact me again,
but no negative reference.

Yes you can quote my words and link my profile, no problem. Some things are simply more important than privacy.

Julie wrote:

Although I can’t say I’m not fully surprised at Cristiano’s questionable behavior, I did write that review. In truth I would never host him again, and maybe should have been more honest about that. So no, it didn’t reflect my true feelings. I’m sorry. It sounds bad now, but I guess I just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He didn’t do anything “wrong” that I can put my finger on, but I got an unsettling feeling from his presence. It’s nothing I could really describe in a review anyways, I guess. He was just intense and abrasive and it was difficult communicating with him about the exact duration of his stay (I planned on one night and he ended on staying two). I was curious as to why he deleted his profile. . . I hope that helps! Sorry for not being more honest with the review. I just don’t know how to put into words why it was an uncomfortable experience. I vow to write honest reviews from now on. It’s important for the community. I’m sorry again for not being truthful. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

There you have it. All these “positive” reviews that Cristiano De Angelis is currently flaunting around, as if they somehow cancelled the barrage of negative testimonials…

Update 06/18/2012:

Although I have generally stopped updating this page with each new communication I receive about him, Cristiano de Angelis is still very much alive and hasn’t given up on harassing females, the world around.
I get on average two to three emails a month, from women he approached with more or less forcefulness, usually trying to get them to stay at his house with crazy stories of his accomplishments in Brazil and pictures of his “family”. So much so, that his would-be victims end up googling his name and find this page.

From the look of it, he is operating from the south of France (Marseilles), but is not past travelling to other parts of Europe to harass random women (also spotted in Belgium and Italy, among others).

Update 11/27/2012:

Countless recent testimonies have placed Cristiano de Angelis in Berlin (trying to con his way into yet another “research student” position), where he has managed to get hosted through CouchSurfing again (thanks to yet another fake profile) and be a general nuisance to the local population. In fact, he has been so aggressively pursuing local women (his usual “stalk anything that moves” technique when in Europe) that, by complete coincidence, he ended up pulling one of his stalkerish douchebag move on a friend of mine from Kyoto (who only realised who he was, when googling his name, after one weird email too many).

Since I don’t quite believe in coincidence, I can only imagine the staggering number of women he must approach on a regular basis…

Want to read more ranting and observations about this case? Have some objections on the morality/legality of these accusations? Right this way please!