The woman known in her upscale Connecticut community as the Greenwich Psychic answered a reporter’s ring of the buzzer in Manhattan on Thursday and, clearly irritated, nonetheless offered a glimpse at the gift for which she gained repute.

“You’re just going to write, ‘The popular psychic of Greenwich was arrested in New York City,’” said the woman, Janet Lee.

The popular psychic of Greenwich was arrested in New York City. But the crimes that she is accused of in an indictment unsealed on Wednesday do not follow the familiar script of frauds involving fortunetellers.

Ms. Lee, 43, has spoken of her work at length in the past to reporters. All the women in her family have the gift of clairvoyance, she said. It earned her a job at Saks Fifth Avenue in Greenwich, the wealthy suburb an hour’s train ride from Midtown, offering free psychic readings to customers who spent $100 or more, she said.