She poses as a down-on-his-luck heiress in a dispute with an Irish family over an exorbitant inheritance. Her sympathizers lent her tens of thousands of dollars.
However, Marianne Smith, who was born in Maine, was not an Irish heiress and had no property. She has been accused of defrauding large sums of money over the years using her elaborate scams, which resulted in her conviction on two felonies.
Smith, 54, now faces further charges, this time from British authorities seeking extradition from the United States. The fraud and theft charges date from March 2008 to October 2010, when Smith lived in Northern Ireland, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Maine. She was arrested in Maine last month, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Jonathan Walton, a Los Angeles-based reality TV producer, has made it his personal mission to expose Smith after he was convicted of stealing more than $63,000 from him. Walton said the arrest was “a miracle.”
“This woman is a career con artist,” Walton, who has appeared on shows such as “Shark Tank” and “American Ninja Warrior,” said in an interview. “There are people who spend their lives pretending to be someone else to deceive you.”
Smith's attorney, who is named in court documents, did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.
Walton said she met Smith in 2013 and quickly became close friends. She wore designer clothes and spared no expense, and she claimed that she came from a prestigious Irish family.
“She always paid for the shopping and bought presents for my husband and me,” he says. “Of course we believe she is this Irish heiress.”
He said they bonded over the pain of being disowned by their families. “She was like my sister,” he said.
She soon came to Mr. Walton in distress, claiming her family had conspired to cut her out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars and she needed the cash, Mr. Walton said. Mr. Walton even lent her money and had about $50,000 charged to her credit card. He believed that his girlfriend would pay her back.
Instead, he said, Smith used his own money to pay restitution for a previous felony conviction for embezzling funds from a travel agency.
Walton reported Smith to the police. Her jury convicted her of stealing from Mr Walton in 2019 and she was sentenced to five years in prison. She was released in early December 2020, according to court documents.
Walton, who has since blogged about her case and heard from other accusers, spoke further about her friendship with Smith and her trial on her podcast Queen of the Con in 2021. I took a step forward.
His credit card debt accrued interest every month, so he filed for bankruptcy and ruined his credit score. “I wanted to warn people about her girlfriend,” he said. “I wanted to keep an eye on her girlfriend. She wanted to find other victims.”
He said he has heard from people accusing Smith of assuming other false identities, including as a child custody investigator, a psychic and a demon priestess.
Shortly after the podcast was released, we began receiving information that Smith was living in Maine. “Listeners said they saw her at gas stations and supermarkets,” he said.
Mr Walton believes information he passed to detectives in Northern Ireland led to Mr Smith's arrest. Police in Northern Ireland declined to comment on the incident.
The charges behind last month's arrest involve Smith's time working as a mortgage adviser, according to a complaint filed by the Maine U.S. Attorney's Office. One couple allegedly gave Smith 20,000 pounds (about $25,500) to “invest” in a high-interest savings account with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. However, when I called the bank, it appeared that the account no longer existed.
Another couple gave her about 72,000 pounds (about $91,000) to buy an investment property, according to court documents. Ms. Smith provided documents that appeared to detail her sale, and she also sent monthly payments from her alleged tenants. However, the sale never took place, and Smith was difficult to trace.
According to the complaint, Smith was charged with four counts of fraud and four counts of theft after allegedly abusing his position to steal a total of approximately 135,000 pounds, or $170,000.
The charges were first reported to Northern Ireland authorities in 2009 after Smith returned to the United States, and authorities reviewing the case decided to pursue the case again in 2019.
Smith, who remains in custody, has an extradition hearing scheduled for April 17.
“The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the podcast is even more powerful,” Walton said. The podcast currently has approximately 11 million downloads. He said he would encourage others to come forward.
“Going public is damaging to fraudsters,” he said. “That's what you have to do.”
