Podcast star scammer claimed to be psychic, witch and Irish heiress, victims say

The victim said she traveled across the United States claiming to be an Irish heiress, a psychic and close friends with movie stars in order to perpetrate dozens of scams.

But now Marianne Smyth is in a Maine prison awaiting a hearing next month that will decide whether she can be returned to the UK over a Northern Ireland scam 15 years ago.

Legal documents show that the 54-year-old American was accused of stealing more than $170,000 from at least five victims in Northern Ireland from 2008 to 2010, and a local court issued a warrant for her arrest in 2021. She was found and arrested last month in Maine.

Her case has similarities to that of Anna Sorokin, a con artist convicted in New York for posing as a wealthy German heiress to pay for a lavish lifestyle.

Johnathan Walton, who started the podcast The Scam Queen in 2021, said: “She is a master of disguise and will completely change her appearance and ruse to suit each person’s needs.” After he said he had been duped, he warned others to be wary of her. Nearly $100,000. He said she always wore designer clothes but said she needed money to pay for costs such as freezing her bank account and setting bail. Walton said she told him she would inherit a $7 million inheritance from a wealthy Irish family.

He said they grew closer during their years in Los Angeles, when she bought him expensive dinners and luxury vacations. But when Walton realizes she’s serving a prison sentence for stealing $200,000 from a luxury travel agency where she worked, her story begins to unravel. She was later convicted of theft and served a brief sentence in prison.

“She has no shame. She has no conscience,” said the 49-year-old reality TV producer, author and public speaker. “She was passionate about making countless victims unwitting actors in her elaborate fraud schemes.”

Smith’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Smith posed questions to her attorney from jail.

Walton said the podcast has collected tips from dozens of victims from California to New York. The whistleblower described a fake charity in Ukraine and falsely claimed she was a messenger of Satan, a witch, a hockey coach, a cancer patient and Jennifer Aniston’s best friend. The victim said she frequently changed her name and appearance.

“She honed in on our vulnerabilities and had access to all our information and bank accounts,” said Los Angeles costume designer Heather Sladinski, who said she was famous for psychic readings, fake life coaches and Scammed out of $20,000 for courses and cult-style retreats that included rituals. , breathing exercises and yoga. Slatinski said Smith was funny, smart and had credentials and other documentation to back up her claims.

Slatinski said the 50-year-old woman from Los Angeles stopped Smith because she wanted to perform a bizarre ritual with a chicken to win back her ex-boyfriend, who had a restraining order against her. Smith then began making threatening phone calls, and Slatinski was “so frightened” that she moved. But after contacting Walton, Slazinski filed a police report against Smith and testified at Walton’s trial.

Tess Cacciatore, who owns a production company and nonprofit charity, had never lost money to Smith, but she met him in 2016 through a business partner who hired her as a psychic. she. Smith claimed to be a cancer patient and even sent her a photo of herself in a hospital gown and said she would receive a $50 million inheritance. Smith also showed Cacciatore emails purportedly from Aniston and briefly invited her to attend the Golden Globes, but then abruptly canceled it.

In Northern Ireland, government officials allege Smith stole money she promised to invest and arranged to sell homes to victims, but she took the money. She remains in custody at the Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft pending an April 17 extradition hearing.

“She should be an actress,” Cacciatore said. “She’s going to do a lot of work and not go to jail. She’s excellent at what she does.”