A woman accused by scam victims of crisscrossing the U.S. claiming to be an Irish heiress is expected to learn next month whether she will be extradited to the United Kingdom.
Marianne Smyth, a 54-year-old American, will be in federal court in Maine for the hearing that relates to allegations she stole more than $170,000 from at least five victims from 2008 to 2010 in Northern Ireland. United Kingdom officials said Smyth stole money that she had promised to invest and arranged to sell a victim a home but took the money.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison on Wednesday took the case under advisement and said he would issue a ruling no sooner than May 1. If he rules to extradite her, the case would go to the Secretary of State which determines whether it could go forward.
A court issued arrest warrants for her in 2021, according to legal documents. In February, she was located and arrested in Maine. She is being held in Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft.
In a court filing, Smyth's attorney, Kaylee Folster, argued she is not guilty of the charges and requested a hearing on the allegations. Neither Folster nor Smyth would comment about the case.
Smyth's case has similarities to Anna Sorokin, a grifter convicted in New York of paying for a lavish lifestyle by impersonating a wealthy German heiress.
Among those fleeced was Johnathan Walton, who started a podcast in 2021 called “Queen of the Con” to warn others about Smyth. She was found guilty of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from Walton and spent about two years in jail.
Smyth said she needed the money after her bank account was frozen and for bail after she was jailed, he said. Walton assumed he would be repaid since Smyth told him she was due an inheritance of $7 million from her wealthy family in Ireland.
“She plays off of people’s weaknesses and then a lot of people are too embarrassed to come forward and admit that they lost this money,” said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Megee, who prosecuted the case that sent Smyth to jail.
Smyth and Walton grew close over several years in Los Angeles, when she bought him expensive dinners and luxury vacations, he said. But her story began to unravel when Walton realized she was jailed for stealing $200,000 from a luxury travel agency where she worked.
“She has no shame. And she has no conscience,” the 49-year-old reality television producer, author and public speaker said. “She revels in casting countless victims as unwitting actors in her elaborate schemes to defraud.”
The podcast has drawn tips from dozens of victims from California to New York, Walton said. Some have accused Smyth of starting a fake charity for Ukraine, while others say she has described herself as an emissary for Satan, a witch, a hockey coach, a cancer patient and best friends with Jennifer Aniston. She often changed her name and appearance, her victims say.
Heather Sladinski, a costume designer in Los Angeles, said Smyth scammed her out of $20,000 for psychic readings, fake life coach sessions and cult-like retreats that included rituals, breathing exercises and yoga. Smyth was funny, smart and had credentials and other documents to back up her claims, Sladinski said.
The 50-year-old from Los Angeles cut off contact with Smyth after she wanted to do a bizarre ritual involving a chicken to win back her ex-boyfriend, who had a restraining order against her, Sladinski said. Smyth then started making threatening phone calls and Sladinski “was so scared” that she moved homes. She has filed a police report against Smyth and testified at Walton’s trial.
FILE - In a December 2013 photo taken in Los Angeles, Johnathan Walton, and Marianne Smyth pose during her treetrimming Christmas party. Smyth was later found guilty of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from Walton as part of one of several scams she was accused of orchestrating. (Johnathan Walton via AP, File)
GENEVA (AP) — The World Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday defended the “strong reputation” of its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers.
Cottier is “entirely independent” of WADA and international sports, it said, even as scrutiny of him increased over his friendship with a longtime colleague who worked with the agency and his enquiries into German broadcaster ARD’s previous investigation of a separate Olympic sport.
Cottier has been given until a few weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics in July to report on WADA’s acceptance in 2021 — in the months before the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games held in a public health lockdown — of Chinese authorities’ explanation that the swimmers were contaminated by a banned heart medication found in a hotel kitchen.
The positive tests, including for three Chinese swimmers who won gold medals in Tokyo, were eventually detailed April 20 after months-long investigations by ARD and the New York Times.
Montreal-based WADA has since faced widespread skepticism from anti-doping officials, national swim teams and athlete groups about its decisions three years ago and picking Cottier.
For 17 years through 2022, Cottier was the attorney general of Vaud, the home canton (state) of the International Olympic Committee where WADA has its European office in Lausanne.
Choosing a prosecutor on the doorstep of the Olympic movement was “highly problematic,” Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth told The Associated Press on Monday.
During the last 13 years that Cottier was chief public prosecutor, the Vaud police commander was Jacques Antenen, who also worked with WADA from 2018 until last December as supervising auditor of the doping watchdog’s investigations team.
“I think it’s highly problematic and it’s totally unnecessary,” Pieth said of WADA’s selection process. “It shows they don’t have the awareness of possible conflicts of interest.”
When Antenen retired from Vaud police in 2022, the service’s in-house magazine published a photograph from the ceremony of him with Cottier captioned as the prosecutor having come “to greet an old friend.”
“The fact that he (Antenen) might know Mr. Cottier professionally in no way compromises Mr. Cottier’s independence in reviewing WADA’s handling of this case,” the agency said in a statement. It did not address a question asking if Antenen took part in nominating the special prosecutor.
Pieth was contacted by Cottier after speaking with ARD in 2020 for its investigative reporting of financial corruption and cover-ups of doping cases at the International Weightlifting Federation, which had an office in Lausanne.
Though the Vaud prosecution office then led by Cottier inquired about the issues in weightlifting raised by ARD in January 2020, it is unclear if further steps were taken.
The office did not immediately respond to questions sent by email on Tuesday.
Antenen produced annual reports over six years on his oversight and advisory work with the WADA investigations team, which was involved in the Chinese swimming case.
In his 2021 audit, Antenen said the WADA unit “alone cannot bear all of the responsibility for anti-doping investigations,” and called for it to verify the skills of national anti-doping bodies like China’s “to promote the creation of effective, independent and honest structures."
WADA has insisted since the ARD and New York Times reports that its legal, scientific and investigations managers agreed that evidence presented by China was consistent with the contamination theory and that all due process was followed.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Swiss lawyer Eric Cottier speaks in Lausanne, Switzerland, May 15, 2013. OLY--WADA-Special Prosecutor. The World Anti-Doping Agency has defended its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers. WADA says Cottier is “entirely independent” of the agency and international sports. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
Swiss lawyer Eric Cottier looks on in Renens, Switzerland, March 3, 2016. The World Anti-Doping Agency has defended its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers. WADA says Cottier is “entirely independent” of the agency and international sports. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
