An American woman who allegedly defrauded multiple people while working as a mortgage advisor is facing extradition to Northern Ireland.
Marianne Smyth, 54, who previously posed as heiress to a fortune, is accused of defrauding five customers out of over $150,000 between March 2008 to October 2010, according to British and U.S. officials, whilst employed as a mortgage adviser for An Independent Mortgage Solution Ltd.
She previously served a five-year prison term in 2019 after she defrauded podcaster Jonathan Walton, reported NBC NEWS, but was released in late 2020 due to her prison sentence being cut in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Mr. Walton subsequently started a blog exposing Ms. Smyth for her actions, which was later detailed in the “Queen of Con” podcast.
Ms. Smyth is accused of embezzling investments from clients, money which she allegedly kept for herself. A warrant for her arrest was issued in Maine in February, which includes her extradition to Northern Ireland, reported The Guardian, or charges including four counts of fraud by abuse of position and four counts of theft, which could result in a prison term of up to 10 years.
Her role at Independent Mortgage Solution included safeguarding the financial interests of her clients, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Maine. However, Ms. Smyth allegedly instead stole the money from her clients, according to prosecutors. Her extradition hearing is scheduled for April 17 in Bangor, Maine.
Police in Northern Ireland first became aware of Ms. Smyth’s alleged fraudulent activities in July 2009. However, she had already left the country to return to the United States by that time.
Court documents show that Ms. Smyth visited a client, identified as J.S., in his home to arrange a mortgage, according to testimony provided by the alleged victim. It was at that time that she allegedly offered him an investment in a high interest-bearing account held with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
In June of that year, Ms. Smyth allegedly received a cheque of over $25,000 for the investment, only for her to disappear with the money to never be heard from again. A police investigation later revealed that the cheque was allegedly deposited in Ms. Smyth’s personal account without any indication of the money having been invested or returned.
Court documents further revealed the closure of Ms. Smyth’s account in October of the following year.
Other alleged victims provided similar accounts, according to police, as was the case with another man, identified as S.S. in court documents.
Ms. Smyth also promised the alleged victim high-interest returns of over $500 per month with the same bank in October 2008. Initially, S.S. stated he received a monthly sum of said amount from November 2008 until June 2009, which he believed to be the promised return on his initial investment, however according to officials, the payments stopped after that time.
Subsequent contact with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia revealed that no account with the alleged victim’s name existed, and S.S. could not establish further contact with Ms. Smyth, stated court documents.
According to the complaint, Ms. Smyth entered the United States in June 2013 on a U.S. passport. There is no record of her leaving the country since that date.
Years after her disappearance from Northern Ireland in 2009, Ms. Smyth then befriended Mr. Walton, whom she subsequently defrauded of nearly $100,000. This led to her conviction of grand theft in California in 2019.
Mr. Walton published an essay in the Huff Post in 2019, in which he detailed the years-long ordeal he went through after being conned by the woman he once thought of as his best friend.
“I fell under the spell of an immensely lovable woman who inserted herself into my life and became my best friend. Unfortunately, she was also an international con artist on the run from the authorities, and I was about to become one of her many ‘marks,'” he wrote.
Mr. Walton went on to say in his essay that in addition to Ms. Smyth’s fraud forcing him into bankruptcy, she was also scamming dozens of other victims worldwide. She conducted her ploys by impersonating a wide array of professionals, including psychics, mortgage brokers, psychologists, lawyers, and travel agents.
But her audacity didn’t stop there as she also pretended to be a cancer victim in order to extort money from some of her victims.
Mr. Walton filed a police report in 2017, leading to her arrest in 2018. His blog also led to others stepping forward about Ms. Smyth’s fraudulent activities.
Her extradition was requested by the British embassy in 2021 and again in October 2023 after new light was shed on her actions, and police in Northern Ireland became aware of the situation after searching for her for several years.
Mr. Walton’s 2021 podcast series “Queen of the Con” resulted in Ms. Smyth’s whereabouts being revealed after listeners contacted him to disclose her address in Bingham, Maine, leading to surveillance by U.S. Marshals and a subsequent arrest warrant being signed and sealed on Feb. 23.
