A scammer who variously claimed to be an Irish heiress, a witch, a psychic and a celebrity shmoozer is to be extradited to the United Kingdom, which wants to prosecute her for looting the equivalent of $170,000 from victims in Northern Ireland. Marriane Smyth has been cooling her heels in a Maine jail waiting to learn her fate.
An attorney for Smyth, who has declined to comment in the past, did not respond to phone calls and emails on Thursday. The judge's ruling that Smyth should be extradited could help bring about the end of a bizarre saga in which victims have painted Smyth as a master of disguise and a veteran traveling grifter.
Smyth faces four counts of fraud by abuse of position under the U.K. Fraud Act of 2006, and four counts of theft in violation of Northern Ireland's Theft Act of 1969, Nivison wrote. Authorities overseas have said Smyth stole money that she had promised to invest and arranged to sell a victim a home but took the money. A court in Northern Ireland issued arrest warrants for her earlier this decade.
She reportedly served time in California not long ago. The shenanigans in Northern Ireland predate that stint.
Smyth is accused of defrauding the five people while working as an independent mortgage adviser for An Independent Mortgage Solution Ltd. In that role, she was supposed to "safeguard the financial interests of her clients," a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Maine said. Instead, she stole her clients' money, U.S. prosecutors said on behalf of British officials seeking her extradition.
The L.A. business was recounted by its victim in an essay published by HuffPo.
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." She scammed me out of nearly $100,000 using a series of brilliant confidence tricks as she simultaneously destroyed my sense of self and darkened my once joyful outlook. And as she was ruining my life, she was also scamming dozens of others around the world by impersonating psychics, mortgage brokers, psychologists, lawyers, travel agents, and even pretending to be a cancer victim.
Previously: Watch this scammer get glitterbombed and then arrested
