Pod Insights Scamfluencers Marianne Smyth: The Fake Irish Heiress | 214 About this episode For years, globe-trotting con artist Marianne Smyth used her charm to manipulate the people closest to her – including her own daughters. Her scam was a classic: she told people she was an Irish heiress with millions on the way, and all she needed was to borrow a little cash to unlock her fortune. People believed her – over and over again. But when she targets reality TV producer Jonathan Walton, she picks the wrong mark. Once he realizes he’s been played, Jonathan doesn’t just walk away – he launches an obsessive crusade to bring Marianne down and get justice for every victim she left in her wake.
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0:00 Sarah Hagi? Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.
0:15 Sarah Hagi? Sachi, I think about this a lot, not just in the context of the scammers we cover, but just like generally seedy people. What type of person do you think it takes to really take down a scammer? Uh, I think it has to be someone with the almost unhealthy ability to hold a grudge. Yes. Like, you have to be so strident and so ready, frankly, to ruin your own life again in the pursuit of justice. Yes. Which I think is a noble cause. That is exactly what I think. I mean, it's someone who just can't let something go because they're too stubborn. They are also a little bit crazy, but they have a much stronger sense of justice, in a way. Yeah, I mean, I think we are those people to some degree. I mean, hopefully.
1:01 Sarah Hagi? Well, today, I'm going to tell you about an epic takedown. On the one hand, we have a woman running a classic fake royal scam. On the other, a victim who falls for her grift because he loves drama as much as she does. But when he discovers he's been had, it activates his main character syndrome, and he won't stop until he gets justice and fully upstages her.
1:28 Sarah Hagi? It's May 2013, and Jonathan Walton, a reality TV producer, is hosting a party in his downtown Los Angeles apartment. Jonathan is in his late 30s, bald with thick eyebrows and a button nose. He moves through the living room, topping off his guests' wine glasses and restocking the cheese platter. But this isn't just a regular wine and cheese party. Tonight, Jonathan has gathered two dozen of his neighbors to join him on a mission. Their apartment complex has an amazing amenity: a resort-sized pool and a jacuzzi big enough for 20 people. But because of a legal dispute between their landlord and the owner of a nearby building, Jonathan and his neighbors no longer have access to it.
2:13 Sarah Hagi? Jonathan is mad as hell about this, so tonight, he's rallying the troops. He wants his neighbors to all work together and get their pool back. A worthy pursuit, I think. I think so, too. You show me a pool, I'm getting in it. I would also like a pool. Well, one of the neighbors at the party is Mare Smith. Mare's in her mid-40s with pale skin, short black hair, and striking blue eyes. She looks sharp in Jimmy Choo heels. And she introduces herself as an immigrant from the Republic of Ireland, which explains her faint accent. At one point in the evening, she stands up in front of everyone
2:53 Sarah Hagi? and delivers a fiery speech suggesting they form a tenant association to get the pool back. She says her boyfriend, a big-shot lawyer, can help. When Mare finishes speaking, Jonathan and his neighbors applaud. As the night goes on, Jonathan grows more and more enamored with Mare. Although not in a romantic way. Jonathan is gay and happily married. She's drawn to Mare's charm and her generosity. She offers to get one of their neighbors an interview at her boyfriend's law firm. And she offers to help another book an exotic vacation through her job as a luxury travel agent. Here's how Jonathan describes it in his podcast, "Queen of the Con."
3:35 Speaker 01 I fall in love with her that night because more than her charisma, more than her sparkling conversation and her sophistication and worldliness, she was so kind. She was just so kind.
3:48 Sarah Hagi? But as Jonathan gets to know Mare better, he'll realize that the story she's telling about herself doesn't quite add up. Mare claims to come from a wealthy Irish family, and she certainly lives like a princess. But she says she and her relatives are locked in a heated inheritance battle with millions at stake. Eventually, that fortune will be hers, but in the meantime, she asks Jonathan for help. Slowly, Jonathan will see Mare's charm and generosity for what it truly is: an act to draw people in, gain their trust, and manipulate them into giving her everything they have. The Irish accent? Fake. And Mare isn't even her real name. It's Mary Ann. But Mare has seriously underestimated-
4:32 Sarah Hagi? ...made her latest mark. Jonathan is the kind of person who organizes a crusade over jacuzzi access. So when he realizes Mary Ann has been lying, and not just to him, but to countless others as well, he'll pull out all the stops to expose her. And once he goes public with Mary Ann's lies, her Irish luck may finally run out.
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6:01 Sarah Hagi? From Audible Originals, I'm Sarah Haggie. And I'm Sachi Cole. And this is Scamfluencers.
6:16 Sarah Hagi? From an early age, Mary Ann Smyth used her charm and charisma to manipulate the people closest to her, including her own daughters, all in pursuit of making more money. By the time she reaches middle age and lands in Los Angeles, she's perfected a story that opens doors wherever she goes. She tells people she's an Irish heiress about to inherit millions from her wealthy family, but to access her fortune, she just needs to borrow some cash. But in Jonathan Walton's Mary Ann finally met her match. Jonathan is loyal, hardworking, and some might say obsessive. And once he realizes he's been conned, he becomes determined to turn her fraudulent pot of gold upside down. Not just for himself,
6:58 Sarah Hagi? but for victims all over the world who have fallen for Mary Ann's audacious con. Drawing on everything he's learned as a television producer, Jonathan will launch a comeuppance campaign unlike anything we've covered on Scamfluencers before. A multimedia barrage to expose Mary Ann and make sure no one else suffers his fate. This is Mary Ann Smith, the fake Irish heiress.
7:29 Sarah Hagi? It's the early 1980s in Bangor, Maine, and 12-year-old Mary Ann Andel is excited to have a friend over. Mary Ann welcomes her friend inside a big, beautiful home in a nice part of town and gives her a tour. But something feels off. Her friend grows uneasy as she realizes Mary Ann doesn't actually live there. They're in a total stranger's home. But even when Mary Ann can tell she's been caught in a lie, she doesn't back off. In fact, she doubles down, making her friend pose for a photo with the belongings of the girl who does live there, a girl Mary Ann claims is her sister. I know we're not supposed to root for fraud,
8:12 Sarah Hagi? but that is so funny and instantly iconic for a child to do. Amazing, amazing. It's iconic. And from an early age, Mary Ann seems almost addicted to lying. And her lies only get bolder when she's a teenager. One ex-boyfriend later says that in high school, Mary Ann would routinely date older guys, tell them she's pregnant, then ask for money for an abortion. Since the pregnancy was fake, she just pocketed the cash.
8:44 Sarah Hagi? I yet again do not have a problem with this. If she had just kept the scam at this, we would not be having this conversation. I believe in women's wrongs. I mean, they shouldn't be with the younger girl in the first place, am I right? It's his fault. Well, by the time she's 18, Marianne's parents are fed up with her lies and kick her out of their house. After graduating high school in 1987, she joins the Navy and is stationed in Florida. But does Marianne's military service set her on the straight and narrow? Nope. While living in Florida, she's charged with several felonies, including grand theft and forgery. There isn't much information about these charges, even in court records, but it seems
9:26 Sarah Hagi? that Marianne is refining the skill she'll use for the rest of her life.
9:32 Sarah Hagi? A few years later, Marianne moves to Michigan and meets a man named Jeff Welch. The relationship moves fast. Marianne gets pregnant and they get married. In 1989, when she's 20 years old, Marianne gives birth to their daughter Courtney, who is diagnosed with a genetic disorder called cystic fibrosis. But she has little interest in being a mom. By the time Courtney is one, Marianne has moved out, leaving Jeff to raise their daughter alone. She starts seeing other people, and soon she's pregnant again by another man. In 1991, she gives birth to another baby girl, Chelsea. Shortly afterwards, Jeff files for divorce, claiming that Marianne is a pathological liar.
10:17 Sarah Hagi? A court deems her an unfit mother and awards him full custody of Courtney. But Marianne retains custody of her younger daughter, Chelsea. And while Marianne doesn't seem very interested in raising a child, she is ready to start training an accomplice.
10:36 Sarah Hagi? It's 2002 and Chelsea is celebrating her 11th birthday. Her mom, Mary Ann, surprises her with two plane tickets to Belfast, Northern Ireland. But it's not just a vacation. This is how Chelsea learns they're moving overseas to start a new life with a guy her mom met online. For Chelsea, this is just the latest disruption in an already chaotic childhood. When she was a baby, Mary Ann left Chelsea with her grandparents in Tennessee. Then, after nearly five years of no contact, Mary Ann suddenly comes back into Chelsea's life. But given Mary Ann's track record, a judge wasn't about to give her full custody, so Chelsea had been splitting time between her mom and her grandparents.
11:21 Sarah Hagi? But Mary Ann was determined to get her daughter back full-time. At one point, she even accuses her own father of molesting Chelsea and tried to gaslight her daughter into believing it actually happened. From an early age, Chelsea understands that her mother isn't like other adults. Mary Ann is physically and emotionally abusive. She's immature and struggles to hold a job. But Chelsea notices her mom can turn on the charm when she wants in order to manipulate people. Here's Chelsea talking about it years later on the Queen of the Con podcast.
11:59 Speaker 04 She's really great at reading people. You know, she knows what you're looking for, like, not just romantically. But when she talks to people, I've seen it happening like at the slip of a dime. Like, she knows how to be your best friend. She knows how to intimidate and scare you very quickly. Like, she just knows how to get in your head and under your skin.
12:20 Sarah Hagi? This is very mommy dearest. Yeah. I feel like I've seen 1,000 Law & Order episodes about this exact dynamic. Sadly, it is a classic dynamic.
12:31 Sarah Hagi? And Chelsea listens as Marianne tells people she was once an Olympic-level figure skater. Other times, Marianne claims she has cancer and needs help with her medical bills, which isn't true. And when Marianne announces that they're moving to Northern Ireland, she tells Chelsea to keep it a secret from her grandparents. That summer, Chelsea and Marianne fly to Belfast and move in with Marianne's online boyfriend, Stephen Smith. Steve is an Irish postal worker who raises greyhound dogs. Chelsea likes him. He seems like a good guy. As far as Chelsea's grandparents know, this is just a temporary visit.
13:11 Sarah Hagi? But when fall rolls around, Marianne makes Chelsea break the news that they're not coming back. Her grandparents are furious, but Marianne coaches Chelsea to make it sound like she's happy with this decision. Plus, it would be complicated and expensive to fight an international custody battle, so there's not much they can actually do. Maybe they're hoping Stephen will be a positive influence on Marianne and a source of stability for Chelsea. In October 2003, a little over a year and a half after arriving in Northern Ireland, Marianne and Stephen get married. Two years later, Marianne gets a job as a mortgage adviser, but she's not interested in earning a paycheck.
13:55 Sarah Hagi? She has a plan to make more money, and she needs her daughter's help. Over the next few years, Chelsea babysits for some of Marianne's clients, helping her get in their good graces. But it's all a part of Marianne's new con. Marianne regularly has Chelsea forge signatures on paperwork for her clients. Marianne tells some clients that she's putting their money in high-interest savings accounts. Others believe she's investing it in rental properties. But in reality, she's spending it, swindling her customers out of more than $155,000 in just a few years. At first, Marianne keeps a scheme going by paying her clients' returns from her personal
14:37 Sarah Hagi? account, but eventually, the payments stop, and they start to catch on to the fraud. In 2009, when Chelsea is 18, her mom announces they're leaving Northern Ireland immediately. Chelsea doesn't know it yet, but someone has tipped Marianne off that the Irish police are investigating her. As Chelsea rushes to pack, she's horrified to hear Mary Ann tell Steve that there's no time to rehome his more than a dozen greyhound dogs. He'll need to put them all down.
15:11 Sarah Hagi? Why do they have to be put down? Well, there's simply no time to rehome them. That's right, so they all must be slaughtered, I understand. Yeah, it's really an all-or-nothing scenario somehow. Chelsea gets on a plane back to the US with her mom and stepdad, haunted by the thought of those dogs. But fleeing Ireland finally gives Chelsea a chance to start over. After they land, she reunites with her grandparents and cuts ties with her mom. And she's not the only one. Eventually, Stephen does the same. He leaves Mary Ann and joins Chelsea and her grandparents. They're all tired of Mary Ann's lies and abuse. Chelsea is finally free of her mother.
15:55 Sarah Hagi? But Mary Ann is getting a fresh start, too. She's about to launch an audacious new scam, this time with a Northern Irish twist.
16:07 Sarah Hagi? It's a hot June evening in 2013, and Jonathan Walton is hanging out in the barbecue area of his LA apartment complex with his neighbor, Mare Smith. It's been a few weeks since they met during Jonathan's campaign to get their pool back. And in that short time, Jonathan and Mare have grown close. Mare, or Mary Ann, is in her mid-40s now. She tells John she's originally from Ireland and loves to share her culture. She serves him home-baked Irish soda bread and Irish tea, and offers him expensive Irish whiskey. When they go up to her apartment, she shows him a framed copy of the Irish Constitution hanging on the wall and points to a signature
16:50 Sarah Hagi? she claims belonged to her great-great uncle.
16:55 Sarah Hagi? This is a little much. I mean, I feel like if you're trying to lie about something, you should maybe not lie so grandiosely. It's like saying, like, I'm American. My father was John F. Kennedy. Yeah, he was John F. Kennedy. And also, come in for the traditional meal of hot dogs and deep-fried something. Like, it just wouldn't happen that way, you know? Jonathan has worked on shows like American Ninja Warrior and Shark Tank, so he's used to meeting new people and hearing sometimes outrageous background stories. He's all ears as Mare explains that her uncle helped found independent Ireland and that she's descended from Irish royalty. She says her father was a leader in the Irish Republican Army and
17:40 Sarah Hagi? was assassinated by a British spy. She even claims that as a child, her grandmother taught her to make Molotov cocktails to throw at the British. I just want to say, this doesn't track at all. Yeah, I mean, none of this makes sense. But again, like, I guess, when it comes to white history, I'm not going to ask a lot of questions, Sarah. Yeah, but I'd be like, wait, weren't the super-rich people not in the IRA and throwing Molotov cocktails? Maybe, maybe they were the particular upper class that was a part of the revolution. I'm open to hearing more. Sure, sure. I mean, exactly. What I'm going to do, say your dad wasn't in the IRA? Yeah. You want to say that to an Irish person? Pass.
18:23 Sarah Hagi? Well, Jonathan doesn't know much about Ireland, so he has no idea that Ireland doesn't actually have a royal family. Mare tells Jonathan that in addition to being royal, her family is very wealthy, and that tracks. It's obvious Mare has money. He's seen her closet, which is filled with hundreds of pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes. He estimates she has more than a quarter of a million dollars' worth of footwear. Mare tells Jonathan that although she doesn't need to work, she has a job to stay busy. She sells luxury vacations to Pacific islands like Tahiti and Fiji. As the summer goes on, Jonathan and Mare start hanging out all the time, and he falls even more in love with her fun, frank
19:08 Sarah Hagi? personality. She often shares stories about her sex life with her lawyer boyfriend, who also happens to be a local politician and married. Jonathan loves the drama, and he feels honored to be part of her inner circle.
19:26 Sarah Hagi? Yeah, I mean, so would I. Gossip is gossip. It's gossip, and he works in reality TV. He loves hearing people's stories. Of course, he's going to be eating this up. Mm-hmm. Eventually, Mare confides something more serious. She tells Jonathan she's about to inherit 5 million euros from her uncle. There's just one problem. Her spiteful cousin, Fintan, is trying to cut her out of the will. Mare shows Jonathan text messages from Fintan loaded with Irish swear words and threats. Jonathan can relate. Some members of his own family reacted badly when he told them he was gay, so he understands what it's like to be on the outs with family. He feels genuine sympathy for her.
20:12 Sarah Hagi? I mean, this is really how scam artists work, is they kind of find the one thing to make you feel for them, and they pull you into their web. And then you, as a normal person, have normal human feelings for them, and then you're stuck. Yeah, I think she sees that he's a true empath. And not long after, Mare shows him a message from her lawyer in Ireland. He says there's a stipulation in her uncle's will. Mare won't get any money if she's ever convicted of a felony. It's oddly specific, but at this point, Jonathan is so bought into this friendship that he doesn't question it. Instead, it makes him worried for Mare. Jonathan warns her that her family might try to set her up to disqualify her inheritance.
20:56 Sarah Hagi? After all, he's heard so many wild stories about what they're capable of. Like the time when she was a kid, and her cousins convinced her that Tylenol pills were candy she nearly overdosed as a result. She says they weren't even sorry afterwards. Mare brushes off his concerns. But just a few weeks later, in July 2014, Jonathan gets a call from her, and she sounds frantic. Through her tears, she tells him he was right. She's just been arrested for stealing $200,000 from the travel company she works for and causing more than $150,000 in damages. This is exactly what Jonathan feared.
21:39 Sarah Hagi? His friend has just been framed by her horrible Irish family. And Jonathan is the kind of person who shows up for the people he loves, no matter the cost.
21:51 Sarah Hagi? While Mare sits in a jail cell, Jonathan springs into action. He starts Googling bail bondsman. But before he can make a move, he gets a call from Mare's lawyer boyfriend, who we'll call Andrew. Andrew tells Jonathan that he'll front the money for Mare's bail, but because he's married, he can't have his name on any of the court documents. So Jonathan agrees to handle it. While he's filling out the paperwork, he notices an unfamiliar name, Mary Ann Elizabeth Smith. That's when he learns that his friend's legal name isn't actually Mare. But he figures Mare is just a nickname for Mary Ann. Jonathan pays the $4,200 bail bond fee with his debit card,
22:36 Sarah Hagi? and early the next morning, Mary Ann is released. He picks her up and takes her out to breakfast. She promises she'll pay him back ASAP. The next day, Andrew shows up at Jonathan's door with an envelope full of $100 bills, totaling the entire amount of her bail.
22:56 Sarah Hagi? Mary Ann may have lost her job, but she definitely isn't cutting back on her spending. She tells Jonathan she has to move. She's too embarrassed to live where her neighbors saw her get handcuffed. So she upgrades to a luxury complex that costs almost $6,000 a month. There's an actual movie theater in the building, where she invites Jonathan to watch 50 Shades of Grey. Mary Ann's felony case is about to begin, and Jonathan remains convinced she's innocent. After all, she keeps showing him emails from her lawyer, who says the case is bogus and should be thrown out. Jonathan loves and trusts his friend, so he's not looking at her situation the way he would as a TV producer, picking apart inconsistencies
23:41 Sarah Hagi? and asking tough questions. Instead, he's all in and ready to fight for his friend. But he has no idea that soon he's going to be fighting for something else entirely: his own money and his reputation.
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26:05 Sarah Hagi? It's August 2014, just a month after Marianne's arrest, and she's taking a work call at her new job while Jonathan is listening in. She puts the call on speaker and introduces herself as Mayor Anya. Then she asks the caller if they are ready for a reading. That's right, Marianne has reinvented herself yet again, this time as a psychic. She tells Jonathan she's always been a little bit clairvoyant. The gift runs in her family. She says her great-great-grandmother gave readings for world leaders, and her sister uses her psychic ability to help German police find missing children.
26:50 Sarah Hagi? I think it's really amazing that her scam is progressing so fast. I mean, she went from being Irish, and then she was Irish royalty, and now she is able to access the dead or another dimension. Yes, and Marianne can tell that Jonathan is impressed. He tells her it seems like she's really helping people out. That's exactly what Marianne needs to hear, because there's a lot she hasn't told him. She did need that travel agency job, and she really was stealing from her clients. But Jonathan believes her version of events completely. So now, Marianne levels up. She tells him she's been working for a 1-800 psychic line, but the pay is terrible, so she starts her own business.
27:34 Sarah Hagi? Then she asks if he'll help make her a promotional video. And as expected, he says yes.
27:41 Speaker 06 My name is Mayor Anya, and I'm an empathic psychic. I've always had a gift since I was a little girl. It materialized throughout my childhood, and I didn't really understand what it was. I would always know things were happening before they happened, and everyone would laugh at me.
27:56 Sarah Hagi? Listen, I love woo-woo nonsense.
28:00 Sarah Hagi? I recently got my tarot read by some lady who told me that I was being a pigeon when I actually need to be a rat. Lots to consider there, but I do think people who prey on those who are seeking answers from the dead are like a unique kind of evil. Like, it is so unkind, it is so manipulative, it really takes advantage of people in a vulnerable spot. Yeah, I feel like it's also an extra kind of fucked up to want to scam people and then have them be so grateful to you. Like, this is a huge ego boost for her, too. Almost overnight, Mary Ann builds a steady stream of satisfied clients and a Yelp page full of glowing reviews.
28:44 Sarah Hagi? As her following grows, Mary Ann starts telling her clients that what they really need is life coaching. And luckily, she's a certified life coach. Clients begin opening up to her, sharing their fears, their vulnerabilities, and their personal details. Mary Ann uses all of this to her advantage. One of her biggest scores come from a pair of real estate investors in New York who pay her $20,000 a month to tell them what buildings to buy and sell. But when her advice stops paying off, they cut her loose. So Mary Ann makes a final play. She tells them her daughter has cancer and needs $60,000 for an experimental treatment to save her life.
29:27 Sarah Hagi? The investors wire her the money, and she promises to pay them back. But she never does. In reality, Mary Ann doesn't have a daughter with cancer, but she does have a daughter with cystic fibrosis. Courtney, the child she lost custody of as a baby, grew up in Michigan with her dad, got married, and started a family. Eventually, she reconnected with Chelsea, the younger half-sister she hadn't seen for years. After Mary Ann returned from Northern Ireland in 2009, she tried to patch things up with Courtney, taking her on an expensive vacation and sending her money. But it didn't work, especially after a bunch of angry Irish mobsters turned up at Courtney's
30:10 Sarah Hagi? door, threatening to kill her family and demanding to know where Mary Ann was.
30:17 Sarah Hagi? There's a lot about what Mary Ann does that is awful and really cruel, but going after your daughter, who you mostly abandoned, trying to get her back into your good graces through money, isn't going to work, especially if it comes after the mob has come after you because your mom owes them something. Yeah, it is really sad. And tragically, Courtney died from her illness in 2012, when she was only 23. It's not clear how Mary Ann reacted at the time, but when she met Jonathan a year later, she showed him urns in her apartment that she said contained Courtney's ashes. Every year, she mourns with Jonathan as they mark the anniversary together.
31:00 Sarah Hagi? In 2015, about a year into her career as a psychic, Mary Ann starts a GoFundMe using a picture of Courtney and her baby to raise money for other families affected by cystic fibrosis. Mary Ann's friends and clients donate almost $17,000 with the understanding that Mary Ann will send the money to a foundation researching the disease, which, obviously, she does not do. By now, Mary Ann is making a substantial living scamming the people who come to her for psychic guidance. Her own future is about to get a lot more complicated. It's late 2016, more than two years
31:43 Sarah Hagi? since Jonathan's good friend, Mare, was arrested. Her case has been moving slowly through the legal system, and Jonathan has continued to stand by her. Then one day, she comes to him with another plea for help. She shows him emails from her lawyer claiming the court has frozen her bank accounts as part of her felony case. She says her vengeful Irish family bribed a district attorney in LA to make sure she can't access the money. In the meantime, she needs help paying her bills. She asks Jonathan if he can lend her some cash to live on until she can get back into her accounts. While Jonathan's not exactly loaded, he knows she is, so he's confident she'll pay him back.
32:26 Sarah Hagi? Plus, when he lent her money for her bail bond, he got paid back the next day. And at this point, they've been super close friends for more than three years. So he says yes. Over the next few months, Jonathan gives Mare more than $20,000. But while he's happy to help, his husband is starting to have doubts. He's been supportive of their friendship so far, but starts questioning why this supposedly rich friend keeps needing money. Jonathan defends Mare, insisting that her family is trying to destroy her.
33:01 Sarah Hagi? I mean, you know, I'm not going to defend husbands, but this might be a rare case where the husband is right and can see it clearly because he's not in it. Yeah, I mean, someone has to kind of put their foot down at some point. Then, in early 2017, Mare has an even bigger ask. She says she needs around $55,000 to get her case dismissed. It's a lot of money, but it would clear her name for good. So Jonathan takes a deep breath and agrees to let her use his credit cards to settle the bill. Afterwards, they celebrate with a champagne toast. The nightmare is finally over. But just a few days later, Mare tells Jonathan she's going to jail again.
33:46 Sarah Hagi? She explains that the judge didn't like her using his credit cards to cover her costs. He considers it money laundering. So he sentenced her to 30 days in the LA County Jail as punishment. Jonathan is stunned, but he isn't familiar with the criminal justice system. He trusts Mare, so he accepts this bizarre explanation. For the first two weeks, Mare calls Jonathan every day from prison. But when he asks to visit, she tells him she's too embarrassed. Jonathan won't be deterred. By now, Mare should know he doesn't do things halfway. He schedules a visit through the sheriff's website, and while he's on the site, he sees her case history. And that's when he learns that Mary Ann Elizabeth Smith
34:31 Sarah Hagi? didn't get her case dismissed. She pleaded guilty to stealing $200,000 from the travel agency, and she's serving time for felony grand theft. Oh, this is a brutal thing to find out about someone they You have defended, and now your husband is right. So Jonathan is freaking out. What else doesn't he know about his supposed best friend? He goes to the courthouse and asks for all the records related to Mare's case. He pours through the documents, his hands shaking. And there it is. Undeniable proof that Mare stole from the travel company by having customers send their payments directly to her personal PayPal account.
35:17 Sarah Hagi? The $55,000 he loaned her wasn't for court fees. It was for restitution. Jonathan goes home to his husband and sobs uncontrollably in his arms. He can't believe his best friend could do this to him and that he fell for it. At this point, Jonathan decides to talk to Mare one last time. He wants to hear what she has to say for herself. So when she's released two weeks later, Jonathan drives up to the LA County Women's Jail to pick her up. Jonathan is furious, but he manages to keep it together. He unfolds a piece of paper where he's outlined what he wants to say and confronts his former friend.
36:01 Sarah Hagi? He also secretly records the conversation on his iPhone. Here's an excerpt he shared on his podcast, Queen of the Con.
36:10 Speaker 01 You've been scamming us out of money this whole time. You have. Yeah, you're busted. So from here on in, we're not friends.
36:22 Speaker 01 So I only want to see you or hear from you when you have a payment for us. Until this money is paid off.
36:29 Speaker 01 You're busted. Good luck.
36:31 Sarah Hagi? Oh, you're busted. Imagine your friend telling you you're busted? I'd never recover. He got her ass. Yeah.
36:40 Sarah Hagi? Mare starts to cry, but she never admits to scamming him. The next day, Jonathan goes to the police. They try to tell him he doesn't have a case because he gave her the money willingly, but Jonathan brought receipts in the form of emails, text messages, and bank records that show how Mare lied to defraud him. The officer finally agrees to take his statement after learning that Jonathan is a producer on Shark Tank. He's been trying to pitch an idea to the show for years. Ah, perfect.
37:15 Sarah Hagi? Sounds exactly right, and I can't wait to know what the invention is. It was a scrub daddy. No, I'm joking.
37:24 Sarah Hagi? Jonathan isn't willing to wait around for this investor slash cop. He decides to investigate the case himself. He sneaks into a law school library and runs background checks on their online research accounts on Mary Ann Smith. He even hires six private investigators in cities where Mary Ann has lived. And very quickly, the truth comes into focus. Mary Ann isn't from Ireland at all. With a pit in his stomach, Jonathan realizes there were no revolutionary ancestors, no Irish grandmother teaching his friend how to throw Molotov cocktails, and no evil Irish cousins plotting against her.
38:05 Sarah Hagi? The woman he once loved like a sister fabricated an entire family to take advantage of him. On top of the betrayal, Jonathan is facing serious financial damage. He's on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in interest on his credit cards. Now, he's ready to take matters into his own hands, and he's determined to make his former bestie pay for what she's done.
38:34 Sarah Hagi? It's spring 2017. Jonathan is sitting at his computer, still reeling after learning his friend scammed him out of more than $70,000. He doesn't want anyone else to go through this. Jonathan works in reality TV, so he knows how to tell a story, and he's not afraid to go public in the most dramatic way possible. So he logs into blogspot.com and starts drafting a good old fashioned blog post. And Jonathan knows just where to start, with Mary Ann's latest boyfriend. By now, she and Andrew the politician have split up, and she's currently dating a man named Bob. Jonathan has never met this new boyfriend and doesn't even know his last name,
39:20 Sarah Hagi? but he does have a photo of Bob that Mary Ann texted to him when they were still friends. Jonathan posts Bob's picture on his blog along with the caption, "I know his name is Bob, I know he's an engineer in Newport Beach, and I know he's getting scammed." Jonathan hits publish and hopes that his warning will reach Bob. In the meantime, other people find the blog and Jonathan's inbox starts to fill up with messages from Mary Ann's victims all over the United States. Then, in May 2017, Jonathan gets a surprising phone call from the Northern Ireland Police. They tell him they've spent a decade looking for Mary Ann. He's shocked.
40:04 Sarah Hagi? For the first time in two months, Jonathan feels hopeful. The Northern Ireland Police might actually hold her accountable for her crimes. He immediately sends them all the evidence he's gathered. Then, a few weeks later in June 2017, Jonathan is sipping coffee on a Sunday morning while watching the news. He sees a story about people forgetting their email passwords and he's hit with a memory. About two years ago, Mary Ann gave him her email password. She was having trouble getting into her account and asked him to help. When he types in the password, it works. He's just unlocked a massive trove of evidence.
40:49 Sarah Hagi? Jonathan discovers that Mary Ann created 23 email addresses linked to her main account, each tied to a different persona to support her scams. These include her fake lawyer and Irish cousins, but also celebrities like Jennifer Aniston. Then Jonathan finds an email that makes his jaw drop because for once, it doesn't contain any lies. In April 2011, one of Mary Ann's old friends warns her that she's wanted in Northern Ireland. The email includes a link to a Facebook post from Stephen Smith, the postal worker Mary Ann married, and then divorced shortly after she made him kill all his dogs. Jonathan clicks on the post and sees that Stephen is asking for help finding Mary Ann
41:35 Sarah Hagi? and urging anyone with information to call the Northern Irish Police.
41:41 Sarah Hagi? I don't understand people who don't Google their friends. Like, you make a new friend, you do a cursory Google, and then he would have known that she made her ex murder all of his dogs. Yeah. Imagine finding that part out through a Facebook post, like, already knowing this bitch is crazy, and then being like, "Wait, she made her ex-husband kill 10 greyhounds?" For no reason, for no good reason. Well, Jonathan immediately reaches out to his police contact in Northern Ireland. And a few months later, in late 2017, extradition proceedings begin. Around the same time, the LAPD finally assign an investigator to Jonathan's case.
42:23 Sarah Hagi? Mary Ann thought she'd left her crimes behind in Belfast. But thanks to Jonathan, she's about to run out of four-leaf clovers.
42:33 Sarah Hagi? Over the next several months, Jonathan's blog keeps spreading, and he identifies more victims spanning all over the United States and Northern Ireland. He shares every new detail he finds with the LAPD. But Jonathan's quest for justice starts to take a toll on his mental health. He's losing sleep and often ducks out of work to keep investigating. His friends are worried about him. And his husband is upset about how all-consuming Jonathan's obsession with bringing Mary Ann to justice has become. The relationship that wasn't real is starting to damage the one that is. Yeah, I mean, this is tough, but like, if you are in that kind of a friendship,
43:15 Sarah Hagi? that fundamentally changes how you look at your life and your other relationships. It's really hard to get over that and just be like, "Okay, no worries. I don't have to rethink what I did or what I accepted and what this person did to me." It's hard to move on from. Yeah, it's really difficult. And I also would be obsessed if someone I trusted was a prolific international scammer, especially since Jonathan's efforts are actually paying off. Because this is when he gets a phone call from Bob, Mary Ann's latest boyfriend. Bob found Jonathan after his ex-wife Googled Mary Ann's name. Their children would be spending time with her, so she wanted to know more about this woman. And once she found Jonathan's blog, she sent Bob the link.
44:00 Sarah Hagi? Bob says Mary Ann has been helping him get a better custody arrangement with his kids. She told him she works as a child custody case investigator, so she understands the system. She also connected him with a private investigator to dig up dirt on his ex, which Bob can use against her in court. Apparently, what the P.I. found was incredibly damning. Bob's ex was allegedly running a BDSM club out of her home. But going through Mary Ann's emails, Jonathan figures out this is all a lie. The "private investigator" is just another persona she fabricated. Bob found Jonathan just in time. By this point, his relationship was serious enough that he was considering putting Mary
44:44 Sarah Hagi? Ann on the title of his two homes. After speaking to Jonathan, Bob confronts his girlfriend with a printout of Jonathan's blog posts. Mary Ann doesn't say anything. She just gets in her car, drives away, and never talks to Bob again.
45:06 Sarah Hagi? I hate how much I love that as a coping mechanism. I didn't know you could do that. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, Mary Ann can do anything she wants. If she just wants to turn around and never talk to someone again, she's gonna turn around and try to never talk to them again. Thanks to the additional evidence from Bob's case, things finally move. In April 2018, the district attorney charges Mary Ann with grand theft by false pretense for swindling Jonathan out of nearly $100,000. She's been arrested at her latest hideout, a group home for the mentally ill, where, naturally, she's scamming one of the residents. He's an elderly military vet, and Mary Ann is trying to marry him so she can access his government benefits.
45:52 Sarah Hagi? Jonathan's case slowly chugs through the system with the trial scheduled to begin in January 2019. But about a month before it's set to start, he sees a strange ad in his mailbox. It's from a lawyer asking if he needs help with a restraining order that's been filed against him. That's right, Mary Ann is accusing Jonathan of stalking her. It's a last ditch attempt to disrupt the trial. If it works, he could be barred from testifying in the courtroom for Mary Ann's safety. But Jonathan's lawyer tells him there's a loophole. If he's never officially served, a judge can't grant the restraining order. So for several weeks, Jonathan and his husband take the back
46:36 Sarah Hagi? entrance in and out of their apartment. When process servers pound on their front door, they pretend they're not home. It's been nearly two years since Jonathan found out his former friend was scamming him. And now that he's got some momentum, he's not gonna let any more of her lies delay his day in court.
47:02 Sarah Hagi? Journalist Tristan Redman goes where no son-in-law should ever go. Deep into his wife's family history, digging up the cold case of who murdered her great-grandmother. Because, I should mention, he thinks the murderer might actually be the beloved family patriarch. For the best binge-watch series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
47:23 Speaker 02 You stepped out for your morning jog. Except it's not your usual morning jog. You started listening to an epic sci-fi book on Audible. Thirty chapters later, you've accidentally run a half marathon. You lost track of how far you've run, somewhere just past the city limits. You can't stop. You have to find out what happens next. Then it's over. The universe seems bigger. You feel different. You feel like you have no idea where you are. Audible: Stories That Speak to You.
48:02 Sarah Hagi? It's January 2019, almost two years after Jonathan learned the truth about Mary Ann, and he's finally stepping into an LA courtroom to testify against his former best friend. Jonathan takes a stand, wearing a black button-down shirt. And as he testifies, he is visibly pissed. He explains the financial impact Mary Ann scams had on him. He tells the court that, after he maxed out on his credit cards, he was drowning in interest fees as high as $2,000 to $3,000 a month. And ultimately, he had to file for bankruptcy. Jonathan gets so worked up, the judge has to stop him a few times to tell him to calm down.
48:45 Sarah Hagi? Three of Mary Ann's other victims testify as well, including Bob, her ex-boyfriend. But the real star witness is Chelsea, who's now around 28 years old. She flies in from Tennessee to testify against her estranged mother, and her description of her mom is scathing.
49:05 Speaker 04 My mother, my entire life, has been a compulsive liar and has often fabricated stories that no one else can corroborate. I think that she's a very troubled person, who has used her intelligence malevolently. And the things that she has been accused of, I'm absolutely disgusted by.
49:37 Sarah Hagi? Pretty damning. Hard to argue with a daughter's very clear-eyed assessment of their mother in this case.
49:44 Scaachi Koul? Yeah, I mean, it's so sad she had to do that. In the end, after just three hours of deliberation, the jury finds Mary Ann guilty. The judge describes her as an inveterate thief and a sociopath.
50:00 Sarah Hagi? And sentences her to five years in prison. Jonathan is elated. Justice has finally been served. But with the whole world about to go into lockdown, Mary Ann won't stay in prison for long, and her new scams will have her dancing with the literal devil. In December 2020, nearly two years into Mary Ann's five-year prison sentence, Jonathan hears that she's been released. At this time, COVID is raging, and to slow the spread of the virus, California decides to set thousands of nonviolent offenders free. Mary Ann takes this opportunity to go on the run again.
50:43 Sarah Hagi? Jonathan has no idea where she is, but he wants to prevent her from scamming anyone else. So in 2021, he produces and hosts a true crime podcast about Mary Ann called Queen of the Con, which becomes a huge hit and brings in a huge lead. A listener tips off Jonathan that Mary Ann is living in a remote part of Maine. She's reinvented herself yet again, and this time, she's calling on a morning star. That's right, Sachi. Mary Ann has a brand-new scam invoking Satan himself. Not long after she got out of prison, Mary Ann started a satanic church.
51:27 Sarah Hagi? She calls herself a high priestess of Satan named Lucia Belia and charges people hefty sums to cast spells for them. Jonathan manages to get a video from one of her satanic ceremonies. Sachi, I am going to need you to describe this. And let's watch this right now. Listen, I always think it's funny when someone's doing something kind of like witchy or weird, and they're wearing Buddy Holly glasses, which is what she's wearing. She appears to be in a black cloak. She's in the dark, surrounded by red curtains and candles, and she is summoning the devil,
52:10 Sarah Hagi? who she says is already here, but she is summoning him. Yeah, you know, it's really insane for a lot of reasons. Also, because it just looks like a child's reenactment of summoning Satan. It's like dark room. The crazy lighting, it's so insane. Yeah. Jonathan has stayed in touch with the police in Northern Ireland, but their extradition efforts have stalled. But when he sends them this satanic video, along with Mary Ann's address in Maine, the process starts moving again. In February 2024, the cops knock on Mary Ann's door. She begs them not to extradite her, claiming she defrauded a major figure in the IRA and will be murdered if she returns to Northern Ireland.
52:55 Sarah Hagi? But they ignore her and put her on a plane to Belfast. Mary Ann will finally have to face the music for her crimes. Her Irish jig is about to be up.
53:08 Sarah Hagi? It's September 2025, and Jonathan is about 20 miles south of Belfast. He's going to court again. Mary Ann is finally on trial for defrauding her clients almost 20 years ago, when she worked as a mortgage adviser. Jonathan got justice, and now he wants her Irish victims to get theirs. That's why he's flown out here to watch her trial. But Mary Ann's lawyer is trying to keep him out of the courtroom, arguing that his popular podcast is preventing her from getting a fair judgment. I mean, as a member of the press, that's not an argument that I'm especially sympathetic to. Because if you don't want people to think poorly about you, then don't do things that are reportable.
53:51 Sarah Hagi? I mean, don't do something that would make an amazing podcast, first of all. Yeah, listen, if you end up on a podcast, it's probably your fault. Yeah, there are a lot of them, and to get one to be popular is a lot of work. So that means you kind of earned it. It's actually really hard, and we should know. So you probably have a crazy story if it's happened.
54:11 Sarah Hagi? So Jonathan steps into the courthouse lobby, where Mary Ann's victims give him hugs, thanking him for his work bringing her to justice. Soon after, the judge grants him permission to silently observe the trial, and he takes a seat inside the courtroom next to Mary Ann's other victims. For the next three days, he watches them take the stand in tears as Mary Ann sits stone-faced, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. She doesn't testify. After only 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury finds her guilty of conning four people out of more than $155,000. The judge sentences her to four years in prison,
54:52 Sarah Hagi? which gets reduced to three years and four months after her months in US custody are factored in. Jonathan feels like this is too lenient. Mary Ann is scheduled to be deported back to the US after serving her remaining time, and he's sure it won't take long before she reinvents herself yet again. But there is at least one happy ending here. Through the podcast, Jonathan helped Mary Ann's daughter Chelsea identify her birth father. He'd always wondered about his daughter and had looked for her, and after the podcast was released in 2021, they finally reunited. In 2025, Jonathan published a book about
55:33 Sarah Hagi? his experience called Anatomy of a Con Artist, and his podcast, Queen of the Con, has come out with more seasons exposing more scammers. As for Mary Ann, she's probably searching for another pot of gold. She'll just have to be very careful about picking her next rainbow.
55:56 Sarah Hagi? Sacha, I feel like often, someone figuring out there's a scam clearly happens a bit too late in the story. And although Jonathan did get scammed, it felt kind of nice to see someone take a scammer really seriously for once. Yeah, I really enjoyed the dogged pursuit of getting revenge on an old friend. Yeah, I really understand how consumed he was with this story. Like, if I think about someone I've known ever who I'm not in contact with anymore, like, I am Googling the shit out of them to see what they're up to these days. Forget someone who scammed me out of whatever, $100,000-plus, who I trusted. I would never let it go. I would introduce myself with, hello, my old friend took
56:41 Sarah Hagi? all this money from me. I'm kind of glad that Jonathan found a way to make it lucrative for himself. It's pretty rare that you can take your experience and turn it into your own podcast that becomes successful and then write a book. Everyone wants to make content ultimately. And oftentimes, the scammers are the ones who make the content in the end because everyone wants to hear from a scammer. But it is kind of nice to see a victim create the content and also go through the process of investigating it himself. Like, I don't think there would ever be justice without Jonathan. Like, I don't think a lot of the people she scammed had the resources. It's hard to come back from something like that and also to have the tenacity to pursue someone who wronged you that way.
57:25 Sarah Hagi? And it is crazy that, like, she had been scamming her whole life and it took one guy. Well, I think it's also a testament to why you shouldn't turn on your closest allies. She probably would have gotten away with it for a lot longer if she didn't do this to the person who loved her most, knew her best, was defending her. You know, she was pulling scams on a lot of men who she was dating, but you know who's not going to let you get away with it? Gay best friend. That is a huge factor. Like, I think she underestimated that sacred bond. The sacred bond between some weird lady and her gay best friend, which Yes. I know intimately.
58:05 Sarah Hagi? And I'll tell you what, I would never do anything to Rudy Lee because he would murder me and march my head around town and make fun of my shoes. Yeah, I think the fact that she got her ex-husband to put down 10 of his greyhounds, that to me says, you know, maybe this woman can summon Satan, low key.
58:31 Sarah Hagi? Just that every single person in her life was one of her victims, basically, is it really shocking that she then said she can summon Satan instead of being a normal Etsy witch? Yeah, I mean, I'm just offended by that because, like, the devil's busy. Yeah, exactly. Do you know how busy the devil is? There's a lot of evil people still alive, and he has meetings. Yeah, I mean, listen, it took an entire apartment building full of old people to summon the devil in Rosemary's Baby. You tell me this woman can do it on her own? That's exactly right, and I guess she didn't see that movie. I think one of the big lessons is you should be suspicious of unexplained inter- International wealth. I mean, yeah, that's the big one.
59:14 Sarah Hagi? I also think it's hard to tell if someone's real rich or not because rich people are weird. They live in weird worlds and they all have like weird lives and family drama. And that's just the way things are when you have money. I think there needs to be an education program for people who are normal and have never met really, really rich people before, maybe. Because like, there is no universe where someone with access to millions of dollars will be asking a regular ass person for help. Real rich people will just borrow from the bank or from other rich people. They're not going to borrow from you and your middle class wallet. It feels like Jonathan was predisposed to our friend Mayer because he had this like reality TV bent.
59:59 Sarah Hagi? But at the same time, that meant Mayer was in like way more danger with him because if there's anybody you don't want to upset, it is a reality television producer. Like, if she had scammed just a regular person, they're not going to make a podcast. At best, it's some well-placed tweets. But she angered somebody with access and the means of production? Huge mistake. This is honestly why I think people stay away from us, Sarah. We are one episode away from changing someone's life. A hundred percent. I also think it's kind of the excitement of getting to know someone like Mayer, where there's a type of nutso that you only see on reality TV of like crazy rich people that is very alluring to be around.
1:00:43 Sarah Hagi? If you like a good story, you know, it's like, yeah, I love crazy women. I love when someone is rich and crazy and like harried and going like, oh, like all the time. But it does come with consequences. That curiosity comes with consequences and, and we see this here. Listen, I really think the lesson is go for it. Make friends with a weirdo, find a Real Housewife and become their bestie, but do not give them a single red cent. It's kind of like being an adrenaline junkie. You have to know what your limit is. Yeah, listen, you can get in a fight with a housewife. You should have a public grievance with them. Make a thousand podcasts about your friends. That's fine, but do not give them any money. Yeah, agreed. You know what?
1:01:29 Sarah Hagi? And the other lesson is that if you have to have a husband, you should also be a husband because if you're not, it's gonna go bad. Yeah. Husbands only for husbands.
1:01:43 Scaachi Koul? Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible.
1:01:51 Sarah Hagi? From Audible Originals, this is Mary Ann Smith, the fake Irish heiress for Scamfluencers. I'm Sarah Haggie.
1:01:58 Scaachi Koul? And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us and a story that you think we should cover, please email us at [email protected] . We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Jonathan Walton's book, Anatomy of a Con Artist, and his podcast, Queen of the Con. She wasn't an Irish heiress. She was from Bangor, Maine, by Emily Burnham for the Bangor Daily News, the Hollywood producer, the heiress, and a very personal quest for justice by Katie Kilkeny for The Hollywood Reporter, and reporting from the BBC.
1:02:28 Sarah Hagi? Susie Armitage wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole, and Sarah Haggie. Olivia Brierley is our story editor. Our senior producers are Sarah Enni and Ginny Bloom. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Fact checking by Kalina Newman. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Fries on Sync. The executive producer for Audible is Jenny Lauer Beckman. The head of creative development at Audible is Kate Navin. The head of Audible Originals North America is Marshall Louie. The chief content officer is Rachel Giatza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.
1:03:12 Sarah Hagi? Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.
1:03:20 Sarah Hagi? Ghosts aren't real. At least, that's what journalist Tristan Redmond always believed. Sure, odd things happened in his childhood bedroom, but ultimately, he shrugged them off. Until he discovered that he wasn't alone, that everyone who lived thereafter him also had bizarre experiences they couldn't explain. And it gets even weirder. It just so happens that his wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door. Is this- Ghost somehow connected to her murder? He decides to go where no son-in-law should, digging up a cold case and asking questions that nobody wants answered. Like, could his wife's great-grandfather have gotten away with the perfect crime? This is a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming coincidence,
1:04:03 Sarah Hagi? and the things that come back to haunt us. For the best bingeable series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can get all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
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