FAKE IRISH HEIRESS MARIANNE SMYTH IS EXTRADITED TO THE UK
A woman accused of traveling across the US claiming to be an Irish heiress and scamming several victims out of tens of thousands of dollars has been extradited to the United Kingdom, a US official confirmed Tuesday.
Marianne Smyth faces allegations that she stole more than $170,000 from the victims from 2008 to 2010 in Northern Ireland.
A US magistrate judge in Maine ruled in May that there was sufficient evidence for extradition of the American, who accusers say has also fashioned herself as a witch, a psychic and a friend to Hollywood stars.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice confirmed the extradition, and referred questions to law enforcement officials in Northern Ireland. An attorney for Smyth did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Smyth was living and working for a mortgage company in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the time of the alleged scams which involved taking thousands from victims and promising them hefty returns on investments. Prosecutors say she stole the cash.
When she realized she was about to be arrested by British police she allegedly absconded to the US where she embarked on a litany of new swindles.
The cons carried out stateside between 2013 and 2018 resulted in her finally being jailed in 2019 for five years only to be released thanks to Covid-19 protocols in California which saw non-violent offenders given early releases.
The most infamous of those involved TV producer Johnathan Walton who befriended Smyth in 2013 when they lived in same building. In his hugely popular podcast, Queen of the Con: The Irish Heiress, Walton details the long con which saw him part with $100,000.
Walton admits that he fell for Smyth's fantasist tales that she stood to inherit nearly $40 million from her regal family, who she said helped to draft the Irish constitution, but that it was all being held up because of an unspecified issue she had with a relation.
In turn, Walton 'lent' Smyth thousands of dollars, including on one occasion more than $50,000, because he thought it would all easily be paid back when her inheritance came through.
Law enforcement in Belfast learned of Walton's story and made contact to say they had been searching for Smyth. The host was able to supply them with an address in Maine which led to her being arrested in February.
As a result of her scheme involving Walton, Smyth was originally arrested in 2018 on charges of grand theft by false pretense, after dozens of other victims came forward.
In 2019, she was sentenced to five years behind bars but was quickly released in 2020 due to the Covid-19 where she subsequently decamped to Maine, where she was born.
Authorities believe that she lived in a series of short term accommodations in her home state in order to prevent her past from catching up to her.
A court in Northern Ireland issued arrest warrants for her earlier this decade. She was arrested in Maine in February.
Smyth drew comparisons to Anna Sorokin, a scammer who impersonated a German heiress to pay for a glamorous lifestyle in New York City, and became subject of a Netflix series.
Sorokin, whose real name is Anna Delvey, was convicted in 2019 of conning $275,000 from banks, hotels and swank New Yorkers to finance her deluxe lifestyle.
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