Satanic Church and Final Justice

Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of sccamfluencers ad free right now Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app Sachi, I think about this a lot, not just in the context of the scammers we cover, but just like generally Cy people What type of person do you think it takes to really take down a scammer U I think it has to be someone with an almost unhealthy ability to hold a grudch. Yeah. 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 somethingone 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 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 It's may twenty thirteen, and Jonathan Walton, a reality TV producer, is hosting a party in his downtown Los Angeles apartment Jonathan is in his late thirties, 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 twenty people 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 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 is in her mid forties with pale skin, short black hair, and striking blue eyes. She looks sharp in Jimmy Chew 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 and delivers a fiery speech, suggesting they form a tenant association to get the pool back She says her boyfriend, a bigig shot lawyer, can help When M finishes speaking, Jonathan and his neighbors applaud As the night goes on, Jonathan grows more and more enamored with mor. 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 C 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. But as Jonathan gets to know Mare better He'll realize that the story she's telling about herself doesn't quite add up Mayary claims to come from a wealthy Irish family, and she certainly lives like a princess 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 Anne But Ma has seriously underestimated her latest mark Jonathan is the kind of person who organizes a crusade over jacuzzi access So when he realizes Marianne has been lying and not just to him, but to countless others as well pull out all the stops to expose her. And once he goes public with Marianne's lies, her Irish luck may finally run out I'm Raza Jeoffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we go back in time to meet Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution As America fights for freedom from Britain Arnold emerges as one of the rebel's greatest generals But when his loyalty is pushed to the limit, he turns spy vises a plot to shatter the rebellion and make George Washington a prisoner Follow the Spy who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of the Sy Who betrayed the American Revolution early and ad free on Audible Whether you're exploring your fascinations or discovering new ones, Audible has stories that will introduce you to your most fascinating self. Tap into a whole new world of heated conversations with a saucy romantasy series. Know how true the latest blockbuster movie stayed to the sci fi story it was based on, or find unexpected reveals through an exclusive true Cime podcast However you listen, audible keeps you fascinated, so you can be just as fascinating. Select any audio book every month, plus exclusive podcasts. pllans now start at eight dollars ninety nineents Audible. be fascinated. be fascinating From Audible Originals, I'm Sarah Hagy, and I'm Sachie Cole, and this is Scamfluencers. From an early age, Marianne Smith 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, Marianne finally met her match Jonathan is loyal, hardwking, and some might say obsessive. And once he realizes he's been conned, She becomes determined to turn her fraudulent pot of gold upside down Not just for himself, but for victims all over the world who have fallen for Marianne's audacious con Drawing on everything he's learned as a television producer, Jonathan will launch a come upance campaign unlike anything we've covered on scy influencers before a multim media barrage to expose Marianne and make sure no one else suffers his fate This is Marianne Smith, the fake Irish heiress. It's the early nineteen eighties in Bangore, Maine, and twelve year old Marianne Andell is excited to have a friend over Marianne 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 Marianne doesn't actually live there They're in a total stranger's home. But even when Marianne 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 Marianne claims is her sister I know we're not supposed to root for fraud That is That is so funny and instantly iconic for a child to do. amazing, amazing. It's iconic. And from an early age, Marianne 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, Marianne 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 I yet again do not have a problem with this if she had just npped 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 eighteen, Marianne's parents are fed up with her lies and kick her out of their house After graduating high school in nineteen eighty seven, 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 that Marianne is refining the skill she'll use for the rest of her life 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 nineteen eighty nine, when she's twenty 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's won, 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 nineteen ninety one, she gives birth to another baby girl, Chelsea Shortly afterwards, Jeff files for divorce, claiming that Marianne is a pathological liar A court deems her an unfit mother and awards him full custody of Courtney Marianne retains custody of her younger daughter, Chelsea And while Marianne doesn't seem very interested in raising a child is ready to start training an accomplice It's two thousand two and Chelsea is celebrating her eleventh birthday Her mom, Marianne, 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, Marianne left Chelsea with her grandparents in Tennessee And then, after nearly five years of no contact Mary Anne suddenly comes back into Chelsea's life But given Marianne'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 But Maryianne 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 Marianne 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 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 de. like she knows how to be your best friend. She knows how to like intimidate and scare you very quickly. L she just knows how to get in your head and under your skin. This is very mommy dearest. Yeah. I feel like I've seen a thousand laaw and Order episodes about this exact dynamic Sadly, it is a classic dynamic 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, Stehven 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 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 Stephven will be a positive influence on Mary Anne and a source of stability for Chelsea In october two thousand three, a little over a year and a half after arriving in Northern Ireland Marianne and Stephven get married. Two years later, Marianne gets a job as a mortgage advisor She's not interested in earning a paycheck 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 helpeling her get in their good graces It's all a part of Marianne's new con Mianne 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 one hundred fifty five thousand dollars in just a few years At first, Marianne keeps a scheme going by paying her clients' returns from her personal account But eventually the payment stop and they start to catch on to the fraud In two thousand nine, when Chelsea is eighteen Her mom announces they're leaving Northern Ireland immediately Chelsea doesn't know it yet someone has tipped Maryianne off that the Irish police are investigating her As Chelsea rushes to pack She's horrified to hear Mararyianne tell Steve that there's no time to re homeome his more than a dozen Greyhound dogs You'll need to put them all down Why do they have to be put down Well, there's simply no time to re homeome them. That's right. so they all must be slaughtered, I understand. Yeah, it's really an all or nothing scenario somehow Kelsey 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, Stephven does the same. He leaves Maryianne and joins Chelsea and her grandparents all tired of Marianne's lies and abuse Chelsea is finally free of her mother. But Maryianne is getting a fresh start too. She's about to launch an audacious new scam. This time with a Northern Irish twist It's a hot June evening in twenty thirteen, and Jonathan Walton is hanging out in the barbecue area of his L.A apartment complex with his neighbor, Mary 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 Mayare have grown close. Mare or Mary Anne is in her mid forties 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 she claims belonged to her great, great uncle 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 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 I guess when it comes to white history, I'm not gonna 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 Malov cocktails? Mbe maybe they were the particular upper class that was a part of the revolution. I'm open to hearing more. Sure. sureure. I mean, exactly, what am I we gonna do? sayay your dad wasn't in the IRA. Yeah. You want to say that to an Irish person? Pass Well, Jonathan doesn't know much about Ireland, so he has no idea that Ireland doesn't actually have a royal family Mary tells Jonathan that in addition to being royal, her family is very wealthy and that tracks Obvious, Mare has money He's seen her closet, which is filled with hundreds of pairs of Jimmy Chew shoes He estimates she has more than a quarter of a million dollars worth of footwear Mayary 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 Mary start hanging out all the time, and he falls even more in love with her fun, frank 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 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 Eventually, Mmera can find something more serious. She tells Jonathan, she's about to inherit five million euros from her uncle There's just one problem Her spiteful cousin, Finten, is trying to cut her out of the will Mayor shows Jonathan text messages from Finten loaded with Irish swear words and threreats 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. 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, Mor 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 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 Mayor brushes off his concerns Just a few weeks later in july twenty fourteen 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 two hundred thousand dollars from the travel company she works for. and causing more than one hundred fifty thousand dollars in damages. This is exactly what Jonathan feared. 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 While Mary sits in a jail cell, Jonathan springs into action He starts Googling bail bondsmen beforefore he can make a move, He gets a call from Mayor's lawyer boyfriend, who will call Andrew Andrew tells Jonathan that he'll front the money for Mayor'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 Marianne Elizabeth Smith That's when he learns that his friend's legal name isn't actually Mare He figures Mare is just a nickname for Maryianne Jonathan pays the four thousand two hundred dollars bail bond fee with his debit card, and early the next morning, Marianne is released He picks her up and takes her out to breakfast She promises she'll pay him back a saap. The next day Andrew shows up at Jonathan's door with an envelope full of hundred dollars bills, totaling the entire amount of her bail. Marianne 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 neighbor saw her get handcuffed So she upgrades to a luxury complex that costs almost six thousand dollars a month There's an actual movie theater in the building where she invites Jonathan to watch fifty shhades of Gay Marianne'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 and asking tough questions Instead, he's all in and ready to fight for his friend. He has no idea that soon He's going to be fighting for something else entirely. H his own money and his reputation Go there 'is I, Queen Mortuana of the Night Realm, AKA Kate McKinon. And her Raven minion Jojo, AK Emily Lynn Do not download and binge My show. heads will roll air apparent, unaudible I will cut off your head! Oh no. Maybe just tell them about the guest stars like Richard Kyind, Karry Coon, Jimmy Fallon at all. But they weren't. And if you don't listen to them then I will cut off your tongue, then cut off your head and then put the tongue in the head hole. A, you tried. Listen now exclusively onaudible and D of the Audible app today are off with your head Whether you're exploring your current fascinations or discovering new ones, Audible has all the stories that willll introduce you to your most fascinating self. Tap into a whole new world of heated conversations with a Sucy romantasy series. 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Be fascinated, be fascinating feel like a That's not It's august twenty fourteen, just a month after Marian's arrest, and she's taking a work call at her new job while Jonathan is listening in She puts the call and speaker and introduces herself as Mor Ana 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 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 one eight hundred psychic line But the pay is terrible, so she starts her own business Then she asks if he'll help make her a promotional video And as expected, he says yes My name is Mer Ana, 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 Listen, I love woo woo nonsense. 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. This is a huge ego boost for her too Almost overnight, Maryianne builds a steady stream of satisfied clients and a yelp page full of glowing reviews. As her following grows, Maryianne starts telling her clients that what they really need is life coaching. And luckily, she's a certified life coach Cients begin opening up to her, sharing their fears, their vulnerabilities, and their personal details Marianne 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 twenty thousand dollars a month to tell them what buildings to buy and sell But when her advice stops paying off, they cut her loose So Marianne makes a final play She tells them her daughter has cancer and needs sixty thousand dollars for an experimental treatment to save her life The investors wire her the money and she promises to pay them back But she never does In reality, Marianne 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 Anne returned from Northern Ireland in two thousand nine, 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 door threatening to kill her family and demanding to know where Marianne was There's a lot about what Mariant does that is awful and really cruel, Going after your daughter who you mostly abandoned Trying to get her back into your good graces through money isn't gonna 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 twenty twelve when she was only twenty three It's not clear how Maryianne 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 In twenty fifteen, about a year into her career as a psychic Marianne starts a gofund mee using a picture of Courtney and her baby to raise money for other families affected by cystic fibrosis. Mary Anne's friends and clients donate almost seventeen thousand dollars with the understanding that Mar Anne will send the money to a foundation researching the disease which obviously, she does not do And by now, Maryianne 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 twenty sixteen, more than two years since Jonathan's good friend Mayor 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 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 May more than twenty thousand dollars 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 Mer, insisting that her family is trying to destroy her 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 thenen in early twenty seventeen Mor has an even bigger ask She says she needs around fifty five thousand dollars 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, Mayor tells Jonathan she's going to jail Again 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 thirty days in the LA County jail as punishment Jonathan is stunned, but he isn't familiar with the criminal justice system He trusts Mayor, so he accepts this bizarre explanation For the first two weeks, Mor 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 learned that Mianne Elizabeth Smith didn't get her case dismissed She pleaded guilty to stealing two hundred thousand dollars from the travel agency, and she's serving time for felony grand theft Oh, this is a brutal thing to find out about someone that you have defended. and now your husband is right Jonathan is freaking out ellse 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 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 The fifty five thousand dollars 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. t point, Jonathan decides to talk to Mor 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. He also secretly records the conversation on his iPhone Here's an excerpt he shared on his podcast, Queen of the Con You've been scamming us out of money this whole time You have Yeah, you're not going you're busted. So From here on in, we're not French So I only want to see you or hear from you when you have a payment for us until this money is paid off You're bust. Good luck Ohh, you're busted. Imagine your friend telling you you're busted. I'd never recover. He got her ass. Yeahah The Mare starts to cry 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 Mor lied to defraud him The officer finally agrees to take his statement A learning that Jonathan is a producer on Shark Tank He's been trying to pitch an idea to the show for years. Mm Perfect. That sounds exactly right, and I can't wait to know what the invention is. It was a scrub daddy. Now I'm joking. Jonathan isn't willing to wait around for this investor slash cop He decides to investigate the case himself She sneaks into a law school library and runs background checks on their online research accounts on Mar Annne Smith He even hires six private investigators in cities where Marianne has lived And very quickly, the truth comes into focus. Marianne isn't from Ireland at all 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 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. Spring twenty seventeen Jonathan is sitting at his computer, still reeling after learning his friend scammed him out of more than seventy thousand dollars 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 fashion blog post And Jonathan knows just where to start with Maryianne's latest boyfriend By now, she and Andrew' a 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 But he does have a photo of Bob that Marianne 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 Marianne's victims all over the United States And then in may twenty seventeen Jonathan gets a surprising phone call from the Northern Ireland police They tell him they've spent a decade looking for Marianne He's shocked 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 twenty seventeen 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, Mianne 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 trobe of evidence Jonathan discovers that Mararyianne created twenty three 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 twenty eleven, one of Marianne's old friends warns her that she's wanted in Northern Ireland The email includes a link to a Facebook post from Stephven Smith, the postal worker Marianne married and then divorced shortly after she made him kill all his dogs Jonathan clicks on the post and sees that Stephven is asking for help finding Maryianne and urging anyone with information to call the Northern Irish police 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 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 ten greyhounds for no reason, for no good reason. Jonathan immediately reaches out to his police contact in Northern Ireland And a few months later, in late twenty seventeen, extradition proceedings begin Around the same time, the LAPD finally assign an investigator to Jonathan's case Marianne thought she'd left her crimes behind in Belfast. But thanks to Jonathan, she's about to run out of four leaf clovers 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 Marianne 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, 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 Anne's latest boyfriend found Jonathan after his ex wife Googled Marianne'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 Bob says Mary Anne 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 PI found was incredibly damning Bob's ex was allegedly running a BDSM club out of her home Going through Marianne'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 Marianne on the title of his two homes After speaking to Jonathan, Bob confronts his girlfriend with a printout of Jonathan's blog posts Marianne doesn't say anything She just gets in her car, drives away and never talks to Bob again 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, Marianne 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 twenty eighteen, the district attorney charges Marianne with grand theft by false pretense for swindling Jonathan out of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. 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 Marianne is trying to marry him so she can access his government benefits Jonathan's case slowly chugs through the system with a trial scheduled to begin in january twenty nineteen But about a month before it's set to start, he sees a strange ad in his mailbox is from a lawyer asking if he needs help with a restraining order that's been filed against him That's right Mianne 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 Mar An'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 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 I'm Raza Jeoffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who open the file on Benedict Arnold. py who betrayed the American Revolution America is fighting to free itself from the British Empire and one of its foreost generals is Benedict Ar He's a smugger turned battlefield hero. admired for his aggressive tactics But when a war wound The new wife, debts and politics, test his loyalty to the Max Turn spine and devises a plot to shoutter the revolutionary. help Britain capture rebel commommander in chief, General George Washington And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history. 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Sign up now to become a member and get any audio book every month plus exclusive podcasts. plans now start at eightll ninety nine cents Be fascinated, be fascinating. I feel like I That's not It's to january twenty nineteen, almost two years after Jonathan learned the truth about Mary Anne 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 Mar Anne's scams had on him He tells a court that after he maxed out on his credit cards He was drowning in interest fees as high as two to three thousand dollars a month And ultimately, he had to file for bankruptcy When Jonathan gets so worked up, the judge has to stop him a few times to tell him to calm down. Three of Marianne's other victims testify as well, including Bob, her ex boyfriend The real st witness is Chelsea, who's now around twenty eight years old She flies in from Tennessee to testify against her estranged mother. And her description of her mom is scathing My metother my entire life has been a compulsion wire. And has often fabricated stories that no one else can corroborate. think that she's a very troubble person who has used her intelligent M life weren'tly and the things that she has been accused of, I'm absolutely disgusted by prettyretty damning It's hard to argue with the daughter's very clear eyed assessment of their mother in this case. Yeah, I mean, it's so sad she had to do that In the end, after just three hours of deliberation, the jury finds Marianne guilty. The judge describes her as an inveterate thief and a sociopath 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 Marianne won't stay in prison for long, and her new scams will have her dancing with the literal devil In december twenty twenty, nearly two years into Marianne'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 Marianne takes this opportunity to go on the run again Jonathan has no idea where she is But he wants to prevent her from scamming anyone else. So in twenty twenty one, he produces and hosts a true crime podcast about Mary Anne called Queen of the Kan, which becomes a huge hit and brings in a huge lead A listener tips off Jonathan that Maryianne 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 Marianne has a brand new scam invoking Satan himself Not long after she got out of prison, Maryianne started a Satanic church 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 like 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 who she says is already here, but she is summoning him you know, it's really insane for a lot of reasons also because like It just looks like a child's re enactment 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 Mar Anne's address in Maine, the process starts moving again In february twenty twenty four, the cops knock on Mary Anne'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 But they ignore her and put her on a plane to Belfast Marianne will finally have to face the music for her crimes Irish Jig is about to be up It's september twenty twenty five and Jonathan is about twenty miles south of Belfast He's going to court again. Marianne is finally on trial for defrauding her clients almost twenty years ago when she worked as a mortgage advisor. 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 Marianne'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 do things that are reportable 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 So Jonathan steps into the courthouse lobby where Marianne'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 Marianne's other victims For the next three days, he watches them take the stand in tears as Marianne sits stone faced, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. She doesn't testify. After only twenty minutes of deliberation, the jury finds her guilty of coning four people out of more than one hundred fifty five thousand dollars The judge sentences her to four years in prison, 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. Marianne is scheduled to be deported back to the U S. after serving her remaining time. And he's sure it won't take long before she reinents herself yet again There is at least one happy ending here Through the podcast, Jonathan helped Marianne'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 twenty twenty one They finally reunited In twenty twenty five, Jonathan published a book about his experience called Anatomy of a C arrtist and his podcast, Queen of the Kan has come out with more seasons exposing more scammers As for Maryianne, she's probably searching for another pot of gold She'll just have to be very careful about picking her next rainbow So actually, 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. If I think about someomeone I've known ever who I'm not in contact with anymore I am Googling the shit out of them to see what they're up to these days. Forget someone who scanned me out of whatever one hundred thousand plus dollars, who I trusted, I would never let it go. I would introduce myself with hello, my old friend took 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 become 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 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. 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 looved 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 gonna to let you get away with it