An American woman who posed as the heiress to the fictional Irish royal family while claiming to have intimate ties to Hollywood celebrities is behind bars in Maine and awaiting extradition to the United Kingdom.
Marianne “Mair” Smyth will face new charges stemming from a 2009 scam that authorities say she orchestrated while living and working for a mortgage company in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
After learning of her impending arrest, Smyth fled to the United States to begin a litany of further scams between 2013 and 2018 which saw her ultimately imprisoned in 2019 for five years, before being released under the protocols Covid-19 in California who saw non-violent offenders receive early release.
The most infamous of these involved television producer Johnathan Walton, who befriended Smyth in 2013 while they lived in the same building. In his hugely popular podcast, Queen of Con: The Irish heiress, Walton details the lengthy scam that saw him part with $100,000.
Walton admits he fell for Smyth’s fantasy stories that she would inherit nearly $40 million from her royal family, who she claimed had helped write the Irish constitution, but that it was all delayed in due to an unspecified problem she was having with a relationship. .
In turn, Walton “loaned” Smyth thousands of dollars, including on one occasion more than $50,000, because he believed it would all be easily repaid once he received his inheritance.
Johnathan Walton has described how Marianne Smyth, pictured together, charmed him into becoming her best friend with her dazzling tales of Hollywood friendship and frank personality.
Walton discovered that she had numerous aliases and appearances that she used to deceive people.
Law enforcement in Belfast learned of Walton’s story and made contact to say they were looking for Smyth. The host was able to provide them with an address in Maine, which led to her arrest in February.
As a result of her scheme involving Walton, Smyth was initially arrested in 2018 for grand larceny by false pretenses, after dozens of other victims came forward.
In 2019, she was sentenced to five years in prison but was quickly released in 2020 due to Covid-19 where she then decamped to Maine, where she was born.
Authorities believe she lived in a series of short-term housing units in her home state to prevent her past from catching up with her.
While living in Northern Ireland, Smyth is accused of soliciting more than $170,000 from customers of the mortgage company where she worked, promising to invest it in a “high-interest bank account “. In reality, she kept the money for herself, officials said.
Before leaving Northern Ireland, Smyth’s daughter Chelsea Fowler said her mother had more than a dozen dogs put down because they were in such a hurry they didn’t have time to put them down. rehouse.
Smyth convinced Walton that she was friends with Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Aniston and Ashley Judd.
Walton and Smyth met in 2013 at a meeting at his Los Angeles apartment complex to discuss revoking residents’ pool access.
She persuaded television producer Walton to lend her nearly $10,000 so she could cover her rent after he claimed his bank accounts had been frozen. She said at the time that she was in conflict with her cousin over his inheritance, which led to the freeze.
Eventually, Smyth’s lies caught up with her. She is seen entering court after being arrested for robbery in 2018.
Walton eventually realized he had been defrauded while checking court documents after Smyth’s arrest. In January 2019, she was finally convicted of robbery and she has now been sentenced to five years in prison.
She also asked him to charge $50,000 to her credit cards when she was finally arrested, and said she needed the money to make a plea deal.
At the time, she managed to convince him that the arrest was a set-up orchestrated by the same cousins who, she said, wanted to wrest her from her great-uncle’s will.
Walton eventually realized he had been defrauded while checking court documents after Smyth’s arrest.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Walton described how Smyth had charmed him into being his best friend with his dazzling stories of Hollywood friendship and frank personality.
“Back then I was a different person and took everything literally. That’s how they come into your life, they try to help you,” he said, explaining that he fell for her offer of help in the fight against their building about swimming pool restrictions.
Walton and her husband became friends with Smyth, and he and she became particularly close. As their friendship blossomed, she gradually revealed bits and pieces of her privileged background.
During a visit to his apartment, she showed him a signed document framed on the wall which she said was the Irish Constitution. She showed a signature that she said was that of her great-uncle.
She said she was soon to inherit part of his fortune, but there were problems with her children.
To maintain the facade of a Hollywood power player, she said she did not have to work but wanted to and claimed to have friendships with Judd and Aniston.
She even showed Walton texts and emails that she believed were from the couple.
“She seemed wealthy, she seemed educated, she fit the role she played perfectly,” he said.
Smyth promised to introduce him to them, but every time they were scheduled to meet, the “stars” suddenly withdrew.
He quickly became “captivated” by his family drama.
“It was like a soap opera plot, but it was happening in real life,” he said, adding that he didn’t think at all about the time she had liposuction and plastic surgery because “that’s what rich women do.”
As they grew closer, she confided to him that there was a clause in her inheritance that if she had been convicted of a crime, she would lose everything.
He warned her that her cousins might be grooming her to commit a crime to try to take her share.
So when she was arrested for allegedly stealing $200,000 from PacificIslands.com — a luxury travel agency she worked for to “pass the time” — he immediately suspected the cousins.
Walton posted $4,200 bail for him. One of his friends reimbursed him.
She then asked him for money for her rent, claiming her accounts had been frozen.
He gave her a cashier’s check for $5,800. Then, when she moved to a less expensive apartment, she offered him another one for $3,800.
Over the next year the case dragged on.
Eventually, she told him she would be able to resolve the matter by paying a $50,000 plea fee. He charged it to his credit cards.
She was later sentenced to 31 days in prison. She requested an additional $4,000 to pay for an expert witness to testify on her behalf. Walton then gave him another $2,000 to help pay his attorney fees.
He had believed her story until February 2017, when, while logging onto the prison’s website to schedule a visit, he discovered discrepancies between what was being said online and what she had told him. said.
During his trial in January 2019, his daughter was among those who testified. She said she was a “troubled person who used her intelligence in malicious ways.”
Rather than being charged with “money laundering,” as she put it, she pleaded guilty to a different charge and agreed to pay $40,000 in restitution — not $50,000 — to settle the case. deal with PacificIslands.com.
The company said they operated a Ponzi scheme with their accounts.
Walton picked her up from prison, but only to confront her about her lies.
He then spent the next two years trying to bring her down, investing his own money in hiring private investigators and lawyers.
Her research revealed that she had also been accused of fraud in Ireland.
During his trial in January 2019, his daughter was among those who testified. She said she was a “troubled person who used her intelligence in malicious ways.”
The girl added: “The things she has been accused of absolutely disgust me.”
Walton learned through her research that she had targeted other people. Many did not want to speak out because they were very embarrassed.
“I think she moved here for the same reason we all moved here: to practice her profession.
“His job was to rip people off,” he said.