The United Kingdom wants a Bangor-born woman accused of fraud to be extradited from the United States.
Marianne Smyth, 54, is accused of four counts of fraud and four counts of theft between 2008 and 2010 in Northern Ireland. She took around $172,000 from clients while working as an independent mortgage advisor, according to a request for extradition filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor.
Allegations of fraud were first reported to Northern Ireland police in 2009. Smyth had left for the United States by then and was told she would be wanted for arrest, if she returned, court records said.
Police reviewed the case in 2017 and she was indicted in 2019. Warrants from Smyth’s arrest were first issued in 2021, and in October 2023 the British Embassy requested Smyth be extradited under a treaty between the United Kingdom and United States.
Smyth was arrested Feb. 23 and was most recently living in Bingham. Her lawyer argued Smyth is not a flight risk because she’s been living openly in Maine since 2020, but on Thursday a judge ordered her to stay in custody until the extradition hearing.
Smyth arranged a new mortgage for the home of an unidentified husband and wife in 2009. She offered the couple the chance to invest in a high-interest account in Australia, according to court records. They gave Smyth a check made out to her for about $25,500.
The couple did not hear from Smyth again after they gave her the check, the extradition request said. Police did not find any evidence that Smyth invested the money or returned it to the couple.
Another man made a similar investment in 2008 and in the beginning he received payments for about $500 a month, money he thought was returns from the investment, according to court records. When the payments stopped in June 2009, he called the bank to ask what happened and was told the account never existed.
He was unable to get in contact with Smyth, the court records said.
Smyth arranged a mortgage for a couple in 2006 or 2007. She suggested the couple buy a new property in 2008 and arranged everything, according to the court records. They gave Smyth two checks and she gave them what they thought was a “contract of sale.”
She also told the couple she arranged for tenants at the property and paid them about $540 a month in “rent” from those tenants, according to the filing. However, the payments stopped after eight months.
After the couple went to the property, they realized they were likely not the legal owners. Requests for the property deed from Smyth went unanswered and she stopped responding at all, the court filing said.
Police found the legal owner of the house, who bought the property in 1998. He said he had not agreed to sell the property and had considered remortgaging with Smyth, but decided not to.
An extradition hearing is not yet scheduled.
