Scamanda Complete

This True Crime and Conspiracy podcast discusses the case of Amanda Christine Riley, who had a complicated relationship with the Riley family. After Corey and Alita Riley divorced, Corey began a relationship with Amanda. Amanda claimed to have cancer and used it to manipulate others, including her friend Lisa. She even started a blog about her supposed battle with lymphoma. However, Lisa and Steve became suspicious of Amanda's claims and eventually cut ties with her. Amanda's deceit and manipulation continued as she announced she was in remission in 2013. Welcome to Seros and Schemes. I'm Sam and I'm Sandy. This is a True Crime and Conspiracy podcast. Our podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. As you can tell from the title of this episode, we'll be discussing a four case involving cancer, which can be triggering and upsetting for anyone who's had any experiences with cancer. Amanda Christine Riley, now 39, born Amanda Maneri, June 24th, 1985, to Peggy and Thomas Maneri. Amanda attended San Jose State University and that's about all we know of her early life. Yeah, it was like Google would watch Colleen. She was a really hard person to dive. I feel like whoever managed her stuff during the war would probably watch her clean up. Even not just her, Corrie is important. Speaking of Corrie, Amanda met Corrie and Alita Riley when she was 17. She was still in college. Corrie was at least, she was being 29 at the time. Oh, 12 years, age is just a number. So when you're 17, that's your age. Well, Amanda was hired by the former Riley's to coach Alita's daughter, Jamie. Amanda just became good friends with them. She was friends with both Alita and Corrie. She was just a family friend. The girls looked up to her like she was a big sister. So Jamie, Alita's older daughter, so not related to Corrie from her first relationship, I guess. She actually had cancer at the time, which she survived. She had cancer for two and a half years. And that's part of the program thing that Amanda was coaching her for. So she became close with the Riley's, who had a daughter together named Jessa. And Jessa was six months old at the time that Amanda started coaching Jamie in chair. Corrie started to favor his biological daughter, so Jessa. He would buy her, you know, it'd be like Easter or Christmas, and he'd give both the girls a present. But Jessa would get another present, a bigger present, or whatever, literally just wild. So he started favoring his own daughter over Alita's daughter, Jamie. And the family dynamic just started to crumble, really. So marriage broke down. Corrie left the family home and took Jessa with him. And soon after Corrie and Alita divorced in 2007, he and Amanda struck up a friendship. Started a relationship, and yeah. The rest is history. Yeah, so 2007 they broke up, and then pretty quickly her and Amanda split up. Do you feel like there'll be something growing before the divorce even? Well, yeah, probably, yeah. There could be something. Even if it wasn't, you know, there must have been a look, a feeling that... Even if there wasn't something between them, like, talking about something happening or whatever, there has to have been something. You don't just meet a kid when she's 17 and be like, oh my gosh, now you're 22, and now you're attracted. Yeah, 100%. So somewhere between 2007 and 2010, they're now in a relationship. September 2010, Amanda and Corrie met Lisa and Steve Ferry. So Jessa, which is Corrie's daughter with Alita, happened to attend the same school as Lisa's daughter. And Amanda and Corrie were to the Ferry family fairly often for dinners and stuff, you know, just doing the family thing. I think Lisa and Ferry were quite older than, well, especially older than Amanda, but then they just had the daughters that were similar age, and so they sort of just had the family thing. And then, yeah, one night in 2010, Amanda was picking Jessa up from Lisa and Steve's house. I guess it was like after school or something like that. Lisa told Amanda that her dad's from the school. She was just like, oh, you know, just having a chat, just like how life's going type thing. And she's like, oh, one of the dads from the school, he was brought up around this area, but he had a brain tumor. And we went to a fundraiser the other night, which went really well. Everyone, you know, knows him really well. And we did a fundraiser, and he made like $100,000 out of that fundraiser. And Amanda's like, oh, okay, yeah, cool. Don't know this guy, but yeah, sweet. The next day, like the next morning, she just like calls up Lisa. They're friends. They see each other all the time. Calls up Lisa, and she's like, oh, I just want to let you know that I too have cancer. I've been fighting it for quite a while. And Lisa's like, for a while? We've been friends for months. Why would you not have said something? She's like, yeah, I've been like under chemo, and, you know, it's been real tough for me. Not even 24 hours later. She went home, she went, ding. Yeah, she went, huh? That's a great idea. And then literally within a few days, like two or three days later, she's like, hi, Lisa, I'm really sick from chemo. Do you think you could pick up Jessa after school for me? Well, what about the last two or three months that you've been doing chemo? You just went sixes? What are you even talking about? So Lisa was like, girl, something's not adding up. But sure, you know, maybe you just didn't feel comfortable saying it. Whatever. So that's 2010, end of 2010. Corey and Amanda got married in April of 2011. And later that year, Corey confided in Steve Berry at, I think it was Lisa's birthday, there was a big party, and there was people around, everyone was chilling, having cigars and a scotch and stuff. And Corey was like, oh, you know, Amanda's not doing, she's not doing great. She's actually stage four, she's terminal, and she doesn't have much time. And Amanda's there. She had said to Lisa a few times during the week, like coming up to the party, like, I don't know if I'm going to make it, I'm really sick. So she's, like, standing in the corner, like, looking all a bit frail, except for her face looks normal. She doesn't look sick, but she's sort of standing, like, she looks like a little bit frail where she's standing. And so her client looks over and she's like, oh, gosh. And Lisa's like, I cried. You know, I was so sad. It was my friend. And Amanda had been saying, you know, like, I can't get pregnant. Chemo destroys your, you can't get pregnant if you're on chemo. Not because it's not good for the baby, but, like, literally your body just can't do it. Doesn't have the energy to have a baby. In 2012, Amanda fell pregnant. So she's 27. She's, like, at this point, she's got six months to live, right? Like, that's what they're telling her. You've got six months to live, you're so sick. And now you're pregnant. I'm just sorry, but there's nine months in a pregnancy. What were you thinking about, like, would you even try to get pregnant at this point? Yeah. If you've got cancer. Yeah. Yeah, so she had six months to live when she fell pregnant with her first son, Carter. So she told Lisa that the pregnancy was reversing the cancer. Wow, it's like a miracle baby. So basically, Lisa's going, things just aren't adding up. She's like, I just don't, I don't think that she's got cancer. And she said to Steve, and Steve's like, we need to go talk to our pastors. Because I think, I just don't know that you're, I don't know whether what you're saying is true. Or whether we're being really mean, because these people might have cancer. You know, dealing with that. Anyway, Lisa's avoiding Amanda's calls. She's like, I just don't want to do this shit. Like, I don't know what's going on here. Amanda literally calls Lisa nonstop, just over and over. And Lisa's like, I don't want any confrontation. Like, I'm not going to answer the call because I don't want any confrontation. And then she's just like, you know what, I'm going to have to answer the call. Because she just keeps calling. So she had like a list next to her phone of like the things that she needed to bring up if she called again. And Lisa answers. And Amanda's just straight up like, I have some great news. I'm pregnant. So this is how Lisa finds out she's pregnant. And Lisa's just, what was this? I thought you were dying. And then it literally goes, oh, the pregnancy's reversing the disease. Okay. Okay. I mean, I guess chuck that in the Cancer Foundation site for cancer cures. I mean, look at them. Like, we could save all of New Zealand. Right. Like, how did someone come up with this already? Yeah. Chuck some chemo into your body. Then get pregnant. You'll be right as rain. I just don't understand how she thought that something that outlandish was going to land with people. I mean, the fact that it did. Yeah. It did work. Sorry, let me just eat my words really quickly. But like, yeah, I don't understand. If I was the people who was donating to the search, I would be like, hmm, hmm. And sometimes, well. Yeah. But, you know, I'm not a critical thinker over here, so. Yeah. Well, so Lisa's the only one. Lisa and Steve, and I guess maybe Amanda's mom and stuff, they know she's got cancer. I'm doing air quotes. Because she's been saying that, you know, since 2010. But she hasn't announced that to anybody yet. No one else knows that she's got cancer. So let me continue and I'll show you how shady she gets. 2012, that's when she has her son Carter. And then she starts her blog called Lymphoma Can Suck It, where she gains her following, right? So when she started her blog, she claimed that the pregnancy or the birth was how the cancer was discovered and diagnosed. She'd been telling Lisa and Steve for almost two years that she had cancer. But she claimed on her blog, hey guys, I've just had my baby, you know. And they did, like, a blood test and they said, hey, like, you've got cancer. You've got Hodgkin's lymphoma. And that's what she put on her blog. And you can imagine Lisa's just like, I'm out. I'm out. So, yeah, Lisa and Steve are done with their shit. They don't believe she has cancer. They're kind of like, and Lisa just said, like, ask someone to hear from her. I don't want anything to do with her. I don't want to hear from her. And then 2013, Amanda announced that she was in remission. Okay. Because what, like, there was nothing she wanted to do that year? That year, I think. Okay. If that works for you, mate. Amanda announced that she's in remission. And then just a few months later posted that the cancer had returned with a vengeance and that she was pregnant with a miracle baby, Connor, who was then born in 2014. Two miracle babies. I mean, damn. Well, from her point of view, the first one wasn't a miracle because she didn't have cancer. That's right. The cancer was found. So she hadn't been doing chemo yet, right? Yeah. So it's fine. The miracle of Connor is that he survived through the chemo that she was having because it had come back with a vengeance. And she was on chemo, and then she had his baby, and he wasn't even affected by it at all. It came out completely normal. As if she, like, she got canceled a vengeance and got to say, yeah, Carol had the baby. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Absolutely not. Through all this time, since 2011, Amanda and Corey had also been citing his ex, Alita, in court for custody of Jessa. So they're like, you know, she's struggling. She's got this, like, terrible cancer, but still fighting for custody. Court battles constantly for trying to get Jessa, Corey's daughter. So Jessa was 13 at the time, according to the U.S. Sun. Corey and Amanda eventually managed to convince the court into handing over full custody, falsely claiming that Alita was a bad parent. And in 2013, after Amanda and Corey filed for bankruptcy due to the expenses of her treatment ruining them, Alita was ordered to pay them child support. And it wasn't, like, a small amount either. It wasn't so much a cost for my non-existent cancer treatment. Yeah. Literally. And they had documents, you know, and they had medical documents. They would have had some medical costs, and then they literally, like, I don't know, photoshopped, I don't know what was around, they literally photoshopped it to make it look. Because imagine, like, infusion costs, and I think in America as well, like, when you go to the hospital, you have to pay for it. Yeah. But they upped it. So they're in their middle there, like, look at my medical. Look at it. Look how far it's gone. Corey was given sole custody of Jessa in February 2015. He had full custody, which meant Alita could still see Jessa, like, have her on the weekends or whatever. I don't know what their custody arrangement was, but once it changed to sole custody, Alita had to have supervised visitation. He really had to present records for medical stuff, right? He had a lawyer. Why wasn't the lawyer fact-checking this stuff? Who's, I mean, obviously Amanda and Corey to blame here, but the lawyer had an onus to make sure that there was truth on their shoulders. Not to confirm the bills and stuff. Yeah. And even the filing, like, why was there no documents outlining filing? Yeah. Yeah. That was really confusing to me. Yeah. So fast forward to June 2015. Nancy, an investigative producer, so she received an anonymous email basically saying, here's some links, here's some info that you should look into. And if you can do anything about it, then you should, because she's conning the congregation at a church. So it's basically what she had. And in the email, it kind of said, look, I have to have anonymity because I'm scared about what they could do to me. Like Amanda and Corey could do to me by telling me this. So it never came out who that person was. And I wonder how close that person was to them or whether they were part of the church. From what I understand as well, though, like she had like pastors of mega churches wrapped around her finger. Like they did like, I think it's like 89, like, dollar donation call type things. Yeah. Like they did tithing with her. She was like a testimonial pre-tithing. And she would have, I think she even spoke at youth groups. Yeah. And like done a lot of sympathy and support. And a lot of people donated to her. And you can imagine, because you know, because churches are like, they're massive. Yeah. And yeah, people have been paying attention to help her out. How do you even stomach yourself? People literally said she just looked like this kind, sweet girl. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful looking family. And it just all looks like that. And it was just so sad. And she seems so courageous. And like, the bad thing is, is all she like used, I think used faith. Yeah. As a way to connect to other people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was sad. Nancy's sister had had lung cancer as well. So she looked, her sister looked at the blog and pointed out some inconsistencies. And Nancy read through every blog post over the past three years and realized that there were so many red flags through the claims. As Nancy's researching everything, she made a note of who to reach out to, but didn't want to give anything away yet. So, because she didn't want Amanda to know that she was looking onto it, into it, you know. Nancy looked into the court documents from both the bankruptcy case and the custody case with Corey's ex-wife Alita. And there was documentation about their financials due to the cancer. And like, you know what? You don't rely on court documentation, right? Like, it's pretty, it's pretty bold. It's, yeah, there's better words than I wrote. Stupid. No, I think stupid's what I wrote. It's pretty, yeah. You want to lie to the world. You want to lie to people. Like, that's one thing. It's dumb. It is one thing. But you're going to lie in a proper court. Are you actually kidding? That's crazy. But Nancy kept researching the court documents and everything was just listed as debt. But there was no actual doctor's name, no actual medical expense. It just said debt. It was like, we have 280,000 of debt. We've got this much thousand of debt. But there was like, well, where did that debt come from? There's nothing written to it. And then you can't materialize doctors from there. Yeah. Yeah. I think like, eventually though, she was doing that. She was like, had like notes and stuff saying, you know, she's got cancer or she's in remission. And at one point, yeah, like, they're like, does this doctor even exist? And does this doctor know that this note has been written? Is this, yeah. She went back and forth a bit, like, does this lady have cancer or not? You know, like, she's looking, she's literally looking at it going, oh, she does have cancer. Like, reading each blog that comes up, oh, she does. Oh, no, she doesn't. Oh, no, she does. Oh, no, she doesn't. Like, anyway. Nancy contacted Jess's mum, Alita. And Alita told her about the lies that Amanda and Corey were saying about her in court. Things like, she was abusive, druggy. And they just kept trying to get custody of Jess. Amanda wanted the perfect family, right? Like, Jess would fit into that. And Alita was in the way. So, a bonus daughter, right? Yep. My bonus daughter. And Jess has said, she never referred to her as a bonus mum. Even though Amanda said in her blog posts, oh, you know, my bonus mum. She's like, I mean, I was 13 when they broke up. I was old enough to, I never used that terminology. Yeah. So, she contacted Alita. She was like, okay, that doesn't really add up. And then Nancy contacted the hospitals that Amanda claimed in her blog post that she was being treated at and spoke to them about the procedures. So, they wouldn't give her any information because of patient confidentiality. But she was like, okay, so just answer yes or no about the actual procedures. Let's just talk about the procedures that she's claiming. Is this how that procedure would go? So, I mean, the HIPAA laws are pretty, HIPAA laws in general, and I think all over the world, are pretty Yeah, and they should be. They should be. They should protect the patients. But basically, they confirmed that what she was claiming in her blog posts wasn't true. Yeah, there were like lots of inconsistencies with like medical trials at that time, right? Yes. And different medications for like the wrong diagnosis. Yeah, and there was one trial that she was claiming that they were doing, which is I think Keytruda was the drug. And they said that we don't have any trials for Keytruda at the moment. And they're very specific. They have a very specific start date and end date. They all get done at the same time. You know, it's not just that one person would be doing it. It's a whole lot. But Amanda claimed that, because it was the holidays, like Thanksgiving or something, and she was claiming that, oh, no, they sent the Keytruda to me, and I can do it sometime. I'm allowed to. Because you can inject yourself with chemo. Like in some cases, they'll let you do that. Keytruda is not one where you can. So when I looked into it, it was like it's kept at freezer level, and then it has to be added into a different fluid, and then it gets IV'd, and you can't inject that into your mouth. This is just like, literally got blog posts with a needle in the air in her bathroom. I know. I have the liquid gold. Yeah. Keytruda. Crazy. Crazy girl. Wild. By September 2015, Nancy had enough evidence to go to the police and the IRS. Nancy had all her research logged and then contacted the San Jose Police Department Financial Fraud Division and was put in contact with Detective Jose Martinez. So in my research, I found he's the only financial fraud officer in the Financial Fraud Division. He's like, we couldn't say that to anyone because otherwise everyone would just start doing shit, and then they realize there's only one person looking into their stuff. But he literally was the only one. That was the time for everyone to go all purge on that guy. Yeah. He said he was looking at 700 cases a month and just triaging them and just going, I can do it or I can't do it or whatever. And Nancy just wasn't. She's just like, here's this case, and then she called him and she said, did you look at the case? And then she called him and she's like, there's no triaging this. This is the top. We're going to get through this. I have 700 other cases every month. He said this is one that he couldn't sleep at night. He would wake up and be like, oh, my gosh, I have to sort this out. And Nancy was persistent. Good for her. She saw it. She did the deep dive for many years and then went, nah, fuck it. She had wine. Yeah. Huge accusation as well. Like that theory to say, I believe without a doubt that she's doing this. And I think a lot of them were like, are we assholes? Does this lady have cancer? Am I the asshole? Yeah. If she's got cancer, you're a dick. 100%. If she could actually prove that she had it, then they would be fucked. They would lose their job and be completely discredited to the public. For sure. So she had to be sure. Yeah. And then he had to be sure. So she gets in contact with Detective Jose Martinez. And Detective Martinez asked for Nancy's info. He said, put it all together. And she's like, she got everything, all of her notes, all of her information, all of her proof, puts it all together, sends it through to him. And then Nancy and Detective Martinez worked together for a while, just like researching everything. If she found something, she would call him. If he found something, he would call her, church, hospitals. He obviously did that too. Even though she had done it, he went and did it too. So Amanda told a custody hearing at this point that Alita was using Nancy to create a smear campaign against her because she had heard of the investigation. Amanda had a real following at this point through her blog and website, and she used her platform to vilify Nancy. So everyone thought Alita was just being a bit of ex-wife as well. Amanda referred to Nancy as the enemy in her blog. She'd say, don't ruin this for me, enemy. I mean, I don't know. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty soft to me. I say you've got cancer, and you've legitimately got cancer or any other disease or illness, and you've got your ghost enemy, and you're making money, and then someone's like, nah, this bitch is fine. And you're going to go, don't ruin this for me, enemy. It's just that terminology just doesn't, it's not right. It's not, in my opinion, I wouldn't have. Yeah. It sounds soft. No, I agree with that. Because he was still doing all his investigating and got an answer from the City of Hope Hospital in California that Amanda had never been a patient there, and that's when he had his answer that Amanda was lying. So he contacted the legal division of that hospital and said, look, I know you can't tell me anything, but here's where we're at, and I need you just, even if they're yes or no, I just need you to give me something. So it took them a week to get back to him, and they just said, no, the bill of laws don't apply here. She's never been a patient, so we're not telling you anything. And on that, Martinez was like, all right. So he contacted an IRS investigator, Aleta Lee, at this point. He knew Aleta Lee from, I think they went to college or something together. IRS Special Agent Aleta Lee deals with financial crimes where fraud is involved. So Aleta Lee joined the case, assisting Detective Martinez from the San Jose Police Department, as money was being obtained fraudulently. This was at the beginning of 2016. And then in July 2016, Aleta got custody of Jessa. September 2016, Nancy got a tip that they were going to be serving a search warrant on Amanda and Corey's home, so she contacted her friend, Anna Garcia, who is a crime reporter. Anna parked up and waited for the raid, which happened at early hours of the morning before 6 a.m. IRS and agents turned up to the Riley's home with a warrant. Aleta Lee and Detective Jose Martinez were also at the raid, and Anna Garcia, she tried to speak to them, but they were like, there's nothing of public knowledge here. I can't tell you anything. All I can tell you is that a raid has been done. Literally, that's it. Amanda, she, while the raid was happening, the IRS is just sweeping her house, and Amanda is just sitting in the lounge with Martinez, and he's just having a combo with her, like, how's the kids? How's life? How's work? You know, just having a, like, just having a combo. And he says, she must have taken Xanax that morning because she was just cool as a cucumber, according to Detective Martinez speaking on the Mr. Amanda podcast. And Amanda claimed, of course, that the raid was orchestrated by Aleta. Of course. Yeah. In a further effort to deflect and discredit Nancy in the investigation, Amanda marched on down to San Jose police station with documents to prove she had cancer. She had shown them a printed list of her medications and diagnosis, which ended up proving to be from a self-populated app, which means you can literally upload any information you want to it. Just jump on your iPhone notes. Look, I wrote it down. It's written. Hey, listen. It says right here that I've been treated with Keytruda, and I've got Hodgkin's lymphoma. Well, I always struggle with the Hodgkin's lymphoma. But, like, she put all these things into an app and said, like, see, this is my diagnosis. This is my medication. And they were like, girl, get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. And in another effort to deflect, she also slapped Nancy with a restraining order and civil harassment lawsuit around August or September of 2017, preventing Nancy from making any kind of contact with Amanda's friends, family, or anyone in direct contact with her. Which had she even done that? I think Nancy has at this point called Aleta. Yeah. And I think she called hospitals. Yeah. So neither of those people are Amanda's friends or family. And maybe Churchill or, like, the church itself. Yeah, I think so. Maybe. But I feel like the information around that was a little bit unclear. Yeah. Anyway, this lawsuit would be delayed for six months by Amanda due to claims of being in hospital, a.k.a. probably fishing, for documentation to show the court. In January 2018, the lawsuit finally went before a judge and lasted approximately two years, costing Nancy over $200,000, despite the fact that Nancy was an investigative reporter and should have been protected by the Freedom of Press. And I think because it was, like, I guess it was framed as harassment. Yeah. Yeah, but if you look up the meaning of harassment, it's got nothing. Well, she made zero contact with Nancy. Amanda accused Nancy of being at fault for the loss of her and Corey's jobs, as well as stalking them relentlessly. But despite Amanda's claims, the judge saw through it. I mean, really. All Amanda had to present in court was her medical records. Prove that you have cancer. Yeah. Just prove it. But she obviously couldn't. There was a letter that was presented to the court from a hospital, not a letter confirming Amanda had cancer, but a cease and desist telling Amanda to stop lying on her blog about being treated at their hospital when she in fact hadn't been. Following that, another letter was presented to the judge, and this was an apology letter to the hospital from Amanda saying she was sorry for lying about being treated there, but she didn't want people to think she'd given up or that she was a loser. I just love that she sees an investigation happening. Like, these people are sleeping in her house, and she's talking to detectives, she's talking to investigators, and she's like, nah, I'm going to keep up with this. Yeah. Like, you knew what they were investigating. You knew you were lying, but then you were like, no, I'm going to run with it. I'm too deep. I've got to keep going. Were you just hoping that at some point you were going to get cancer in that amount of time that you could say, look, see, I had cancer the whole time? Imagine if she did. Oh my gosh. If she did actually get cancer the whole thing as well. Well, like, not if she had, I can tell that she didn't have it the whole time, but imagine if she got it, like, right at the end. So she's in court, and then she goes and has some blood tests, and they're like, oh, shit, just to let you know, you have a tumor. Yeah. Like, does it, like, and then what? Like, I mean, Martini would be out of a job. Yeah. Nancy would no longer be, there would be no commander-in-chief. Surely they would still be able to go back and go, she didn't have it here, though. She didn't have it here. She didn't have it here. If no doctor had seen her. It would be so hard, though. Prove what doctor you saw. Prove what hospital you went to. I agree. I agree with you. She would be riding that diagnosis pony until it gave out. Yeah. You know, like, that's the thing. If she had that, the nurse would have legitimized basically everything. Anyway, so. No. So she obviously decided riding was better, but after the lawsuit, Nancy won. After two years and $200,000. Now, it would be fair to say that Amanda was feeling the heat, and she was likely freaking the fuck out. So much so, she tried taking down her blog and claimed that she would be taking some time away from social media. However, in an absolutely shocking twist of an event, the lying about the cancer did not stop, and she continued to post updates to Facebook in the form of selfie videos of her in hospital. So jumping back just a little bit, during or around the lawsuit, Amanda quit her job as an English teacher at Valley Christian and became a camp counselor at a Christian academy called Pacific Point in Gilroy, California. While employed there, Amanda received a huge promotion as their acting principal. Isn't it crazy, though, that, like, the only experience she's had is being an English teacher. I did read about that. A substitute teacher, a camp counselor, and then suddenly principal? Like, how much credibility could she have had? Like, were these Christian schools just banking on the fact that she was a good Christian woman and wouldn't lie? Yeah. I guess a lot more in the medical records, and why wouldn't you give her... Her goal in life was to be a principal, like, so we cannot give that to her. She's going to die soon, like, so let's give her her dying wish. So at the time that she became principal, she had claimed to be in remission, but after some time at Pacific Point, she then shared that she had once again relapsed, prompting the school to put on a fundraiser for Amanda and for another teacher who did, in fact, have cancer. This fundraiser would end up raising thousands of dollars. How gross is that, though? Like, she now knows that they're fundraising for her and someone with cancer. And she still took her cut. Yes. And she's, like, looking at this woman in the face and going, oh my God, it's camaraderie because we're both dying. Despicable. Absolutely. Actual. Anyway, at some point after this, all the people that donated online via his full page received a letter from the IRS notifying them that they were victims of a fraud scheme. Many donators who donated alternative goods and services or alternative means were unfortunately not notified due to the fact that this couldn't be used in a wire fraud case. Yes. A criminal complaint outlined 349 victims, donations totaling in $105,513, not including alternative donations like cash, gift cards, and other goods or services. Nancy and Charlie from The Scamander Podcast tried to look at how much was actually donated in alternative funds and lost track at around $80,000. She was getting, like, tickets to Broadway shows in New York when she was there for her hospital play. Emails. Yes. Like, the work. Yes. There were times, I think, in the blog where she was asking people to donate things to take the kids to do. It's actually crazy. As suspicions grew, Amanda's friends began reaching out to her seeking answers. Amanda responded by saying that this was all the doing of the letter in an attempt to discredit her and she was unaware that you had to pay taxes on donations. So she would say, oh, you know, this is just a misunderstanding. As soon as the tax is paid, it will all be fine. In October of 2018, a grand jury was convened of the wire fraud against Amanda C. Riley. And then four years after the raid took place, in July of 2020, Amanda was arrested and indicted for the wire fraud. She pled not guilty at this hearing, but then later in October of 2021, in a Zoom hearing, changed her not guilty plea to a guilty plea. 36-year-old Amanda Riley was sentenced to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release in order that she pay restitution to all victims of the wire fraud, which unfortunately didn't include the victims who donated non-sensitive things. And for those wondering what supervised release means, Google defines it as a period of community supervision imposed by the court to be completed after release from a jail or prison sentence. So who's supervising her then? I imagine it's someone like a parole officer checking in with her. That's what we'll say. I think it's quite similar to parole. Now, Amanda's charges were the first of its nature for the IRS, which will now set a precedent going forward for future cancer-based frauds. We're going to jump back just a tiny little bit again, but we're going to go back to sometime between the hearing and sentencing. Amanda Corey and the boys moved to Texas, where she continued her cancer ruse. Girl! Joke's on her. She did this in another state. California. Like, the fact that she did this while she's in pending investigation is bold. I actually have to say, like, this girl, she's one thing. She's bold. So she continued her cancer ruse, and this ruse did not last long. So by this time, all the hospitals in Texas used an internal database, allowing staff from different hospitals to intercommunicate or leave notes on patient files. After she went to a few hospitals in Texas with false claims of symptoms, a red flag was put on her patient profile, and she was eventually stopped from entering hospitals. Which kind of leads me into the how, who, and why of it all. So how. Amanda created her blog at a time when blogs were really popular and gaining more and more traction. She regularly updated her blog and social media with photos of herself in hospitals, hooked up to IVs, and it appears to have shaved her head, gaining a lot of sympathy, and unfortunately, credibility. She went to hospitals stating she had cancer and claimed to feel dehydrated all week. And of course, nurses will act quickly without questioning that. No one's going to go, oh, you say you have cancer. Let's test you and then treat you for your dehydration. You know, because there wasn't that kind of database at the time. She could get away with it. Worked for her. Amanda also went to cancer support groups where she could have gained useful information about what medication or treatment to talk about. That's so cool. And I'm sure plenty more inspiration for her blog. If you guys want to see an in-depth on how Amanda got away with her fake hospital posts, there is a blog called PoppyLady.com, and it's written by an oncology nurse who details how easy it would have been for Amanda to pull this off. The why. Perhaps it started off as an attention-seeking ploy, but when it turned profitable, perhaps this is when she saw this as a money-making opportunity. A job, if you will. Maybe even, like, a life-long influence. I mean, I don't know, like, why does anyone else do this? Like, it would be for the money, right? And for the sympathy and the fame. And really, only Amanda truly would know why she did this. I did read this speculation about her maybe having Munchausen. I was going to say, it's given Munchausen. Well, you know, the whole, like, her coming across very sweet and demure and kind and brave. I think maybe on a level she did believe that she was unwell. At some point, you have to, right? You have to. Seriously. You can't do that if you don't believe it, in some aspect. 100%. The who. Who knew? I mean, it seems very likely that Corey would be in on this. I mean, how did he not know his wife was faking cancer? There were also multiple reports that claimed Corey said he sat with his wife through many rounds of chemo. And let's be for real, Corey was not the most upstanding man. He once told a babysitter that he had a daughter from a one-night stand, referencing Jessa in a letter. And during the custody battle, like you mentioned earlier, he testified under oath that he was forced to file bankruptcy due to Amanda's imaginary cancer treatment. Amanda's mom, Peggy, also claimed to have sat with her during a round of chemo and was among the victims who received a letter from the IRS. Although Peggy had only donated $10, which seems a little bit odd. But I guess, like, I mean, if she believed that her daughter had cancer and maybe her daughter took her with her to one of her hydration, dehydration, emergency runs, you know? Like, maybe her mom saw that and was like, my daughter has cancer. You know, I can't afford to help her. So here's $10 and I'll help you with the kids that are in the house. Maybe that's, you know, but it kind of seems unlikely that they wouldn't have known. But both Corey and Peggy were cleared from the case. And since Amanda's arrest, she has actually never made any contact with her bonus daughter. I said it in your quotes, Jessa. And the victims are happy she's behind bars for now anyway. Amanda's prison sentence began in September of 2022, serving in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. She is expected to finish her sentence in 2026. And I read somewhere that this week we moved up pending the classes she's taking while serving her sentence. But in great news, Jessa and Alita have since worked on healing their relationship. Unfortunately, that was broken from the manipulation of Amanda and Corey. But they are close, and they were making up for this all in time. I actually saw, you know, her going to, like, support groups and things like that. There was also one where Jamie, so Alita's older daughter, who had cancer, they went to this— I think Jamie kind of tried to stay away from the support thing. Like, she was just like, you know, it was a time in my life that I don't want to talk about, I don't want to live it type thing. But they went to this support thing, and they went to, like, a sports field where they— Everyone got to hold a balloon that you're either going through cancer or you're out the other side. So Jamie's got it because she's out the other side. And, again, Amanda is like, oh, yeah, I'll support you. Let's go, you know, we'll do this together. Because, you know, and she's like—Jamie's literally like— She was there. She stood there with her, like, this is for me. I'm so proud of me. But all these people who knew people that had died because, you know, they've gone through chemo with these people that didn't make it. And they made it, you know, just the absolute goal of her. It's crazy. Like, I want so much money in my life. I want to be super rich. But not like this, man. I feel like I would get cancer from just the trauma. Yeah. But I feel like you would get cancer from the stress. Yeah. Like, the fuck? She doesn't seem stressed, right? Like, that's why I go, she somehow believes. Yeah. Maybe even it's a light form of multiple personality disorder or something. But she couldn't have been 100%. There's no way she—part of her didn't believe that she was a cancer patient. She was trying to survive. Did you see what the kids call her mum? Like, it's not Nana. It's Goddess. Yeah, I did read about that. Are you even serious? I mean, if that's who her mum is, then, I mean, whatever. I mean, I'm not going to say it, but, yeah. Her brothers were the ones that set up the GoFundMe. Oh, my God. Maybe it's the family of my childhood. Yeah. Oh. I mean, they may not have known, and they were just trying to help their sister. Because who knows who, you know, like, what was going on. How did they get in on her cancer? Well, one of her brothers, there's an article from his ex-girlfriend. She got out because he was starting to become abusive. So they obviously had just an interesting upbringing. Yeah. Anyway, Amanda, you wanted everyone to think that you were brave and courageous and fighting this battle. Well, we all think you're a piece of shit. Hell. Prison. Hopefully, you get an extended period. Get out. Try this shit again. Try it again. Her life is done now. Yeah. You come out, everyone knows who you are. And then what happens if you do get sick? You're never going to have the support that you would have had. Look at how all these people that banded together to help her. And for what? The issue is that those people now, when they meet somebody that is sick or with cancer, they're not going to give anything to them because they're going to be like, oh, you know, I've been burnt. I think I've actually read a few Reddit tweets that people were saying that they lost their path of their faith because of this. Because a lot of people within the church had cancer themselves and were donating their own commissions that they were getting from the U.S. government or, you know. Like, that's fucked up. This is how, like, humanity gets destroyed. Yeah. Disgusting. And the fact that she would have lied about having cancer to her kids, that's what sends me off the other end as well. That's what I was reading as well and just going, as a parent, if you were dying of cancer, it would fuck up your kids. 100%. And to be dying over and over again and then being well again, like, your kids would be so emotionally fucked up. And if it was true, there's not much you can do about it. It's going to fuck up your kids, but there's not a lot you can do about it. But then you come to someone who's actually lying. Not only are you hurting all these strangers that are giving their money to you, you're hurting people that you're literally looking at. And like you're saying, like, the person at the school who had cancer as well, you're looking at that person who is literally dying and you're like, yeah, me too. While you also, at the same time, screw up your kids. So, yeah, congratulations. You're an asshole. Horrible person I am. So, yeah, this hits us on demand. Horrible, horrible human. There are so many more cases like this. We could literally have a field day with this and do, like, five to ten cases about cancer fraud. That's what's wild about it. Why is that the one that people want to jump to? Because it garners the most sympathy, Sam. Think about that. Like, you're knocking on Christmas doors, you know, like, oh, I'm dying because I have a broken knee. So cancer just hits you in a different fucking way. It does. I don't prescribe to karma. I know that it's something that you believe in. I do believe in karma, yeah. I'm sorry, but, like, you're going to go and pretend you've got cancer. You think you're not going to get it? Now, mate, like, karma is that she's going to get it and she's going to have no support. People aren't going to believe her. I mean, isn't the Christian karma, the Christian alternative to karma enough anyway? How wouldn't that be enough? I mean, she's posing as a Christian, prescribing to Jesus Christ, but she wouldn't lie about all this. She'd be there and she'd be like, you know, you can feel Jesus, he'd help it. Like, Thomas had never seen such bliss for me. You're Sam's one-liner of the night. Thank you for listening to our telling of this horrific case. We would love to hear what you thought of it on our socials, and if you haven't yet reviewed our podcast, we would really appreciate that if you like listening to us. Don't review it until you actually like listening to us, please. And if you like us, then hit follow. If you don't like us, hit follow. We'd appreciate any support. And we'll have a new case next week, but until then, catch us on our socials at Serials and Schemes Pod. See you next time. See ya. Bye.