Nancy Moscatiello spent practically seven years investigating Amanda Riley earlier than the mother of two was charged with wire fraud in 2020 for accepting tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in donations whereas faking most cancers. With Riley’s jail sentence set to finish on the finish of this yr, Moscatiello — an investigative producer concerned with each the 2023 Scamanda podcast and 2025 docu-series of the identical title — isn’t absolutely satisfied that her scamming days are over.
“Until she’s discovered one thing from this expertise and is presumably getting extra remedy or issues the place she could be held accountable for what she did, I’m unsure what she’ll do,” Moscatiello admitted on Monday’s (February 10) episode of NewsNation’s Banfield. “I might hope one thing like this is sufficient to deter her, but it surely wasn’t sufficient when Lisa [Berry] referred to as her out the primary time and mentioned that along with her and mentioned, ‘I don’t suppose you could have most cancers.’ It took a few yr and a half or two years for her to start out once more. We gained’t know till she’s out.”
Riley first informed Berry that she was battling most cancers in 2010. After confronting Riley along with her skepticism concerning the declare, Berry distanced herself from her former buddy. A couple of years later, she found Riley’s Lymphoma Can Suck It weblog, the place she alleged that she’d been recognized with blood most cancers and was receiving an outpouring of affection from folks on-line.
Berry ultimately went to Moscatiello along with her suspicions that Riley was mendacity about her sickness. After a radical investigation, Moscatiello introduced her issues to the San Jose, California, Police Division in 2015. The Inner Income Service (IRS) acquired concerned the next yr and even raided Riley’s dwelling, however no additional motion was taken.
It wasn’t till 2020 that Riley was formally charged with wire fraud primarily based on the net donations she obtained. Nonetheless, Moscatiello identified that there have been seemingly hundreds of extra {dollars} collected by way of money and different donations that weren’t made on-line.
“There was much more cash that I used to be capable of observe through her weblog. The medical weblog she stored was actually detailed,” Moscatiello shared. “She would thank folks on a regular basis for various quantities, starting from a pair hundred {dollars} as much as $12,000 from a smaller group throughout the church. These donations weren’t a part of the bigger wire fraud, however relations have been giving weekly checks to her, all these totally different fundraisers that weren’t by way of the wire fraud portion of it. They have been checks given on to her. I tracked upwards of $80,000 and a few extra aspect hustle, so to talk.”
Riley pled responsible in October 2021 after initially coming into a not responsible plea. She was sentenced to 5 years in jail, which she is presently serving.
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