Ex-Gilroy Principal Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud, Faking Cancer

GILROY, CA — A former Gilroy school principal pleaded guilty to wire fraud Tuesday, admitting that she falsely claimed that she had cancer in order to solicit and receive donations for treatments she did not need, federal prosecutors announced.

Amanda Christine Riley, 36, accepted a plea deal in which she admitted to deceiving people between 2012 and 2019 into believing she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma with the intent of convincing them to donate to her. Riley, received over $106,000 in over 400 donations from the scheme, according to prosecutors. She was living in San Jose when she began the scheme, prosecutors said.

Riley, who was the principal at Pacific Point Elementary School in Gilroy, had a website soliciting donations and posted pictures of herself at hospitals, according to prosecutors.

She worked at the school for about three years before resigning in July 2020, the Gilroy Dispatchreported. She also organized fundraisers to raise money for her supposed cancer treatments.

Riley faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2022.