Candace Rivera of Utah: Exitus Fraud, Forgery, and Sentence

Candace Rivera, a Utah woman also known as Candace Lierd, founded the anti-human trafficking nonprofit Exitus and used it to defraud donors, volunteers, and associates out of roughly $2 million. In October 2024, a Fourth District Court judge in Provo sentenced her to three to fifteen years in prison after she pleaded no contest to nine felony counts, including theft by deception, communications fraud, and forgery.

How the Exitus Scheme Worked

Rivera registered Exitus as a Utah nonprofit on August 7, 2020, presenting it as an organization that rescued trafficking victims and supported survivors. Over roughly three years, Exitus raised more than $1.6 million.¹²³

Much of the scheme rested on fake medical credentials. Rivera told donors, volunteers, and landlords that she was a licensed registered nurse, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner. The Utah Department of Professional Licensing confirmed she had never been licensed or registered in any medical capacity in the state, and investigators found four denied nursing license applications in her name.² Her only known hospital job was as a psychiatric technician at the University of Utah Hospital around 2011–2012, which ended in involuntary dismissal.⁴

She also claimed to hold a position with the United Nations, to have been featured on BBC News, and to have founded several multimillion-dollar companies.⁵ Using her fabricated medical credentials, she appeared as an expert in a BBC report and a local television segment during the NBA All-Star Game festivities in Salt Lake City in February 2023.⁶

The rescue operations she publicized were largely fictional. Rivera claimed to have evacuated Afghan citizens after the U.S. troop withdrawal and to have rescued 300 Ukrainian orphans during the Russian invasion. A later podcast investigation by journalist Charlie Webster reported that only two orphans were actually rescued by her team, and former associates questioned whether most of the claimed operations happened at all.⁷ In April 2023, posing as a nurse practitioner, she recruited a licensed nurse to help transport an orphan from Ukraine and handed the nurse a kit containing the controlled substances Ketamine and Haldol along with medical directives. In January 2021, she solicited donations from the Navajo Nation by promising to assist with missing and murdered Indigenous women efforts, a promise investigators said she failed to keep.²

Forgery and Fraud Beyond the Nonprofit

Rivera’s deceptions reached into her private dealings. In September 2021, she convinced a landlord in Lehi to rent her a property by claiming she was an FBI employee whose work was secret. She stayed six months without paying rent and left roughly $10,000 in damages before being evicted.⁸

Associates told investigators Rivera had the ability to forge passports, checks, and bank records. A search of an Exitus laptop turned up multiple conflicting copies of her identification documents. She also forged papers purporting to show she was a nurse from the Utah Department of Professional Licensing and MountainStar St. Mark’s Hospital.⁵

In August 2023, prosecutors said Rivera deposited a $4,500 check into a joint account she shared with her teenage son and immediately withdrew the money. The check was drawn from Exitus and there were no funds to cover it. By October 19, her son could no longer access the account because it was overdrawn. The incident produced an additional third-degree felony check fraud charge.⁹

Charges, Plea, and Sentence

The Utah Attorney General’s Office opened its investigation in June 2023 after Utah County deputies received reports of fraudulent financial activity, prompted in part by a separate felony check fraud charge over an $8,000 check Rivera wrote to a vendor for a 2022 Exitus event.⁸⁴ Rivera was arrested on September 15, 2023, and booked into the Utah County Jail on 34 felony charges, including a pattern of unlawful activity, communications fraud, theft by embezzlement, theft of services, forgery, and identity fraud.¹⁰

At a bail hearing on September 26, 2023, Judge Christine Johnson of the Fourth District Court in Provo denied bail. The judge cited a “pattern of criminal activity” and the likelihood that Rivera “would continue to pile up additional financial crimes while out on release.” Prosecutors argued she was “not to be trusted” and posed both a community risk and a flight danger. Her defense attorney, Mark Petersen, countered that the allegations did not suggest she was a physical danger to anyone.¹¹

On August 22, 2024, Rivera pleaded no contest to nine felony counts.¹² The counts included:

Second-degree felonies: pattern of unlawful activity, two counts of communications fraud, theft by deception, and theft of services.
Third-degree felonies: forgery, communications fraud, and two counts of unlawful conduct.

Nineteen other felony charges were dismissed as part of the plea, including one count of identity theft and five counts of theft. Two separate bad-check cases were also dismissed, though Rivera remained on the hook for more than $13,000 in restitution from those matters.¹²

Judge Johnson sentenced Rivera on October 22, 2024, imposing one-to-fifteen-year terms on three of the felony counts, to run consecutively. That guaranteed she would serve at least three years before becoming eligible for release. The judge estimated total losses across Rivera’s victims at approximately $2 million. A hearing to determine the full amount of restitution was set for January 2025.¹³⁸

Who the Victims Were

Rivera’s victims included donors, friends, family members, business associates, employees, and volunteers. Some were conned out of more than $100,000 each, and many employees and volunteers said they were never paid for their work. The court received roughly two dozen victim impact letters.¹³

Ora Argyle, Rivera’s former personal assistant, told the court she had been “taken advantage of for my heart and my good intentions.” Rivera had opened a credit account in Argyle’s name without her knowledge to purchase a vehicle, damaging Argyle’s credit and leaving her with debt. After sentencing, Argyle said she felt “validated” and “seen,” particularly when Judge Johnson called Rivera’s courtroom apology “tone deaf.” Argyle added, “For the first time in a long time I can go home and feel safe.”¹³

Kimberly Morgan, who both worked for and volunteered at Exitus, said she was never compensated. She told reporters at the sentencing, “Candace is going to prison, and that’s the only place she deserves to be right now.” Other victims described her apology as evasive, saying she spoke about her crimes in the passive voice, refused to accept direct responsibility, and tried to criticize the victims’ statements. Volunteers also said the fake nursing credentials she used during purported rescue operations put children and other vulnerable people at physical risk, not only at financial risk.¹³

Where the Case Stands Now

Rivera is serving her sentence in Utah’s indeterminate system. Her consecutive terms carry a minimum of three years and a maximum of fifteen, and her actual release date will be determined by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.¹⁴

Her story has been the subject of a nine-episode Apple Originals podcast called Unicorn Girl, hosted by journalist Charlie Webster, who previously produced the 2023 investigation Scamanda. The series draws on interviews with women Rivera conned out of time and money and traces the arc of her deceptions from online communities to the collapse of Exitus. It also noted that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had at one point engaged Exitus for what was described as a “highly sensitive sting operation,” though the extent of that engagement remains unclear.¹⁵

1
Fox 13 News. Exitus Founder Candace Rivera to Remain in Jail After Bail Denied
2
ABC4. Founder of Anti-Human Trafficking Nonprofit Faces More Than 30 Felony Charges
3
KMYU. Candace Rivera Arrested for Check Fraud Involving Minor Son’s Bank Account
4
Fox 13 News. Exitus CEO Booked on Over 30 Felony Counts
5
KSL TV. Exitus CEO Arrested for Allegedly Faking Nursing Credentials and Misleading Investors
6
The NonProfit Times. Charity Exec Denied Bail, Accused in Fundraising Fraud
7
Podcast Review. Unicorn Girl
8
KUTV. Founder of Utah Anti-Human Trafficking Organization Sentenced to Prison
9
KJZZ. Candace Rivera Arrested for Check Fraud Involving Minor Son’s Bank Account
10
Salt Lake Tribune. Director of Utah Anti-Human Trafficking Nonprofit Arrested
11
KJZZ. Judge Denies Bail for Exitus Founder Candace Rivera
12
KSL. Anti-Trafficking Group Founder Pleads No Contest to Fraud, Theft
13
KSL TV. Victims Celebrate After Exitus CEO Sentenced to Prison
14
Utah Public Radio. Exitus Founder Sentenced to Prison on Misrepresentation Charges
15
The List. Unicorn Girl Podcast Review