Emily Slutsky: The Catfishing OB/GYN Behind “Ethan Schuman

Emily Slutsky is the woman behind “Ethan Schuman,” a fictional Manhattan financier she invented in late 2010 and used to catfish at least ten professional women over several years. She now practices as Emily Marantz, an OB/GYN at Jersey City Medical Center in New Jersey, and has faced no criminal charges, civil suits, or professional discipline for the deception.¹²

The Ethan Schuman Persona

Slutsky built “Ethan” while she was a medical student at the University College Cork School of Medicine in Ireland. On OkCupid and JDate, Ethan claimed a PhD in applied mathematics from MIT, jobs at both Morgan Stanley and the U.S. government as a securities analyst, and an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.³ The photos came from a high school classmate’s Facebook page.⁴

The targets were educated women in their thirties. Ethan initiated intense emotional relationships through constant messaging, but never asked for money and never pushed for physical contact. According to a New York Times review of a later memoir by one victim, what Ethan sought was “time, openness and emotional vulnerability.”³

When women pushed to meet in person, Ethan always had an excuse: business travel to Washington, weather, work emergencies. To back up the persona, Slutsky invented supporting characters, including a sister named “Riva” and an ex-wife named “Katie,” who sometimes messaged victims directly.⁴

The excuses escalated. Slutsky told at least one victim that Ethan had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and would soon begin chemotherapy. Anna Akbari, the victim who later wrote the book that exposed the case, called this “one of the most heinous acts of emotional abuse” she had endured, noting that Slutsky knew she had recently lost a grandfather to lung cancer.⁵

How Slutsky Was Caught

Akbari’s online relationship with Ethan ran from December 26, 2010 to March 2011, ending when she grew too suspicious of the cancellations.⁶ Afterward she connected with two other women targeted by the same persona and they pooled their correspondence, cross-referencing details Ethan had let slip. Ethan had mentioned a Columbia University roommate named Emily. A phone number Ethan had used turned out to be registered to Emily Slutsky at the University College Cork School of Medicine.²

When confronted, Slutsky admitted the deception. Her explanations, according to Akbari, were vague: she said it began out of boredom and became “an addiction,” that she had been “disconnected from reality,” and that the persona was “a vehicle for the actualization of that fantasy.”⁴ Over time, victims identified at least ten women who had been drawn in by Ethan.¹

Akbari first told the story publicly in a November 2014 article in the New York Observer, after learning Ethan had a new target.⁴ Grand Central published her full memoir, There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish, in June 2024, drawing directly on the written exchanges with the persona.⁶

Why There Were No Criminal Charges

Bioethics experts consulted by MedPage Today confirmed that Slutsky’s conduct, however troubling, was technically legal.¹ Creating a fake online profile is not itself a crime under federal or most state laws. Prosecution usually requires proof that the impersonation was used to commit fraud, harassment, or another recognized offense involving financial harm, threats, or unauthorized computer access.⁷ Because Slutsky never asked for money and never made threats, the conduct sat outside the reach of existing statutes.

Attempts at Professional Accountability

The victims tried other channels. Akbari and others contacted Slutsky’s medical school and her residency program; they reported nothing came of the complaints. A victim who was also a physician sent an anonymous letter to the National Institutes of Health, where Slutsky then held a position as a clinical informatics researcher. That produced no consequences either.¹

After the 2024 book, media outlets including the New York Post, MedPage Today, and NJ.com identified Marantz and reported on her medical career. She did not respond to requests for comment. A promotional video featuring Marantz narrating a segment about the Women’s Center at Jersey City Medical Center was pulled from public view after the reports.²

As of September 2024, Marantz’s New Jersey medical license remained active, with no disciplinary actions on record.¹ A Jersey City Medical Center spokesperson said the hospital has “full confidence in Dr. Marantz’s ability to continue providing the highest quality of care to her patients” and that the events from more than a decade ago “have been reviewed and addressed to the satisfaction of the medical center.”²

Ethical Concerns From Bioethicists

Several bioethicists have argued the conduct raises serious questions about Marantz’s fitness to practice. Nir Eyal, a professor at Rutgers, told MedPage Today that if the allegations are true, the conduct calls into question her “reliability as a clinician” and whether patients can trust a physician who “treated women so cruelly.” Daniel Hausman, also at Rutgers, called the behavior a “serious red flag” for a profession built on trust and added that “intimate online deception of women is especially concerning, given that she works in a gynecology center.”¹ Michael Brannigan, a medical ethicist quoted in the 2014 Observer piece, said Slutsky’s deception “blemishes her character as a professional.”⁴

Akbari has pressed the same question in interviews, asking whether the medical profession should hold practitioners to a higher standard for off-duty conduct: “Can we separate what someone does online from what they do in their medical practice?”¹

Where She Practices Now

As of 2026, Marantz remains an active OB/GYN at Jersey City Medical Center within the RWJBarnabas Health system, seeing patients at locations in Jersey City and Bayonne, New Jersey. She also serves as Associate Residency Program Director and Director of Genetics for the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology department.⁸⁹ Her residency was completed at the University of Toledo Medical Center and her fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin.¹

1
MedPage Today. Catfishing Allegations Against Emily Marantz
2
NJ.com. Book Unearths Strange Tale of NJ Gynecologist Dubbed America’s Biggest Catfish
3
New York Times. There Is No Ethan by Anna Akbari
4
New York Observer. The Talented Mr. Schuman: Love and Mistaken Identity in the Internet Age
5
AOL News. Con Artist Turned Doctor Is Practicing NJ Gynecologist
6
Publishers Weekly. There Is No Ethan
7
SIU School of Law. Anti-Catfishing Legislation
8
RWJBarnabas Health. Jersey City Medical Center OB/GYN Residency Faculty
9
RWJBarnabas Health. Emily Marantz MD Provider Profile