Madison Russo of Iowa collected nearly $40,000 from unsuspecting donors
A 20-year-old Iowa woman will not face jail time after she defrauded donors and charities of more than $39,000 by creating a false “cancer journey” on social media. She claims that the scheme was designed to draw attention from her broken family.
Madison Russo pleaded guilty in June to first-degree burglary, and although she faces up to 10 years in prison, Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham did not argue for prison time. The decision was based on Russo’s lack of criminal record, her employment, and her good academic record.
Rhonda Miles, president of the Nikki Mitchell Foundation, one of the organizations defrauded in Russo’s scheme, expressed her displeasure with the outcome, saying, “It’s a slap in the face… I think this prosecuting attorney… needs to hang on to her for a long time. She needs to really reflect on the choices she made. I’m disappointed in her, I’m really disappointed in her… This may define her — she may have been good with drugs and guns, but she failed at this and that’s disappointing.”
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Madison Russo, who falsely claimed to be suffering from pancreatic cancer, will be required to make full restitution to more than 400 individuals who were deceived by her, along with paying a $1,370 fine.
As long as she successfully completes three years of probation, Russo will avoid serving any jail time, as reported by KWQC. Russo’s defense team had advocated for a deferred judgment, which would have allowed her to maintain a clean legal record if she completed probation.
However, during Russo’s sentencing on Friday, Judge John Telleen rejected the request. He stated that those who interact with her in the future should be aware of her past involvement in a “criminal scheme.” He emphasized that “serious crimes must have serious consequences,” as reported by The Associated Press.
Rhonda Miles expressed her disappointment in learning about the sentence before it was officially pronounced in court on Friday.
Rhonda Miles shared her experience, stating, “When I got there, the prosecuting attorney Kelly Cunningham had me and other defrauded donors in the conference room, and she was telling me she had never seen anyone with more remorse. [Russo] had good grades.” … I was standing there glaring at her, she knew I wasn’t happy. When she left the room, I said to the guy next to me, ‘Did I just get the impression that this isn’t going to go well? for anyone but Madison?'”
Miles further expressed to Fox News Digital that merely repaying the money was not sufficient. Although her organization had incurred a loss of only $500, the assistance and time provided by Miles’ organization to Russo could have been directed towards another patient who may have been in dire need.
Miles explained, “I called a highly regarded pancreas surgeon and informed him about Madison Russo, requesting a second opinion on whether she could undergo surgery because that’s the only viable treatment for pancreatic cancer.”
With the support of the Nikki Mitchell Foundation network, a patient who genuinely had pancreatic cancer engaged in lengthy conversations with Russo’s mother, attempting to provide guidance and solace. However, it was eventually revealed that Russo’s supposed medical conditions were entirely fabricated.
At the time, Russo, aged 19, had informed her social media followers and initiated a fraudulent GoFundMe campaign in which she falsely claimed to be suffering from “acute lymphoblastic leukemia, stage 2 pancreatic cancer, and a tumor the size of a football that wrapped around her spine,” as detailed in a press release from the Eldridge Police Department.
According to court documents, Madison Russo’s fraudulent scheme began to unravel when medical professionals noticed and reported “severe, life-threatening errors in the placement of her medical equipment on her body” in her TikTok videos of “chemo.” These experts noted differences in the color and placement of cords and tubes on her body.
After negotiating with several medical experts in January of this year, Eldridge police successfully obtained a warrant to access Russo’s medical records. Medical facilities that Russo claimed did not treat the St. Ambrose University student’s cancer exposed her fraudulent claims.
The criminal complaint against Russo stated, “[Despite] a ‘football-sized tumor’ on her lower back that ‘wraps around her spine’… Russo is still able to maintain a 4.0 GPA, hold a part-time job at John Deere, continue golfing, and, according to her mother’s social media page, is receiving a full-ride scholarship at St. Ambrose University.”
In summary, authorities revealed that Russo had received a total of $37,303 from 439 donors on GoFundMe, as well as additional funds from various sources including “other businesses, nonprofit organizations, school districts, and private citizens.”
But in court Friday, Russo maintained that “money and greed” were not among her motivations for faking her diagnoses.
“A lot of people have speculated why I did this and how someone who seems to have it all together can deal with such a mess… I didn’t do it for attention,” she stated. “I did it in an attempt to try to reunite my family.”
But her “immature decision” “snowballed fast and hard,” she told the court.
“The way I went about it was not the right way,” Russo said, according to KWQC. “And I wish I had sought help for my family before making this immature decision and I was not rational.”
Russo informed the jury that she wished she could undo her actions, expressing, “If there was anything I could do to take it back I would,” but she lamented that “the reality is I can’t.”
Rhonda Miles, in response to Russo’s explanation, characterized it as “a joke.” She recounted Russo’s statements about wanting to move forward, not backward, and viewed her fraudulent scheme as a fleeting moment. Miles commented, “I thought, ‘No, honey, a fleeting moment is having beers on the back of a pickup with your buddy, deciding to drive and getting a DUI. What you did was manufactured — you could’ve stopped at any time,’ as the judge said. This went on for a year — it was not a fleeting moment.”
Miles emphasized that Russo’s lenient punishment is unlikely to dissuade potential fraudsters. She remarked, “I’m saying, ‘Are you frickin’ nuts?’ This is not a deterrent; it’s a green light. If I had that mentality, if I heard someone just got a slap on the wrist, that would give me a green light to do whatever I wanted.”
Nevertheless, despite her disappointment with Russo’s sentence, Miles found some comfort in one aspect: “She’s a felon from now on. Everything she does, she is a convicted felon. She has to put that on every application, she has no voting rights — anything that goes along with being a felon she has to deal with now. That’s the best outcome, after the prosecuting attorney’s actions, is the best we could have hoped for.”
As of the reporting, neither Russo nor her attorney has provided any comment on the matter.