A Harvard Prof Says He Was Scammed. Now, Even More Men

The story of Harvard Law professor Bruce Hay and the jaw-dropping relationship he found himself caught up in with two shady-seeming women has an update. In the original longform for the Cut, Hay described his tumultuous interactions with Maria-Pia Shuman and Mischa Haider, which led to a paternity claim, an ongoing suspension from his job at Harvard, a stint of homelessness, and massive legal bills. Now, the Cut notes, that maelstrom has gotten "even weirder," with a half-dozen other men emerging from the woodwork with like-sounding tales. Among the similarities: Many of the men, like Hay, say that Shuman's initial approach when they first met her was abrupt and aggressive, with an almost-immediate offer for sex. "It was really over the top," says "Matt," who was with one of the men Shuman propositioned (it didn't go anywhere).

Others talk about angry, threatening texts and calls from Shuman and Haider, much like the ones Hay says he got. And, like Hay, a man named "Anthony" says Shuman claimed he'd fathered her child after a brief sexual relationship; she threatened him, they argued, and eventually she stopped contacting him, but he fears one day he'll be hit with child-support demands. Also speaking to the Cut: a woman who says she's a friend of Shuman. She says she was surprised to hear Shuman has been going around with a French accent—the friend says even though Shuman speaks French, her accent is British. Maybe not as surprising: The friend says that when Shuman met Haider, they formed a "very, very, very intense" bond, after which Shuman suddenly became "obsessed" with men. "She was out there trying to meet up with a lot of guys, with a use-them-and-abuse-them kind of feel to it," the friend says. "She liked the idea of corrupting what looked like these innocent, nice guys." More here on these new developments. (More scam stories.)