Australia Still Chasing Influencer Who Faked Cancer

A decade after wellness influencer Belle Gibson admitted she didn't have terminal brain cancer, which she claimed was cured by the healthy lifestyle that made her famous, her story has inspired a new Netflix series—and fresh outrage in Australia about the case's lack of resolution. Authorities said this week they're still pursuing the disgraced Instagram star for unpaid fines, fueling ongoing ire among Australians about one of the country's most brazen online scams, per the AP. Apple Cider Vinegar, Netflix's dramatic retelling of Gibson's story released this month, doesn't recount what happened after it was revealed in 2015 that she wasn't sick. In real life, she never faced criminal charges.

But in 2017, Australia's federal court fined her $261,000 USD, which she had raised for charity and failed to donate. The consumer watchdog in the state of Victoria is still trying to recover the funds. Gibson's healthy recipe app, The Whole Pantry, had 200,000 downloads in one month from the Apple store in 2013. She claimed proceeds from the app and her cookbook—published by a Penguin imprint—would be donated to charities and to the family of a child with cancer. Only 2% of the total was donated and Gibson was found to have breached consumer law. A court ordered her to produce the remaining funds and barred her from making health claims.

In a letter to the court, Gibson said she was in debt, didn't have a job and couldn't pay. Consumer Affairs Victoria said it is still working to "enforce the debt." Gibson hasn't spoken publicly in years and wasn't involved with, or paid by, the creators of the Netflix show. Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan said this month she was "disappointed" the case remains unresolved. But the authorities "won't let up," Allan said. "The thing remains sort of like an open wound," said journalist Richard Guilliatt, who in 2015 was the first to report that Gibson was lying. "What she has suffered is just incredible public humiliation. There's a part of me that thinks people are just going to have to let it go at some point." (More Australia stories.)