In part one of this five-part W5 investigation: “Fake Filtered Cult Leader,” CTV News’ investigative unit examines a self-described spiritual teacher whose online presence helped attract followers around the world. Drawing on interviews and extensive reporting, W5 explores concerns raised by former members and the questions surrounding the organization behind the carefully curated public image.
A Hawaii jury has handed three Canadians one of the largest civil awards in the state’s history after a yearslong battle with an alleged cult leader.
The jury ordered Liane Wilson, who goes by Liana Shanti online, to pay Paula Haygarth and Byron and Stefanie Horvath, all from Saskatchewan, US$40.1 million, or just over C$56 million.
The award is the latest development in a harrowing and bizarre four-year-long legal battle.
Liana Shanti, who claims to be a self-made multimillionaire spiritual teacher with 100,000 online students, originally sued the Canadians, accusing them of online posts that defamed her by saying she was a fraudster and a cult leader who broke up families.
The Canadians counter-sued, accusing Liana Shanti of an online hate campaign accusing them of supporting pedophiles, practising black magic and abusing children.
The cases were filed in Hawaii, where Shanti lives. An eight-person jury there rejected Shanti’s allegations and agreed with the Canadians — that the “spiritual teacher,” as she describes herself as online, defamed them.
‘Paula’s doing witchcraft on your family’
The Canadians were never part of Shanti’s online community, but were targeted online because estranged family members were. Each was associated with an ex-wife who at the time was a student of Shanti’s.
Amanda Brady, of Regina, was one of those ex-wives. She was a follower of Liana Shanti’s for eight years and says the spiritual teacher systematically turned her and her daughters against their stepmother, Paula Haygarth, one of the civil award winners.
“She would message me and say, ‘Oh, your energy came into my awareness today. And so I looked at it, and Paula’s doing witchcraft on your family. You’re in danger. You need to book a session with me,’” Amanda says.
Amanda says she spent more than $750,000 on sessions and courses, partly, she says, because Liana Shanti positioned herself as a psychic.
Liana Shanti’s former students tell W5 that they turned to her for advice about their marriages, children and careers. Many were clustered in and around Regina, Sask.
United Kingdom-based cult expert Kacey Baker has interviewed 30 people who have been affected by Shanti, including ex-followers and family members. She says many of them believe that Shanti runs a cult-like enterprise, making people dependent on her through coercion and control — and vindictive consequences when her authority is challenged.
Students share “deep and vulnerable and extremely personal stories” with Liana Shanti, Kacey says. “It appears that a lot of that content is screenshotted and … then used as smear campaign or intimidation material if a person ever decides to leave the group or to speak out about Liana Shanti.”
The collapse and the fallout
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Liana Shanti warned her followers that Canada was a dangerous place to live, that they needed to get out to protect their children. Two dozen of her Canadian followers fled to Florida, which she pitched as a safe haven.
Almost all of the Canadians eventually left the community and returned to Canada. Liana Shanti lashed out online against them, and their loved ones, calling them demonic, Satanic child abusers.
“I shared my whole life with this woman. Everything. She knows everything and all of it was put out,” Amanda says.
Paula Haygarth, who was subjected to years of online abuse, says she “felt an immense amount of relief.”
“It’s just so traumatic to be accused for all of those years for something you never did,” she says.
Liana Shanti says she plans to appeal.
‘Good things happen to good people’
The $56-million jury award, if and when it comes through, will pay for the Canadians’ staggering legal bills, and then some. Paula says hers add up to more than US$600,000. The legal fight has been so costly that Paula and her husband Wade were forced to sell their house in Saskatchewan and move into a trailer.
The couple hasn’t seen a dime so far and they’re not sure they ever will.
“We’re making it work and we’ve always believed that good things happen to good people,” Paula said.
W5 requested an interview with Liana Shanti multiple times, but she declined. In an email, she wrote, “I’m actually not a central character in any story, only a fiction that violent abusive men, child molesters, and the women under their control want so desperately to create. … I sued them. I exposed them. They lashed out.”
Watch the one-hour special presentation of W5’s Avery Haines Investigates Saturday at 7 p.m. ET live on W5’s official YouTube channel and on CTV and Crave
