EXPOSING THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST LISA “MALANA” FIORVANTE & LIANA SHANTI
My name is Malana, and I’m an adult survivor of abuse.
I’ve also been the victim of a smear campaign for the past two years of my life.
A smear campaign that’s impacted just about every facet of my life, as well as my general feeling of safety in the world.
It’s also impacted many other women I care deeply about, including my teacher/life coach Liana Shanti, as well as other female students of hers and their children.
That’s one of many reasons why I’m taking the time to expose what’s gone on– because I’m not the ONLY victim.
And it all started because, as an ADULT WOMAN, I chose to estrange myself from my parents who were catalysts for the lifetime of abuse I endured.
My abuse has included just about every type – physical, sexual, emotional, mental, spiritual, financial – by multiple people at multiple times throughout my life.
Once I took action to heal from the abuses, I was then bullied and harassed, followed by enduring the abuse of a smear campaign.
This smear campaign has been so vicious and so outlandish – like something out of a movie – that the truth NEEDS a dedicated space to help mitigate all of the destruction it’s caused.
Because actually, vicious and outlandish things happen to everyday people every single day– especially women.
And no matter how much people don’t want to believe that the most terrible of things can be happening right in their neighborhoods – or right in their homes – it doesn’t make them any less true.
And no matter how many twists and turns a person’s story may take, it also doesn’t make them any less credible.
But when both the victim and the abuser’s stories are so vicious, so outlandish, and so full of twists and turns, how can anyone discern who’s really lying and who’s really telling the truth?
That’s what I hope to show.
Using the details of my own smear campaign, I’ll be detailing what took place, the people involved, and the lies that were told.
What people decide is the actual truth is not up to me, but up to God– the most important thing is that I know THE TRUTH got out.
I’ll start with the primary participants of the smear campaign, and below that, you’ll find more of my story, followed by the TRUTH of how this smear campaign got started and became as sensationalized as it did.
PRIMARY PARTICIPANTS IN SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST MALANA & LIANA SHANTI
Jack Fiorvante (Malana’s estranged father)
Motive: To SILENCE his daughter from making disclosures about how he’d sexually abused her so that he could maintain his reputation and avoid any potential legal ramifications.
Ann Fiorvante (Malana’s estranged mother)
Motive: To silence her daughter from exposing a) that she knew of her daughter’s abuse yet chose to stay with her husband and b) that she then went on to become a licensed daycare provider and run a daycare INSIDE OF THE SAME HOME where Malana had been sexually abused.
Joe Scoppino (Malana’s ex-husband)
Motive: To retaliate against his ex-wife for choosing to divorce him instead of wanting to stay in a misaligned, future-less marriage that had been rife with dysfunction and abuse FROM THE BEGINNING.
Laura Scoppino (Malana’s ex-mother-in-law)
Motive: To a) retaliate against Malana for Joe choosing to briefly estrange himself from his family while he and Malana were on a similar healing path that included Liana Shanti’s teachings, and b) to continue pretending that, even as his mother, she somehow played no role in the self-admitted issues he was having in his life BEFORE he ever knew who Liana was.
Kristin Delgado (Malana’s maternal half-sister)
Motive: To a) retaliate against her half-sister for ceasing contact after finally facing the red flags she’d been overlooking for YEARS and accepting that she was not a woman she felt comfortable around or could trust, and b) to gain favor with her mother and step-father who treated her like an outcast her whole life (which subsequently led to the negative and abusive behaviors she exhibited throughout her life).
MY STORY:
My name is Malana, formerly known as Lisa Fiorvante.
I’m a 35-year old adult woman who was born and raised on Long Island, New York.
I’ve been estranged from my parents since July 2021 and divorced from my ex-husband since June 2022.
I estranged myself from my mother and father, Ann Fiorvante and Jack Fiorvante (and subsequently my whole family), when I began facing my history of child sexual abuse at the hands of my father and the realization that my mother knew and failed to protect me.
I divorced my ex-husband, Joe Scoppino, due to a lack of shared values and vision, as well as a history of dysfunction, which included a stint in couple’s counseling. I would come to accept that what I’d experienced throughout the entirety of our 14-year relationship was narcissistic abuse.
(It’s extremely common for children of abuse to perpetuate the cycle throughout their romantic relationships.)
My desire to remove myself from the grip of family dysfunction and abuse sparked a smear campaign against me.
My family was SHOCKED that I had found the STRENGTH to estrange myself, and they felt fearful around what this could mean for their reputations.
But the smear campaign wasn’t just against me.
It was also against Liana Shanti.
Rather than face and tell the truth, they felt “entitled” to scapegoat Liana and try to destroy HER reputation. Meanwhile, she’s NOT the one who abused me– MY FAMILY MEMBERS ARE.
To my family, she was the “villian” and their “reason” for why I’d estranged myself.
Why?
Because towards the end of 2020, I began incorporating her teachings and making some much-needed changes to my life (like quitting a decade-long weed habit, as one example).
These changes led to the clarity of mind I needed to face my history of abuse and get to the bottom of things like: the sexual flashbacks I’d been having (and hiding) when I’d be in the same room as my father, the night terrors I’d been waking up screaming from that felt like I was being suffocated to death (the flashbacks and the night terrors started when I moved far from my family BEFORE I ever knew of Liana), strange feelings I’d have around certain family members, and much more.
However, because many of my memories of abuse were repressed, and I was unable to more fully start piecing things together until my early 30’s, my family is trying to use this as their “saving grace” for why I should not be believed.
Therefore, despite my parents knowing full well why I requested NO CONTACT from them, they chose to pretend that my desire to detach from them was completely unjustified and the result of brainwashing by Liana. Meanwhile, anything I learned or listened to of hers was entirely AT WILL in my own home, whenever and however I liked.
Then in the spring of 2022, everything skyrocketed.
My once somewhat-contained smear campaign – mostly lies dispersed amongst family and friends with some sporadic harassment from my parents – turned into a public attack that spread throughout my professional network.
It was revealed that my ex-husband was telling a tale tale that he’d left a cult run by Liana – a story that bolstered my parent’s lies and emboldened them to further harass me – and from there, things only intensified.
And then… a full-on war was waged.
This war started with what I’ll call Curveball #1.
At the height of my family’s attacks, another student of Liana’s was experiencing something similar by her own family. This family took to the internet to spread lies about Liana, and it instigated a full-on hate campaign against her, which emboldened more and more estranged family members and former spouses of Liana’s student’s to spew hate and lies, too.
(Family estrangement is a common thread amongst some of Liana’s students given the nature of her work as an educator around trauma and abuse, but LIANA DOES NOT MAKE HER STUDENTS ESTRANGE THEMSELVES.)
This hate campaign took on a life of its own and snowballed into a very public and very destructive, vicious, and abusive satire.
There were claims made that Liana is everything from a cult leader, to a human trafficker, to a hypnotist who starves her students, all while planting memories of abuse into her student’s brains.
So when my ex-husband, Joe, got wind of this hate campaign against Liana? He used it to his advantage.
Since he had already been telling a tall tale of having left a cult, now knowing that other men were telling this narrative about their ex-wives and estranged daughters was like hitting a gold mine.
And that’s where things started getting really twisted.
Once my ex-husband got in contact with these other men, he started writing affidavits for them to help them win custody of their children. Meanwhile, these men were ex-spouses of women who’ve disclosed had abused them!
One of the first women I learned that he did this to has a heart-wrenching and well-documented history of spousal abuse that can be read here.
Joe Scoppino even went as far as to write a letter to help a family HE DID NOT KNOW get their ADULT daughter INVOLUNTARILY admitted to a psychiatric facility all because they felt threatened by her disclosures of abuse and her desire to implement Liana’s teachings and programs.
These actions on behalf of Joe was not surprising given his character as he, too, is abusive.
(A background of abuse is a common thread that these women and I share, and sadly, Joe’s resentment towards me divorcing him has led him to seek ways to harm women within my support network, including Liana and other female students of hers.)
What’s vital to know about this hate group Joe and my family has connected with is that several men within it:
have been arrested for domestic violence
were served with multi-year restraining orders
have made death threats to Liana and other women in our community
Additionally, this hate group has colluded with men who have a history of being hired by families to conduct violent and involuntary “deprogrammings” of their ADULT children who they believe to be victims of cults or minority religions in order to get them to renounce their spiritual beliefs. These men have been colleagues since the 1980s and have participated within the former Cult Awareness Network (CAN).
The men who’ve been linked to this hate group are:
Rick Alan Ross, a convicted felony kidnapper who’s also been given a diagnosis of “sociopathic inclinations” from his prison psychiatrist. Cruel lies about Liana Shanti being a human trafficker were published by the hate group on Ross’s online forum, Cult Education Institute.
Joe Szimhart, who’s has been documented in court affidavits as having used military-style brainwashing techniques and threatening to put people in an insane asylum if they don’t renounce their faith in Buddhism. Szimhart was fed false information about Liana and created YouTube videos about her claiming that she’s a cult leader.
Steve Hassan, who’s been documented by a victim under oath as having been kidnapped, starved, sleep-deprived, and assaulted by Hassan and others in an effort to have him renounce is religious beliefs. He’s also been connected with a convicted pedophile, molester and fugitive, Anton Hein who runs the website ApologeticsIndex.org. Hassan who’s referred to as a “cult expert” was used as a source in a propaganda piece published on the Daily Beast about Liana Shanti. Additionally, Hassan actually WORKED with the family of the daughter who Joe Scoppino helped get involuntarily admitted into a psychiatric facility, meaning he’s still taking part in a form of torture, abuse, and attack on religious freedoms IN THE PRESENT DAY.
This hate group, which includes my family, has ZERO standards or vetting process around who they engage with and enlist to help do their bidding.
When I began defending myself and Liana against the lies – one way being through naming my abusers – they engaged in a tactic called DARVO by claiming that they were the real victims of slander and defamation.
“DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender—a perpetrator strategy. The perpetrator may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender, so that the perpetrator adopts the victim role and accuses the true victim of being an offender. This can occur when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of "falsely accused" and attacks the accuser's credibility and blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation.” (Source)
From there, Curveball #2 took place.
This group of people leading Liana’s hate campaign found out about and inserted themselves into a bankruptcy matter of Liana’s from 2011 before she ever had an online presence (the details of which she has shared with me personally. It’s something she will be sharing publicly when she is legally able to, and it is a POWERFUL EXAMPLE of the choices one makes when they’re leading a truly Jesus-led life.)
They felt that this bankruptcy matter was the “smoking gun” they needed to prove that Liana must not be who she says she is and that she’s financially defrauding her students, which could not be further from the truth.
First, they helped get what can only be described as a complete satire published on a tabloid site.
And next, they continually harassed a court official and wrote letters of “concern” to a federal judge full of everything from half-truths to COMPLETE LIES.
There were a total of four letters signed by 1.) Ann & Jack Fiorvante, 2.) Joseph Scoppino, 3.) Laura Scoppino, and 4.) Kristin Delgado, the primary participants of the smear campaign against both Liana Shanti and myself.
This resulted in a hearing, which took place before the judge had read our stories. Unfortunately, this led to speculations and mistruths to be published in yet another propaganda piece by the The Daily Beast.
However, once ALL of the information was weighed in, in August of 2023, THE JUDGE DETERMINED THAT THERE WAS NO REASON FOR FURTHER ACTION AGAINST LIANA SHANTI.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW ON EACH PERSON INVOLVED IN THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN:
My father, Jack Fiorvante, has been a primary person behind the smear campaign due to my request for NO CONTACT in July of 2021 when I came to terms with the fact that he had sexually abused me when I was a child (I was anally raped at 6 years old and forced to perform oral sex).
Jack Fiorvante is also a man with a history of drug addiction including cocaine, and a man who I’ve filed police reports against for cyber-stalking/harassment and suspicious behavior. He’s also a man who has made direct threats towards Liana due to the role she’s played in my life as an advocate for victims of abuse.
Additionally, my mother, Ann Fiorvante, a self-admitted alcoholic, knew that my father had sexually abused me, helped cover it up, and then proceeded to run a daycare inside of our home for 20 years.
She’s a woman with motive to assist my father in keeping my disclosures hidden, even if it means lying to other family members and helping to recruit them in spreading false narratives about both Liana and myself. I also filed a police report against her in 2022 for cyber-stalking and harassing me.
Additionally, both her and my father received a cease and desist letter from my lawyer in May of 2022 to discontinue contacting me after I’d made repeated requests for them to STOP.
Therefore, when I found out that my family made contact with court officials pertaining to a legal matter of Liana’s, I knew it to be yet another desperate attempt to:
a) cause undeserved stress and harm towards Liana due to their anger with ME for leaving and “disgracing” the family after implementing her teachings, and
b) for naming them online as a way to DEFEND myself and Liana AFTER it came to light that they were each playing a role in their own way regarding spreading LIES to the point that it was CAUSING HARM. This harm has not only been towards Liana and her businesses or towards my personal wellbeing, but also to OTHER WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN.
And NOTHING that they were all saying or doing is because they truly wanted me to “come back.”
What’s really at the heart of all of this is an attempt to SILENCE ME from disclosing my abuses as well as those who support me, which includes Liana Shanti and her students, who are also MY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES.
I can PROVE THIS given that on March 11th, 2023, my father actually contacted me directly to say that he doesn’t even want me back and that who he’s really “after” is Liana.
Meanwhile, just days prior he’d made public statements that he’s a “heartbroken” father who’s trying to get his daughter back, THEN on April 8th, 2023 my mother wrote their disgraceful, pathetic, and cringe-worthy letter to a judge pertaining to Liana’s BANKRUPTCY MATTER (i.e. NOTHING to do with my family) stating that her and my father are mourning my loss and wanted helping in “bringing me home.”
IN REALITY, THEY DO NOT WANT ME BACK. THEY JUST WANT ME SILENCED.
TO ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN, THESE SCREENSHOTS BELOW SHOULD SAY EVERYTHING. IT’S THE PERFECT ANALOGY FOR WHAT LIFE COULD TRULY BE LIKE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS VS. WHAT THE PUBLIC SAW.
(Context: Deadwood Choppers is his motorcycle club that I named on my social media)
More details and screenshots can also be found on THIS Substack article I published in March 2023.
As for my ex-husband Joseph Scoppino, I found Liana Shanti in late 2020, and what I was learning through her teachings gave me some clarity into issues that had been prevalent in our marriage and relationship from the start. While we may have appeared fine on the outside, behind closed doors, there were many issues– issues that had even landed us in couples counseling three years prior.
However, after starting my healing path, my willingness to be the “fixer” in the marriage – the sole person dedicated to trying to make things work – had waned. I was also in my early 30’s, and I desired to have a family– something Joe never quite seemed to truly desire or want to plan for, even once expressing ANGER at me for trying to discuss it. Given that I was only getting older, I felt it was time to start accepting that we didn’t share a vision for a future together and that our relationship was NOT a truly healthy, happy, or fulfilling one behind closed doors, DESPITE what the outside world may have seen.
So in early 2021, I initiated a conversation about us getting a divorce, and it wasn’t the first time that word had been said between us. Except this time, I was feeling more prepared to go our separate ways, and I asked nothing of Joe to help “save” our marriage. No ultimatum. No pressure to do anything. Just the opportunity for us to both face the music and admit we wanted different things in life.
However, over the course of an emotional few days and through Joe’s persistence and his insistence that he wanted to try healing through Liana’s work, AND against my better judgment (Joe made a “joke” that I now know was a veiled threat when he said to me, “If we divorce, everyone’s going to think you joined a cult,” which he’s since made good on), I agreed to give our marriage another chance.
However, I also made it abundantly clear that I was committed to my healing path and to Liana’s teachings no matter what – that this was something I needed for myself – and we both agreed that we had free will to opt out of our marriage at any time if we no longer felt it was aligned.
From there, we spent the next several months diving into Liana’s work– a decision she played no role in whatsoever. Meaning, Joe and I both purchased Liana’s healing and nutrition programs without any coercion or sales pitches from Liana. Additionally, Joe and I were both active students of Liana’s programs without any mandatory participation or consequences for inactivity.
During the time that Joe was a student of Liana’s, Joe actually expressed joy at having her programs and would often use her Facebook group as a therapeutic outlet. He also used the group to open up about some of the very issues and behaviors I’d witnessed and experienced from him (which had actually landed us in couples counseling several years before we’d ever heard of Liana), including admitting to abusive tendencies and his ability to manipulate others.
Regarding when Joe and I separated in March 2022, this happened after a disorienting few months where Joe would yo-yo between having days where he’d tell me wanted to leave me, to days where he’d affirm that our marriage was being strengthened by the work we were doing, ALL of which created massive emotional pain, caused me to lose focus, and led to making some poor business decisions due to not having a clear head.
A few weeks after he left, it was revealed through cyber-harassment by my parents in April of 2022 that he told his parents a sob story of being in a cult with Liana being the reason our marriage fell apart, with no mention of our ongoing history of relationship struggles.
His mother, Laura Scoppino, relayed this information to my ESTRANGED PARENTS – WHICH INCLUDES MY FATHER WHO SEXUALLY ABUSED ME – and she’s since inserted herself into this smear campaign ever since.
MORE ABOUT THE BACKSTORY OF MY & JOE’S RELATIONSHIP CAN BE READ HERE.
Regarding my sister, Kristin Delgado, she wrote EXTENSIVE lies about both Liana and myself on Reddit, which only further fed the hate campaign – even claiming that I “tormented” my ex-husband – then had the audacity to claim SHE was being slandered when the TRUTH was spoken.
