On October 22, 2024, Candace Lierd, aka Candace Rivera, was sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison. I was sitting in the courtroom with dozens of her victims who listened as the judge told Candace she was tone-deaf when it came to any remorse for her victims, including her teenage son. When Judge Johnson declared Candace would serve a prison sentence, there was a collective sigh of relief. When the Sheriff walked to the defense table, pulled out his handcuffs, placed them on Candace’s wrists, and had her escorted out of the courtroom, you could have heard a pin drop. But once we stepped out of the courtroom, we clapped, hugged, high-fived, and cheered that the judge had seen through Candace’s crocodile tears and lies. It was a good day. What follows is my Victim Impact Statement, which I read before Judge Christine Johnson. I was honored to be the last on the list of those who read their statements that day.
The Honorable Christine S. Johnson, Fourth District Courthouse, Provo, UT
RE: Candace Lierd. Case #AG2023-324, Court Case: 231403660
Your Honor,
I met Candace Lierd—Candace Rivera—in February 2022 at a widow’s retreat Hailey Brown and I hosted. The resume Candace provided was impressive with items such as:
- Seat on UN Collaborative Taskforce
- CEO and Founder 3 multi-million dollar companies
- CEO and Founder Exitus, an anti-human trafficking non-profit with a multi-million dollar foundation
- Featured in local magazines, KSL News, ABC News, BBC, WorldWide UK, IHeart Radio, Hope Lodge, ACS News
- Contributing launch team member New York Times Best Selling Authors
We trusted Candace would be an asset to our widows. Since my husband took videos of our retreat, it was easy to quote things Candace told our widows, such as:
- “There are people in the world who prey on vulnerabilities.”
- “There are so many liars in the world. They lie through social media. They lie in person.”
- “I cast wide nets.”
I trusted Candace was not one of those liars or predators.
I trusted Candace and paid $400 for her eight-week entrepreneur course. We completed three of the eight weeks. I trusted she would refund a portion of my $400. She did not.
I trusted Candace when I asked her to read my manuscript for Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story. She offered to write the Forward. I couldn’t afford it. She replied, “I am going to write the Forward.” I trusted her credentials. Her fictitious Forward beginning with, “As a contributing author and launch team member for several New York Times Best Selling authors,” and ending with her phony credentials has been removed from all unsold copies of Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story.
I trusted Candace when she signed me as a CR House & Co client and sent wiring instructions for her business account so I could pay the contract amount of $8,300. While gathering paperwork for Utah Attorney General Special Agent James Pettis, however, I noted her wiring instructions had been for her personal account.
I trusted when Candace said Netflix was interested in Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story. I trusted that the producer for KUTV wanted to do a multi-series remote interview. Netflix never called. A reporter from KUTV called but he had no idea why.
I trusted Candace when she texted on February 14, 2023: “Your Amazon selling link was approved for launch day! . . . Technically you’re launching tomorrow (February 15, 2023) but your links are live today!!! Girl – are you ready?!!”
I trusted Candace’s attorneys would fix the Amazon issues preventing my book launch on February 15, 2023. I trusted Candace when she explained Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story was in process with Amazon, so Shopify would drop first. I trusted she would turn over the Shopify account after the first week’s sales. I trusted her later when she said it would be thirty days before she could turn over the account. I trusted her to send money for books sold through Shopify. I trusted her when she said, “Amazon is damn near impossible for a normal person to figure out.” I trusted her to stop selling my book on Shopify when I told her to stop. There were no attorneys. I never got access to the Shopify account. I never received payment for 42 books sold through her Shopify account. Candace refused to stop selling my book. I can only trust that she sent me all the packing slips for every Shopify book order. I have no other choice. After cutting ties with Candace, I found a reputable distributor who put Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story on Amazon.
I trusted Candace had secured an invitation for me and three guests for the Holding Out H.E.L.P. Fundraiser Gala in March 2023. When we arrived at the Gala front desk, no one knew who I was. No one knew Candace.
I trusted I had passed the first tier of the TEDx Utah application process after Candace said she had submitted my name. No TEDx Utah chapters knew who I was. None had heard of Candace.
I trusted Candace when she said Private Investigator Sam Brower would call because he wanted to meet me. I trusted she and Sam had worked together for years. Sam didn’t call. Candace and Sam never worked together.
I trusted Candace when she emailed a list she had created with names and charges highlighted as kickbacks on her Shopify account. Three of the people whose names she had highlighted were good friends—one being my daughter’s mother-in-law. They checked their credit card statements. The charges had cleared.
Around May 1, 2023, Candace said she had shared Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story with some publisher friends. They wanted to publish my next book—which I hadn’t started writing—with a signing bonus of between $25,000 and $75,000. I asked to speak with them. Candace said she would broker the deal. My trust in Candace was waning.
In the middle of May 2023, I spoke with Holding Out H.E.L.P. founder Tonia Tewell. Tonia asked, “Are you and Candace friends?” I told her I had hired Candace to market my book. Tonia replied, “Candace is not who you think she is, and Sam Brower wants nothing to do with you because of your association with her.” I asked Tonia if she could convince Sam to speak with me. Sam agreed and shared the findings from his investigation of Candace since meeting her for the first time at the Holding Out H.E.L.P. Fundraiser Gala in March 2023.
Long story short, I trusted Candace . . . until I no longer trusted Candace.
When I received a voicemail from someone calling himself Utah Attorney General Special Agent James Pettis on June 21, 2023, I thought it was a scam. I texted Sam Brower, asking if the message was legit. He immediately texted back: “It’s very legit!”
I called Special Agent Pettis, told him my story, and agreed to be the first victim in the Utah Attorney General’s criminal investigation of Candace Lierd. I will never recoup the approximately $11,000 she scammed me out of, but I will do everything I can to keep others from being victimized by her.
I looked up Candace’s Utah business licenses at the end of May 2023. She had none. I purchased the names and licenses for all the companies she claimed to own—seven in total. She would not be able to legitimize her illegitimate businesses, including CR House & Co, whose contract I had signed. At the end of July 2023, when Candace learned what I had done, she emailed: “I have reason to believe that you have not filed the following Business Name Reservations (she gave no business names) in good faith.” She was wrong. I purchased those names and licenses in perfect faith that she would never get her hands on them. She gave me two days to release my filings. I forwarded her email to Special Agent Pettis.
It took four and a half years of interviews, research, writing, and re-writing to finish my book, Devotion Deception Deliverance—Isaac’s Story. Isaac trusted me to write and share his story, and I trusted Candace to market my book. But her end game had always been to separate me from my money, and I hadn’t seen it.
It is difficult and emotional to explain the toll my association with Candace Lierd took. Faith in myself and others and trust in my decision-making skills were gone. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t eat. I berated myself for being so stupid. I couldn’t look at my book—the project that had taken me four and a half years to complete—and I did not promote it for over a year. I stopped writing. I was embarrassed to speak with Isaac and my publisher. I was ashamed to tell my family what had happened. I would have walked away without Sam Brower’s tenacity and trust, Tonia’s encouragement and support, Special Agent James Pettis’ dedication and hard work, my husband’s love and strength, and my family’s kindness and understanding.
While researching Candace, I discovered her complete lack of compassion and concern for anyone, including but not limited to family, friends, senior citizens, widows, human trafficking victims, other vulnerable groups, and government agencies. But throughout this journey, I have found some of the bravest, strongest, most remarkable people I have ever met despite their having been victimized by Candace.
In all of Candace’s double-speak, braggadocious chest-thumping, and outright lies, the most chilling and terrifying thing I heard her say was something she told our widows shortly after I met her in February 2022: “I cast wide nets.” There is no way of knowing just how wide those nets are. Candace Lierd is, in fact, the liar and predator she had warned our widows about.
Candace deceives, lies, scams, and cheats people out of their money, reputations, dignity, and livelihoods. She disregards the law and refuses to admit her guilt even when faced with irrefutable evidence—hence her cowardly plea of no contest.
If Candace is shown a modicum of mercy today, she will undoubtedly take that as weakness on the part of this court. And who knows what that would mean for her victims, specifically the ones who bravely came forward in this case and those she has yet to meet. Candace’s victims must be protected. That is why I ask, Your Honor, that you hand her the harshest and lengthiest possible sentences for each of these charges against her. And I ask that you run them consecutively. Candace Lierd must be stopped.
Thank you.