SALT LAKE CITY — Candace Lierd, known as the CEO of an anti-trafficking group called ‘Exitus,’ appeared in court Thursday.
Her defense attorney Mark Petersen requested the bail hearing be rescheduled to September 26, which was granted.
Lierd is charged with more than 30 counts of felony fraud.
Arrest documents say: “Based on the misleading and fraudulent representations made by Candace, the Exitus non-profit corporation raised more than $1,697,000 dollars since its founding in 2020 between individual donors, corporate donations, international wire transfers from foreign businesses to Exitus bank accounts, unknown wire transfers to Exitus bank accounts, Venmo donations, PayPal donations, Square payment processing, and Stripe payment processing.”
It’s those allegations that have former volunteers for the group concerned about how the case could affect their efforts.
“That was the first time that I had really felt like our fight in Utah for anti-trafficking took a big loss," said former Exitus volunteer Matt Johnson. "That's sad, that's sad for those who are suffering today."
Johnson said it’s important to think of survivors.
“There are people out right now suffering from human trafficking right now. And then there are those survivors who have put their trust and their vulnerabilities into an organization that promised to take care and take safety and refuge in those vulnerabilities with them. And we lost their trust,” said Johnson, “That to me is the most disheartening thing that we could possibly ever do to any of them.”
Starley Shakespear said she was a friend of Lierds’ and volunteered at Exitus throughout the years. She also said she worries about the impact the case has on survivors.
“These are organizations who set out to help so many people and now trust has been broken and people are not gonna know who to trust,” said Shakespear.
Johnson said there are many people with good intentions who want to help combat human trafficking.
“Anti-trafficking is not going to stop, you know, and I think it's just more about finding, what do we, what do we need to do? What precautions do we need to have better in place in our organizations in order for this to be prevented from ever happening again?” Asked Johnson.
Johnson encouraged volunteers and donors to ask important questions about where their money is going and how an organization is run.
Moreover, he said he wants those impacted by human trafficking to know that those wanting to help are not going anywhere.
“I still believe that you know, at Exitus, we said 'we see you, we hear you, you and we're coming for you'," he said. "I think that that's the most important thing is we can't lose hope and we can't let those who are suffering right now in anti-trafficking lose hope."
Fox 13 News reporters reached out to Lierd’s attorney, but he was in court on Thursday and was unable to respond.
