A woman once described by the SF Chronicle as an "accidental entrepreneur" is now cooling her heels in San Francisco County Jail, and faces accusations of raking in thousands of online funding bucks for allegedly pretending to have a rare blood cancer.

According to the India West newspaper, Manisha Nagrani was arrested in San Francisco on February 26 in downtown San Francisco, and was booked into SF County Jail on charges of "false personation; receiving or buying stolen property; 2nd degree commercial burglary; and acquiring access cards without the cardholder or issuer’s consent."

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department confirms that Nagrani remains in custody today, as she is also the subject of an unresolved no-bail warrant from Santa Clara County from 2011.

India West reports that in 2014, Nagrani announced via Facebook that she was a victim of "Myelodysplastic syndromes, a blood disorder affecting stem cells in bone marrow."

India West reports that Nagrani, who also had "several fake profiles" on the social network intended to "give the illusion of supporters who were organizing the various fundraising campaigns," increased the urgency of her (allegedly untrue) diagnosis on on May 27, 2015, when she wrote:

Twenty days ago I received the news that no one wants to hear - my body is failing at its fight against the MDS. I received an 'official' expiration date.

Three to four months I was told; one hundred days, give or take. That barely takes me to my birthday - barely makes it to the half marathon I'd plan to walk instead of run because of my failing health and strength.

If my doctors are right I won't be celebrating Thanksgiving again, I won't see my God-children celebrate their next birthdays, I won't have the chance to experience some beautiful dreams on my bucket list.

That's when, India West reports, the money really began to pour in to fundraising pages on sites like gofundme, youcaring, and giveforward. Most of those pages have since been taken down, but according to India West, the giveforward alone raised "$17,552, with many donations of over $1,000."

I also found this fundraising post for Nagrani on Hub Culture, dated January of last year:

Nagrani_hub.jpg

According to India West, Nagrani would allegedly use those other, fake social media profiles to post messages from "supporters" on various fundraising pages. For example, in late 2015 a "supporter" wrote:

Thanks to your kind contributions through their posts, Neesh was able to get some much needed blood (she's still about ten days behind on transfusions), blood tests and IV nutrition.

She completed a cycle of radiation just in time for Christmas! We will find out later this week what her next short term steps will be.

We are still actively fundraising for Neesh's blood transfusions and nutrition infusions as insurance will not be covering these until late January and these are essential in keeping her alive and healthy enough to receive the bone marrow transplant (the only known treatment and 'cure' for MDS).

We already had one close call with Neesh having to go without this essential treatment and it put her into the beginnings of organ failure. We cannot let this happen again.

San Francisco comedian Samson Koletkar even organized a “Humor for Hope” fundraiser for Nagrani in December of last year.

It was Koletkar who tipped India West off to Nagrani's arrest, saying that looking back, he should have realized that she wasn't actually ill.

“Just looking at her, you didn’t think she had gone through chemo and radiation and suffered a relapse. When people go through cancer treatments, they look like shit...But I gave her the benefit of doubt.”

According to Koletkar, the jig was up when a friend of Nagrani's called the police. Her roommate the confirmed to SFPD that a scam, not illness, was allegedly afoot, Koletkar says.

Another friend of Nagrani's, who donated over $1000 to her cause, says that when talking about her allegedly false illness, “She was crying. She honestly would have been a great actress with the performance she pulled." He says he is hopeful that she will receive jail time and be required to pay back her unsuspecting donors.

This isn't Nagrani's first brush with the law: Court records show that she has a 2006 arrest that ended in jail time and parole. In 2009, the SF Chronicle described her as an "accidental entrepreneur" who after losing her job in PR, "launched a matchmaking business that builds on what she describes as a natural proclivity for putting people together."

"In the ideal world," Nagrani told the Chron, "I would have a full-time job and make the matchmaking business something I can do on the side."

The San Francisco District Attorney's office is still seeking those who donated to Nagrani's alleged scam, and ask that if you're one of the victims, you give them a call at (415) 553-1754.