Now-defunct Erie, PA hardcore band Counterfeit couldn’t have been more appropriately named. It’s recently come to light that the band’s vocalist, Hali Etie, has been faking stage 3 cervical cancer to profit to the tune of several thousand dollars. For the past few months, she’d had a gofundme account set up and there were several benefit shows for her as many of the band’s friends and family supported her cause. Hardcore Cares, an organization that mostly has helped abused animals, initially rallied around Etie, but yesterday released this statement:
Concerning the Hali Etie fraud case. Hali Etie front woman for Erie, Pa Band Counterfeit. Hardcore Cares as well as many others was caught up in the fraudulent claims that Hali was suffering through (Stage3 / Type B / Cervical Cancer).. Hali & Counterfeit have been a mainstay with HCC from early on. We had no reason not to believe the claims were in fact true. Even after a private message from a concerned individual that he claims were false we backed her & supported her. Hardcore Cares started backing her claims of Cancer on July 15th 2015. We did put together a benefit show for her, customized Tshirts & shared the gofundme.com link religiously. about a week prior to the benefit show we started to see cracks in the story. Things just were not adding up. But she still had the support of key people close to her , so based on that & her presence in HCC we motored on. It was after seeing a post on Sunday 9/6/2015 that all the facts came together & her story crumbled. All the gut instincts & cracks were true. We at Hardcore Cares were devastated. Here is a woman we had great respect for on a musical & personal level that had used us like so many others throughout this escapade. We absolutely send out our sincerest thanks to all that donated their time at Hali’s benefit ” Throwdown In Motown” on 8/15/2015. Corktown Tavern donated the venue, Leslie made from scratch cupcakes to sell, volunteers to BBQ, 5 bands CST, Death In Custody, Consumed With Hatred, Never Submit & The Family. The outstanding staff at Corktown Tavern that always supports HCC & had an even deeper love for this event.
In closing:
Hardcore Cares will not seek any legal action against Hali Etie. We will not spend anymore time, energy, or resource on this matter. We still have a great amount of respect for the 3 other members of Counterfeit. Let it be known that the existing members are in NO WAY a part of the fraud. Our heart & respect go out to all that gave, donated *& backed Hali in her time of need. This will not be the straw that breaks the Camels back for HCC. We will continue our mission, we will continue to grow & we will continue to give when & where we can.Hardcore Family, you have all our respect-
Given that hardcore is built on respect and support, this is pretty much the worst. Capitalizing on the good will of people by lying to them about a disease that’s impacted countless people, not to mention misleading her band and others that gave her support, is a new level of scumbagginess. A Lambgoat reader gave an additional update:
“She faked have stage 3 cervical cancer to rip people off of over $3000. There were multiple hardcore benefit shows books in her name to help raise funds to cover medical costs. She took the money, traveled and got tattoos. She forged prescription papers from doctors in Texas. Just a big mess of things going on! CBS out of Harrisburg as well a WICU in Erie are going to be running stories but trying to get the word out to the hardcore community to not help this person because she is still trying to keep it up for more and more money.”
Etie hasn’t publicly spoken about this, but according to Lambgoat, her former band says “she’s a piece of shit and the rest of the band doesn’t support her.” According to a post on their Facebook page, Counterfeit broke up in April, which is great for the remaining members of the band that are probably hoping to distance themselves from such a despicable person.
[via Lambgoat]
