(CNN) -- She was the world's crusader against the trafficking of girls for sex in Cambodia, and she told an extraordinary personal tale: she was a village girl sold by a grandfatherly man into sex slavery. Triumphant as well as beautiful, Somaly Mam won attention from Oprah Winfrey, a New York Times columnist, a PBS documentary, Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2009, and even CNN, which named her a "Hero" in 2007. The fame -- and her memoir "The Road of Lost Innocence" -- generated millions of dollars for her Somaly Mam Foundation, fighting sex traffickers. But her personal story wasn't true, according to a Newsweek exposé this month.
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Somaly Mam drew international attention for her personal tale of surviving sex slavery
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She used that narrative to begin a foundation and collect money to save girls
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But Newsweek reports this month that her personal story is untrue
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Mam resigned from the foundation this week
In the wake of the magazine's revelations, Mam resigned this week from her foundation, which had hired a law firm to independently investigate @placeholder's background when questions arose.