Thread: "It's All Gone" - New Jersey Couple Spent Homeless Vet's $400k GoFundMe Cash

"It's All Gone" - New Jersey Couple Spent Homeless Vet's $400k GoFundMe Cash



"It completely shocked me when I heard... We're really concerned about the flight risk..."

"It's All Gone" - New Jersey Couple Spent Homeless Vet's $400k GoFundMe Cash

Tue, 09/04/2018 - 22:15

Just days after a judge ordered a Jersey couple's assets frozen after they raised over $400,000 for a homeless veteran (who had shown them considerable kindness) to get his life back together and failed to give him the money, the case took the worst possible turn.
Last October, Bobbitt came across Kate McClure after she had become stranded on the side of I-95 in a bad section of Philadelphia. Even though he was living on the streets, he used his last 20 dollars to buy her some gasoline so that she could get home.



To thank him, McClure and her boyfriend Mark D’Amico created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help Bobbitt get off the streets. The original goal was to raise $10,000, but the story went mega-viral and the campaign ultimately raised a total of $403,000.

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But McClure and D’Amico never gave Bobbitt the money. Instead, they took charge of it and bought him the things that they thought he “needed”.
Bobbitt accused the couple of fraud, alleging that the two committed fraud and conspiracy by taking large amounts of the donations to "enjoy a lifestyle they could not afford" and using the account as "their personal piggy bank," and asked a judge to appoint a supervisor to manage the money in the fundraising account.
And last Thursday a judge gave the South Jersey couple less than a day to hand over what's left of the $400,000 they raised through a GoFundMe campaign for Johnny Bobbitt Jr.



Today, as The Inquirer reports, Bobbitt’s attorney Chris Fallon said he was told the money is all gone.

Fallon said he learned of the missing money in a conference call Tuesday morning with lawyers for Kate McClure and Mark D’Amico, the Burlington County couple accused of mismanaging the money raised for Bobbitt.
“It completely shocked me when I heard,” said Fallon. “It came as a complete surprise to me.”
Word of the missing money came on the same day Bobbitt’s lawyers asked a judge to impose sanctions on the couple after the pair missed a court-ordered deadline to hand over the remaining GoFundMe money.

The couple told the Inquirer and Daily News last month that about $200,000 of the money remained.
The balance, they said, had been spent to help Bobbitt.
Bobbitt's attorneys say he has received closer to $75,000, including the cost of the camper and an SUV, both since sold.
D'Amico admitted spending $500 of the GoFundMe money to gamble at SugarHouse Casino, but he said he paid it back with his winnings.
Jacqueline Promislo, one of Bobbitt's three pro bono lawyers, said in a phone interview as they mulled further legal action: "We're really concerned about the flight risk."The lawyers asked the judge to issue sanctions requiring D'Amico and McClure to remain in New Jersey, surrender their passports, post a bond, and be barred from spending any money in their bank accounts.
According to the application for sanctions, D'Amico and McClure failed to comply with the court's 24-hour deadline "without explanation or request for extension."
GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Withorne said Tuesday that the company had deposited $20,000 into the escrow account created by Bobbitt's attorneys to provide assistance for him while an investigation into the case proceeds. The Inquirer reports that Fallon said the $20,000 will be used for six months of housing and food for Bobbitt.

"We are working with law enforcement officials to ensure Johnny receives all of the funds raised on his behalf," Withorne said.
"While we assist law enforcement with their ongoing investigation, GoFundMe is also working with Johnny's legal team to ensure he's receiving support while the remaining funds are being recovered."

As for donors, if GoFundMe determines that donations were misused, the company says it refunds individual contributions of up to $1,000.
Finally, some potentially good news is that Bobbitt’s legal team says that they were able to enroll their client in a 28-day residential detox program on Monday.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-gofundme-cash

Wow. What dirt bags.

I would never give a dime to any GoFundMe.

They are dirt bags and the money should have gone in Escrow where he got only so much a month, then more AFTER he got a job and cleaned up.

I hope they have to pay it back or serve time.

He didn't waste it, they robbed the fund. It's serious fraud, jeopardizes every legitimate GoFundMe activity when someone does this, because donors lose confidence.

Originally Posted by Judy

He didn't waste it, they robbed the fund. It's serious fraud, jeopardizes every legitimate GoFundMe activity when someone does this, because donors lose confidence.

Sounds like he did waste the money that was given to him. Probably went on drugs. Not excusing the couples actions because they were wrong to spend any of the money on themselves. They should be forced to make the fund whole again, minus what was already spent on Bobbitt, or be prosecuted for fraud.

Drug habit or not, the money belongs to Bobbitt.

GoFundMe Investigating Couple That Raised $403,000 For Homeless Vet But Only Gave Him A Fraction Of The Money


Did a New Jersey couple go on wild gambling sprees, take exotic vacations and buy a new BMW with the money that the public gave to help get a homeless veteran off the streets? This article is about a “feel good story” that has gone really, really bad. Homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr. served as an ammunition technician in the U.S. Marine Corps. After leaving the Marines, Bobbitt worked as a fireman and a paramedic before eventually falling on hard times. Last October, Bobbitt came across Kate McClure after she had become stranded on the side of I-95 in a bad section of Philadelphia. Even though he was living on the streets, he used his last 20 dollars to buy her some gasoline so that she could get home. To thank him, McClure and her boyfriend Mark D’Amico created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help Bobbitt get off the streets. The original goal was to raise $10,000, but the story went mega-viral and the campaign ultimately raised a total of $403,000. (Read More...)

NJ Police Raid GoFundMe Scammers After Couple Spends $400K In Donations For Homeless Vet



"in connection with a criminal investigation into the Johnny Bobbitt matter"

GoFundMe Will Cover Rest Of $400,000 Raised For Homeless Vet



GoFundMe has promised to cover the rest of the money raised for Bobbitt via their platform if Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, the couple in question, failed to pay up...

GoFundMe Will Cover Rest Of $400,000 Raised For Homeless Vet

Sat, 09/08/2018 - 20:10

Johnny Bobbitt Jr., a homeless veteran who has been fighting for nearly a year to win the balance of roughly $400,000 in charitable donations made out to him, will soon receive the roughly $325,000 that he is still owed by the New Jersey couple who raised the money, according to his lawyer, Chris Fallon.
In an interview with CNN, Fallon said that GoFundMe had promised to cover the rest of the money raised for Bobbitt via their platform if Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, the couple in question, failed to pay up.
The couple recently saw their home raided by Burlington County police after lawyers working on Bobbitt's behalf sued the couple and filed a complaint saying McClure and D'Amico had refused to turn over the money - which the couple raised for Bobbitt via a GoFundMe campaign that went viral - which the lawyers argued rightfully belonged to Bobbitt.



GoFundMe said that it would launch an investigation into what happened with the funds based on whatever evidence was seized from the couple's home by Burlington County police. But regardless of what happened, the donations are backed by GoFundMe's "GoFundMe guarantee," which protects donors and recipients.

Here's more from Fallon, who broke the news to CNN.

"We reached an agreement today with GoFundMe and they have agreed to make sure he will be made whole," Fallon says.
In a statement, the company said it would back the money raised:
"...Our platform is backed by the GoFundMe Guarantee, which means that in the rare case that GoFundMe, law enforcement or a user finds campaigns are misused, donors and beneficiaries are protected."

McClure and her boyfriend set up the GoFundMe page after Bobbitt, a homeless vet who has struggled with susbstance-abuse problems, used his last $20 to buy gas for McClure after her car ran out of fuel, leaving her stranded on the side of I-95 in a dangerous neighborhood of Philadelphia. The couple started the page, which was titled "Paying it Forward" to help repay Bobbitt for his generous act of altruism, and it quickly went viral: 14,347 people donated $402,706 over the course of 10 months. However, they quickly reneged on their promise to turn the money over, and instead parceled it out to Bobbitt in installments, eventually giving him a total of $75,000. To justify their actions, D'Amico told the press that giving the whole sum to an addict would be like giving him a loaded gun. However, their shady actions have raised speculation that they may have spent the money.
Following the complaint, the couple hired a lawyer and repeatedly refused to produce an accounting of the funds. D'Amico later admitted that he "borrowed" $500 from Bobbitt's pot and spent it on online poker - but insisted that he had paid the money back with his winnings. The couple has repeatedly denied any wrong doing, but they have also refused to abide by a court order to hand over the money.
On Thursday, the couple agreed to let a forensic accountant examine their books. They've also been ordered to appear in person at a deposition on Monday by Judge Paula Dow, who has said she's "no longer comfortable" hearing only from the couple's attorney.
Meanwhile, Bobbitt has been enrolled in a 28-day detox program and given $20,000 to cover his living expenses until he recovers the balance of the money.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...d-homeless-vet

"It Was All A Lie": Homeless Vet, NJ Couple Charged In $400,000 GoFundMe Grift

Thu, 11/15/2018 - 16:25

150 SHARES

A feel-good story about a New Jersey couple who raised over $400,000 to help a homeless good Samaritan - before they pilfered his GoFundMe account - was all a scam, a prosecutor said Thursday.


39-year-old Mark D'Amico (left), 28-year-old Kate McClure (center) and 35-year-old Johnny Bobbitt (right) are facing theft and conspiracy charges.Kate McClure, 28, Mark D'Amico, 39, and drug-addicted homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt, 35, were charged with theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception, after the three concocted a story that Bobbitt had given McClure his last $20 after her car ran out of fuel, leaving her stranded on the side of I-95 in a dangerous Philadelphia neighborhood.

In numerous media appearances, McClure claimed she was driving to meet a friend in September 2017 when she ran out of gas around midnight on the I-95 exit ramp near Philadelphia and Bobbitt, who was sleeping under a nearby overpass, came to her rescue. She claimed Bobbitt spent his last $20 to buy her gas.
"I pulled over to the side of the road as far as I could and I was going to get out and walk to the nearest gas station because it was not that far away, and that's when I met Johnny," McClure said last November in a "Good Morning America" interview. "He walked up and he said, 'Get back in the car. Lock the doors. I'll be back.' I was just like, 'OK.'" -ABC

They said they wanted to "pay it forward," and established a GoFundMe campaign with an initial goal of raising $10,000. After the story went viral, the three raised $403,000.
The net proceeds were $360,000 after fees, which went into an acount controlled by McClure. Bobbitt received approximately $75,000 of it according to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina.



"The entire campaign was predicated on a lie," said Coffina during a Thursday news conference. "Less than an hour after the GoFundMe campaign went live McClure, in a text exchange with a friend, stated that the story about Bobbitt assisting her was fake," he said.

In one of the texts read by Coffina, McClure allegedly wrote to a friend, "Ok, so wait, the gas part is completely made up but the guy isn't. I had to make something up to make people feel bad. So, shush about the made up stuff." -ABC

After the story went sideways - and reports emerged that the couple had pilfered most of the money meant for Bobbitt, police raided McClure and D'Amico's home looking for evidence in the case, and seizing a BMW they bought with charitable donations.
Bobbitt, meanwhile, lawyered up and has alleged that the couple committed fraud and conspiracy by taking large amounts of the donations to "enjoy a lifestyle they could not afford" and using the account as "their personal piggy bank." Bobbitt's attorney, Chris Fallon, asked a judge to appoint a supervisor to manage the money in the fundraising account.

He said the money is all gone, most of it squandered by McClure and D'Amico on gambling, numerous luxury handbags, a New Year's trip to Las Vegas and a BMW. The couple also used the donated funds to pay back $9,000 they owed to relatives. -ABC

Confina said that if Bobbitt hadn't sued, the three might have gotten away with the scam.
D'Amico and McClure turned themselves in on Wednesday, according to WPVI, while Bobbitt was arrested separately Wednesday night by the Philadelphia Police Department on charges of being a fugitive from justice - and is expected to be extradited to Burlington County to face charges.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...gofundme-grift