A New Jersey woman who made up one of three individuals in a massive GoFundMe scam that gained national attention has been sentenced to a year in federal prison.
In 2017, Katelyn McClure and her then-partner Mark D’Amico launched a GoFundMe campaign for a homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt, who they said handed them his last $20 when they ran out of gas. The fundraiser grabbed the attention of thousands across the nation, leading to over $400,000 in donations for the homeless man.
Turns out, the whole thing was an elaborate scam. Bobbitt publicly complained that the couple who launched the fundraiser wasn’t giving him any of the donated money. This led to an investigation which found that McClure and D’Amico were spending much of the donated money on fancy clothing, cars, and vacations.
Police dug further and found that the story about Bobbitt giving away his last $20 so the couple could buy gas never happened.
All three – McClure, D’Amico, and Bobbitt – were charged by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office on a slew of theft and financial crimes charges.
On Thursday, McClure was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day, and ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution. She will then be on supervised release for 3 years.
D’Amico was sentenced to 27 months in prison earlier this year and also ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution. Bobbitt was sentenced in 2019 to a court-supervised drug abuse program and 5 years probation.
McClure still awaits sentencing for theft by deception, which she has pled guilty to, and D’Amico awaits sentencing for misapplication of entrusted property, which he also pleaded guilty to.
Wow, Rabbi Eisemann was “convicted” on very dubious charges (now being sent back by a judge for retrial) of stealing the same amount of money of $200,000 (and paying it all back) but they wanted to put him away for 14 years!!!!