This article was updated to adhere with AtNight Media’s Code of Ethics
A New Jersey woman has been sentenced to one year in prison for her involvement in a fraudulent GoFundMe campaign, where she concocted a false story with a homeless man to deceive donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Your Content has learned.
Katelyn McLure, aged 32, received the one-year prison sentence along with three years of supervised release. Additionally, she is required to pay restitution for the funds that she and her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, unlawfully obtained through the phony fundraiser.
The deceptive plan began in 2018, when McLure and D’Amico falsely claimed that a homeless man named Johnny Bobbitt had selflessly given McLure his last $20 to help her when she ran out of gas. However, it was later revealed that the trio had actually met a month prior at a casino, and the story was fabricated.
Motivating approximately 14,000 individuals to donate around $400,000, McLure and D’Amico urged donors to “pay it forward” on the GoFundMe page dedicated to Bobbitt. However, their scheme unraveled when Bobbitt filed a lawsuit, alleging that he had only received a fraction of the funds and that McLure and D’Amico had spent the rest on luxury items.
D’Amico, who accepted a plea deal, is now facing a sentence of five years in prison, while Bobbitt has been ordered to enter a drug rehabilitation program. In addition to their federal charges, all three individuals are also expected to face state charges in the coming month, potentially leading to further incarceration, as reported by NewsFeed.
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