The GoFundMe campaign raised more than $600,000 from about 14,000 donors in about a month and at the time was the largest fraud perpetrated through the crowdfunding platform. Photo / AP
A New Jersey woman who pleaded guilty to helping her boyfriend spread a feel-good story about a homeless veteran that garnered more than US$400,000 ($629,000) in online donations has been sentenced to three years in prison on state theft charges.
Burlington County prosecutors say Katelyn McClure, 32, wasn’t present in
the Mount Holly courtroom on Friday because she is serving a one-year federal term in the case. Her state prison term will run concurrently and the former transportation department worker will be barred from ever working again as a New Jersey public employee.
Prosecutors said McClure and her then-boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, came up with the good Samaritan story in November 2017, claiming that homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr. had given his last $20 to McClure when her car ran out of gas on an interstate exit ramp in Philadelphia.
The three conducted newspaper and television interviews and solicited donations, ostensibly to help Bobbitt, through a GoFundMe campaign they named “Paying It Forward”, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the campaign raised more than US$400,000 from about 14,000 donors in about a month and at the time was the largest fraud perpetrated through the crowdfunding platform.
