N.J. Woman pleads guilty to homeless GoFundMe Hoax and faces four years in prison: NPR

A New Jersey woman pleaded guilty on Monday to cheating for perpetrating what began as a redemption story that turned out to be a trick.

Katelyn McClure appeared in the New Jersey Superior Court, confessing that she had fooled thousands of people on $ 400,000 via a fictitious GoFundMe page intended to help a homeless veteran who would have bought her from her family. ; gasoline.

McClure, 29, will serve a four-year sentence in a state prison in New Jersey, according to the Burlington County Attorney's Office. The penalty is set for June 3rd.

In March, McClure pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in jail and fined $ 250,000. The federal sentence is scheduled for June 19.

The homeless man, 36-year-old Johnny Bobbitt, also pleaded guilty in a federal court to a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, punishable by a lawsuit. maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $ 250,000. He has not yet been sentenced.

Bobbitt was admitted last week into an addiction treatment program, which could help him avoid jail time.

"However," the Burlington County Attorney's Office said in a statement, "if Bobbitt does not abide by the highly structured treatment and recovery services regime, which includes frequent tests of drug use, he could be convicted to five years in prison. "

A third person, Mark D & # 39; Amico, McClure's boyfriend, is also charged with theft by deception. His case is expected to be presented next month to a Burlington County grand jury in view of a possible indictment.

McClure's attorney stated that D'Amico was the driving force behind the scheme and prosecutors said McClure and Bobbitt had agreed to testify against him.

In November 2017, McClure and Amico created a GoFundMe page called "Paying it Forward". McClure was driving home from Interstate 95 when she ran out of gas when Bobbitt, a homeless veteran, came to her rescue, spending her last 20 dollars to buy it. With a photo of the roadside duo, the page solicited donations to help Bobbitt off the street, with the goal of raising $ 10,000.

Money poured in after the media took over the story. Fourteen thousand people donated $ 400,000 in less than three weeks, prosecutors say, without realizing McClure had never run out of gas and Bobbitt had never spent $ 20 on help.

But Amico and McClure quickly spent the money for themselves, prosecutors said, spending more than $ 400,000 on the line, a helicopter ride on the Grand Canyon, a BMW, clothes and handbags Louis Vuitton.

But the cover soon began to break.

In December 2017, the then-couple had deposited $ 25,000 into a bank account that they had opened for Bobbitt, authorities said. When Bobbitt realized that most of the money had been squandered, he sued them.

Authorities said they found text messages from McClure confessing the hoax, reported Vanessa Romo of NPR in November:

"After browsing over 67,000 text messages on the couple's phones, officials discovered that a text exchange between McClure and a friend wrote less than an hour after the GoFundMe page went live. confirm that it was a hoax.

"Ok, so wait.The gasoline part is completely prepared, but the guy is not," he would have texted McClure. "I had to invent something so that people do not feel good, so hush for invented things. "

Burlington County Attorney Scott Coffina said McClure and Bobbitt had known each other for at least a month before the fundraising page was put in place. Coffina noted that Bobbitt had previously published the story of a woman stuck with an empty gas tank to whom he had given the last of his money in 2012. "I do not think it's a coincidence" , did he declare.

Federal prosecutors allege that it was McClure and Amico who invented the story and informed Bobbitt only after the donations began pouring in.

In December, GoFundMe announced the reimbursement of donors who contributed to the campaign.