On Thursday (July 21), a US federal court sentenced a 32-year-old woman named Katelyn McClure to 1 year in prison for defrauding donors to the tune of $400,000.
As per reports, McClure shared a story about a homeless army veteran named Johnny Bobbit on social media in November 2017. She claimed to have run out of gas in the middle of the night when Bobbit came to her rescue and allegedly gave his last $20 note.
The heart-warming story went viral, with many volunteering to help the homeless man for his generosity. McClure and her then-boyfriend Mark D’Amico set up a GoFundMe page and raised $4,00,000 in donations from 14,000 benefactors.
The fraud was unearthed in 2018 when Johnny Bobbit accused the duo of using the donation money as a “personal piggy bank to fund a lifestyle that they could not otherwise afford.”
He had also filed a lawsuit and sought compensatory damages and interest. Bobbit claimed to have received a total of $75,000 from Katelyn McClure and Mark D’Amico.
Later, it came to light that the entire story of the homeless army veteran helping out a stranded McClure was a hoax. The mastermind of the fake story turned out to D’Amico. The trio had actually met in October 2017 outside a casino in Philadelphia.
Law caught up with the trio
Bobbit’s lawsuit caught the attention of the law enforcement authorities. It was soon unearthed that Katelyn McClure and her boyfriend Mark D’Amico had exhausted all of the funds by March 2018.
The duo splurged the public donations on a BMW, one recreational vehicle, and multiple trips to casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey. Katelyn McClure has now been sentenced to 1 year in prison. She had earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree theft by deception in 2019.
The federal court on July 21 asked her to serve 3 years of supervised release and pay restitution. Her jail term may increase as she is scheduled to be sentenced for separate State charges in August this year.
D’Amico has been sentenced to 27 months in prison in April 2022. He has pleaded guilty to all federal charges and has also been asked to pay restitution. In 2019, Johnny Bobbit was sentenced to 5 years’ probation on States charges. He will be sentenced on federal charges in August 2022.
