Photo: Burlington County Prosecutor Office
A New Jersey woman who pleaded guilty in relation to a GoFundMe scam in which she falsely claimed to be raising money to help a homeless veteran has been sentenced to three years in prison, the Associated Press reports.
Katelyn McClure, 32, a former transportation department employee, was absent from her sentencing in Burlington County on Friday (January 6) as she's already serving a one-year federal term in relation to the case.
McClure's state prison term will now run concurrently and she is prohibited from working as a New Jersey public employee ever again as part of her sentencing.
Prosecutors accused McClure and her then-boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, of making up a good Samaritan story in which they claimed that Johnny Bobbitt Jr., a homeless veteran, had given McClure his last $20 after she ran out of gas on an interstate exit ramp in Philadelphia in November 2017.
McClure, D'Amico and Bobbitt conducted newspaper and television interviews to gain attention for the fundraiser after launching a GoFundMe campaign entitled "Paying It Forward," according to prosecutors.
More than $400,000 was raised by 14,000 donors in about a month, which was considered to be the largest fraud scheme ever committed through a crowdfunding platform at the time.
Authorities began investigating the case after Bobbitt sued McClure and D'Amico over accusations that they hadn't paid him any of the money donated.
Investigators determined that all of the money raised was spent prior to March 2018, which included large chunks put toward the payment of a BMW, as well as trips to casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey.
D'Amico, 43, pleaded guilty in relation to the case in December 2019 and was sentenced to five years in state prison, a term that was also ruled to run concurrently with a prior federal term.
Both D'Amico and McClure were ordered to fully reimburse GoFundMe the money raised during the campaign.
Bobbitt was sentenced to a probationary federal and state terms for his role in the scheme.