Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

ObtotheR t1_j3mspv8 wrote

More time in prison than the bankers that crashed our economy multiple times in the past two decades.

586

dblan9 t1_j3mv0jd wrote

Has anyone ever gotten away with one of these donation scams?

29

AussieJeffProbst t1_j3mvx1s wrote

Replying to dblan9 (#1,317,446)

The only reason they didnt is because they only gave the homeless guy $75k. He found out they made over $400k and turned their asses in.

Its entirely possible if they had given him a bigger chunk they would have gotten away with it.

In case you're wondering the homeless guy was in on it too...

Edit: Here you go: https://www.inquirer.com/news/johnny-bobbitt-gofundme-scam-probation-20221003.html

118

ObtotheR t1_j3mw1ve wrote

Replying to NLuvWithAnIndian (#1,317,486)

That’s what still fucking infuriates me. None of them got any punishment for the lives the destroyed. My dad is working in his 70s because his retirement 401k practically disappeared. None of them got anything but a fucking bailout to save their asses.

135

AudibleNod OP t1_j3mxa1e wrote

Replying to dblan9 (#1,317,446)

The ones that get away probably never make the news. It's probably less viral and less news-worthy. While at the same time equally heart-warming and heartstring tugging.

24

Salt_Laugh t1_j3n83by wrote

Makes me wonder though, why the finders of the failed Coup haven’t seen any jail time

−2

joshhupp t1_j3n9nnh wrote

Replying to ObtotheR (#1,317,344)

3 years more time than the failed businessman who opened a sham real estate university, allowed PPP loans to go to business that didn't need the money, hoarded classified documents, and sold NFTs of his own image.

54

oeuvre-and-out t1_j3nb711 wrote

Serious question: How is this different from the BLM Foundation (Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation) that collected millions after the George Floyd murder and then bought multiple million dollar homes with some of the money? I'm sure no donor expected their cash to be used for that purpose.

3

oeuvre-and-out t1_j3nfsol wrote

Replying to ghostdokes (#1,318,416)

Yes. It's a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit corporation

> A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax. 501(c)(3) tax-exemptions apply to entities that are organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes...

But I don't think that's relevant to my question. This couple was convicted of wire fraud. IANAL but logically any corporate entity (for profit or non-profit) could be guilty of wire fraud.

17

thinspell t1_j3nh5dx wrote

Good, hopefully Brittany Dawn is next. The state of Texas is suing her for scamming many with her “fitness plans.” She “helped” a homeless man with his alcoholism by raising around 25k on gofundme but… Who knows where it went? She transitioned to running a trendy Christian ministry that charges hundreds and also is “fostering” babies while monetizing them for her content. Would love to see her held accountable.

247

joshchandra t1_j3nifn9 wrote

Replying to 51CK54DW0RLD (#1,317,949)

I've never donated to anything on GoFundMe, ever. Until you actually see the person and talk to them and hear their story, there is almost no way to verify things if you're too far removed from the situation. Give in other ways like time and energy, not money. And even then, give to them directly, not through GFM which keeps taking a cut and leeching off of people's compassion.

32

OnceAndFutureHippo t1_j3nmj5w wrote

Maybe a dumb question: why is this a crime? It's a really horrible thing to do, but don't people lie to other people to get money all the time?

I'm thinking specifically about politicians and what they say to fundraise.

−2

jctwok t1_j3nmx6v wrote

If the couple hadn't gotten greedy and had given the homeless guy his full share, they probably would have gotten away with it.

34

Thanos_Stomps t1_j3nq64m wrote

Replying to oeuvre-and-out (#1,318,263)

First, this woman was dumb enough to attach her name to it. You incorporate and you have more protections (nonprofit entities are typically incorporated).

Second, idk all the ins and outs of this story in its entirety but there are at least two scenarios off the top of my head that would allow for the BLM org get away with it. The first is that the BLM ceo gets paid a fat salary. The irs is only going to investigate and sanction a nonprofit that is paying a ceo exorbitantly more than other CEOs of a similar sized nonprofit.

The other scenario is that the org bought the mansion and used it as a headquarters. This wouldn’t even raise any red flags since places need to have brick and mortar operations and there isn’t much difference between an expensive downtown Manhattan office and a mansion in price, but the location can be justified as it’s a grassroots movement and needs the space and to be need the suburbs.

5

Narrator-to-gods t1_j3nvf5m wrote

Great work. Now with this on her resume she fits as a future Republican. The dogs of democracy.

1

Puncho666 t1_j3nzw8c wrote

Yet the former president scams a whole country and nothing?

16

clifmo t1_j3o1fg0 wrote

Replying to ObtotheR (#1,317,344)

Fun fact! I work in a building that was massive loan services processing center specializing in mortgage backed securities. The feds definitely raided and confiscated the whole building and all company assets. The owner was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 30 years back in 2011. There was an entire episode of CNBC American Greed about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor,Bean%26_Whitaker

−5

clifmo t1_j3o1hqf wrote

Replying to ObtotheR (#1,317,509)

Fun fact! I work in a building that was massive loan services processing center specializing in mortgage backed securities. The feds definitely raided and confiscated the whole building and all company assets. The owner was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 30 years back in 2011. There was an entire episode of CNBC American Greed about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor,Bean%26_Whitaker

1

clifmo t1_j3o1kez wrote

Replying to asdaaaaaaaa (#1,317,746)

Fun fact! I work in a building that was massive loan services processing center specializing in mortgage backed securities. The feds definitely raided and confiscated the whole building and all company assets. The owner was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 30 years back in 2011. There was an entire episode of CNBC American Greed about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor,Bean%26_Whitaker

21

40mm_of_freedom t1_j3o310g wrote

They honestly would have gotten away with it if that had given the dude like 75%.

Dude probably would have been happy and they got a bunch of cash. Their next worry would be explaining it on taxes.

10

Medical_Gate_5721 t1_j3o42cf wrote

3 years seems extremely light to me but I suppose it's reasonable.

1

hizeto t1_j3o50kn wrote

Replying to dblan9 (#1,317,446)

Think a youtuber did a "socia experiment' where he gave a homeless guy $100 to see what he'd do with it. The homeless guy bought food for his freinds and people were touched by the story they donated hundreds thousands to the homeless man. Later it was revealed that the social experiment was staged. The homeless man also died of alcoholism and hte youtuber kept the money

6

macgyvertape t1_j3o5958 wrote

Replying to SteroidAccount (#1,319,100)

Now I'm wondering about the romance writer Susan Meachen who faked her death on social media and had people donate to her gofundme for funeral expenses and her family. That's pretty egregious and while I doubt anyone would get any money back I wonder if there are grounds to sue for fraud.

5

goodDayM t1_j3o8ek8 wrote

Replying to ObtotheR (#1,317,509)

> his retirement 401k practically disappeared.

Out of curiosity, what did he choose to invest in? Did he choose to go all-in on one or a few stocks? Or did he choose to sell all his investments near the bottom in spring 2009?

3

mangledmonkey t1_j3o8qfw wrote

Replying to jctwok (#1,318,877)

Except the homeless man was also charged and took part in the fraudulent act but must have decided that 75k wasn't enough when he heard how much the go fund me really made. They're all greedy and stupid together.

16

squidking78 t1_j3ojqb9 wrote

Do this as a regular person, get prison time. Do this on wallstreet, get congratulated by your peers and maybe pay a “cost of doing business” fine.

7

pipinngreppin t1_j3om7fu wrote

Replying to joshchandra (#1,318,626)

I don’t know. I’ve given to people who have had their house burn down, lost a husband, wife, or kid to an accident, or sustained life changing injuries. It sucks that people need charity, but a lot of them really can’t be faked.

14

Maliagirl1314 t1_j3omwl7 wrote

I remember this and remember when the homeless man sued them. They're despicable people for lying to so many just so they can buy expensive cars and handbags and go to Vegas. Awful humans

2

comic360guy t1_j3oyo2u wrote

So she's basically earning $133 grand a year for 3 years off in taxpayer funded food and shelter program. Not a bad trade-off.

4

UnionThug1733 t1_j3pok0a wrote

No don’t get me wrong is this a dick move bad people yeah. But aside from scale how is this any different then a panhandler lying about his situation or a preacher promise of miracles for filling the coffers. Like I just don’t see the crime justifying the time in this instant. Idk had they only raise a few hundred would they have been charged in the same fashion

−2

MischeifCat t1_j3poo3z wrote

Replying to macgyvertape (#1,319,830)

This story made me think of her, too. It might take a long time but I am keeping my eye on her story to find out if she gets hit with legal consequences. It might all end up depending on how much money she earned from the fraud.

2

Hojalu t1_j3pquiu wrote

Replying to joshchandra (#1,318,626)

I run a tiny nonprofit, and we've benefited from a few GoFundMe fundraisers. The fees (for nonprofits at least) seem to be worth it; GFM has provided us with a reliable service. Our little fundraisers haven't reached people too far removed from us, but that's OK. It's enough that we can reach family members and friends and friends-of-friends; for that it's worked well.

4

Meodrome t1_j3q0zui wrote

Wish this law would apply to politicians that blatantly lie about their resumes. After all, they raised a lot of money with those lies.

2

YlangScent t1_j3q20f1 wrote

Replying to 40mm_of_freedom (#1,319,707)

The dude was in on the scam, so it's hard to say if he would have ever been happy and not just chased for more money.

Also it's not unlikely the gofundme by itself is enough to settle the tax question. Very few situations actually get a full investigated audit.

3

joshchandra t1_j3qgqc3 wrote

Replying to pipinngreppin (#1,320,761)

That's fine. The majority of them probably isn't. I'd still rather go find the contacts directly and land at least some sort of personal connection, even if briefly, than just pseudo-anonymously go through GFM.

1

oeuvre-and-out t1_j3qvhfj wrote

Replying to Thanos_Stomps (#1,319,062)

Thanks for a good reply. Yes, the BLM case is more nuanced and their corp status allows some discretion in how the funds were/are spent. I'm not obsessed on it but general press reporting rasies questions on corp malfeasance. I think a good comparison is the current SBF (the crypto guy) investigation, just that he was dealing in billions and BLM got millions.

1

Tallgirl4u t1_j3r02t7 wrote

Replying to thinspell (#1,318,563)

Came here to say the same thing. Brittany is such an evil vile person. When I saw the headline I thought it was about her, sickening we have more than one story of people doing this.

6

azurleaf t1_j3r1c2d wrote

Replying to clifmo (#1,319,632)

Many people don't realize that some mortgage processors, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were completely bought out and taken over by the US Government for the 2008 fiasco.

They were publicly traded companies, and still are some of the largest in the world. Part of the bailout deal was a hostile takeover, and that they send all profits to the US Treasury indefinitely. The entire company was basically gutted and replaced.

Not every high ranking rich dude got off scott free, but a lot of them did.

3

xeq937 t1_j3rtwge wrote

Gov't sponsored scams weren't available for comment

1

RMZ13 t1_j3rv4ju wrote

Too bad she didn’t also try to overthrow the government. She could have gotten a blanket pardon.

1

khamelean t1_j3rwj5h wrote

3 years in prison in exchange for $400,000??? I’d take that deal!!

1

YlangScent t1_j419jgv wrote

Replying to 40mm_of_freedom (#1,323,959)

How do you know? This was obviously a highly unstable and impulsive man since him pressing charges against them is what lead to all of them getting caught to begin with.

He got a massive amount of money for doing absolutely nothing. It's hard to believe he wouldn't have continued asking for more even if they gave him 90%.

0