Homeless Samaritan suing couple who raised funds to help him

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press

Homeless Samaritan suing couple who raised funds to help him

11 minutes ago

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A homeless man whose selfless act of using his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of a stranded motorist in Philadelphia got him worldwide attention is suing the couple who led a $400,000 fundraising campaign to help him.

Johnny Bobbitt says he’s concerned that Mark D’Amico and Katie McClure have mismanaged a large part of the donations raised for him on GoFundMe . (1) The New Jersey couple denies the claims, saying they’re wary of giving Bobbitt large sums because they feared he would buy drugs.

Bobbitt’s lawsuit contends the couple committed fraud by taking money from the fundraising campaign for themselves. He’s seeking undisclosed damages, and his lawyers want a judge to appoint someone to oversee the account.
....

(1) https://www.apnews.com/be22187c4f73437b91f92f7595f895d6

Read more: https://apnews.com/8a861ee4a32d4bae90e5bafdc4c210d4

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There are details, but I have the four-paragraph limit.

- - - - - -

The Associated Press Retweeted:

https://twitter.com/AP

A homeless man who used his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of a stranded motorist is now suing the couple who led a $400,000 fundraising campaign for him.

Link to tweet

[cstanleytech]

1. Shouldn't law enforcement also be investigating for fraud and or embezzlement?

[TeamPooka]

4. feels like yes

[Major Nikon]

5. I tend to believe the couple

Handing over a large sum of money to an addict is stupid. They did the right thing by having an independent party manage the funds.

[lunamagica]

7. But the money wasn't theirs to spend on luxury cars and vacations

[jberryhill]

10. Did you bother to hear their side of the story?

[lunamagica]

11. It doesn't matter what they say. This needs to be investigated

[jberryhill]

12. It will be. The lawyers are going to get it all.

[lunamagica]

15. Well, that is too bad. I just don't see how this can have a good ending

I agree that the beneficiary is incapable of handling the money himself. But the money doesn't belong to the couple.

It was such a sweet, heartwarming story. Reality sucks

[ProfessorPlum]

16. "I agree that the beneficiary is incapable of handling the money himself"

Jesus, that's a huge leap. What if he is homeless because of being bankrupt by medical costs? Or addicted to drugs becasue some doctor gave him oxycontin one time, and he just needs to get in to rehab.

[jberryhill]

19. "he just needs to get in to rehab"

As was done, incidentally. More than once.

Trying to help someone with his sorts of issues, without the appropriate background, is often a doomed venture. Thinking "oh, he'll go through rehab, be fine, and then we'll give him the money" got way more complicated than these people anticipated.

We've seen that sort of thing happen right here on DU with "oh, we'll just look after her dog for a while as she gets her living situation sorted out" and the subsequent descent into various accusations into which that evolved, as it became apparent there were much deeper issues than a difficult landlord.

The lawyers whom he contacted have one job - get him as much money as is there, and take a cut. What actually may happen to him, since he is a free person with all the legal presumptions that entails, is not their concern or anyone else's under the law. Those lawyers had first crack at the PR machine, and did good with it. Unlike this couple, those lawyers will certainly not be taking him into their homes and trying to get him the treatment he needs.

[ProfessorPlum]

20. I can see how it is a sticky problem, and complicated

And how a pile of cash isn't going to solve it. Thanks for your reply

[LisaL]

46. As far as I can tell, nobody made these people to try and help the homeless guy.

The woman took it upon herself to start GoFundMe, and people donated expecting money to be spend to help the homeless guy.
Promises were made on GoFundMe how these money were going to be spend, including buying the homeless guy a house.
Last I checked he is living on the street again, even though there were enough money collected to purchase a house for him.

[lunamagica]

21. He's been to rehab. More than once

[Drahthaardogs]

44. He is an addict and has failed rehab already

He needs someone to manage him and the money. However, that is not this couples job either.

[Lucky Luciano]

13. Pretty convincing. nt

[LisaL]

34. Did you bother to read what was promised on GoFundMe campaign?

To buy him a home, to buy him his dream truck, to set up 2 trusts for him, which would allow him to draw a salary.

https://www.gofundme.com/hvv4r-paying-it-forward

[cstanleytech]

9. That is not the issue the issue is he is claiming they spent it on things for themselves which if

true should be investigated shouldnt it?

[Major Nikon]

23. The claims of an addict just aren't that credible

Even if one assigns credibility to an addict, you don’t know if those claims are true until after they are investigated. Even if they are true it doesn’t mean a crime has been committed. So there’s lots of reasons why the cops shouldn’t investigate.

[shanny]

26. disagree 100%

I think....but I'm not sure. To me, these two statements

1) you don't know if those claims are true until after they are investigated
2) so there's lots of reasons why the cops shouldn't investigate

are

[jberryhill]

30. A couple of things that are definitely not going to happen

First off, "cops" are not going to investigate diddly here.

If anything, a referral can be made to an appropriate prosecutor's office, but you aren't going to have a police department going through financial statements to figure out if a crime has been committed here.

[LisaL]

35. How do you know cops aren't going to investigate?

There have been cases where people were collecting money for various causes (such as treatment for cancer they didn't have) and cops investigated those.

[jberryhill]

39. Link?

Police departments do not generally investigate financial crimes. AG offices and other state agencies with relevant accounting expertise do.

[LisaL]

40. Google is your friend.

Here is one case.

"An upstate New York couple was arrested after a four-month police investigation revealed they allegedly duped kindhearted people out of thousands of dollars by creating a GoFundMe page asking for donations to help pay medical bills for a child they falsely claimed had cancer, officials said."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/couple-lied-cancer-child-gofundme-scam-police/story?id=55011676

[cstanleytech]

27. It should be easy for them to prove it though all they have to do is

show the statements for where the money went.

[jberryhill]

29. Show them to whom?

The relationship became somewhat complicated, since this couple took over management of this guy's life (and his brother who also moved in with them) for question some time.

But they are certainly not obligated to provide their bank statements to the Associated Press.

[cstanleytech]

31. We are not talking about their personal banking statements rather

the statements for the account where the money was kept.

[jberryhill]

38. You seem to think those are two different things

They didn’t set up an entity with its own tax ID. Just out of curiosity, how would you, personally, go about collecting money for someone with no ID and no ability to open his own bank account?

Amazingly, they discuss this in the video posted in this very thread.

[LisaL]

41. They reportedly bought him some sort of used SUV that eventually broke down.

How exactly was he driving it if he has no ID of any sort?

[cstanleytech]

42. Oh? I thought GoFund kept the money from donations until it was withdrawn, my mistake since

I have never used it.
In that case then they are probably going to have to open those accounts one way or another down the road to law enforcement if an investigation is conducted.

[LisaL]

47. Once donation campaign is over, GoFundMe keeps a fee but the rest of the money goes to

whoever is in charge of the campaign.

[tammywammy]

54. They apparently put all the money into their own account.

So the funds are commingled with their own money. Since he didn't have the proper documentation to open an account I don't know why they didn't open a separate one themselves.

[cstanleytech]

57. Agreed they should have gone to another bank and setup another

account for the funds to be deposited in before transferring it to a trust.

[LisaL]

62. Exactly. Even if they couldn't open an account in his name because he didn't have an ID,

what exactly would have prevented them from opening an account to keep his money separately from their own money?

[whathehell]

53. Sorry, but he can't be summarily dismissed on that basis .

The situation needs an independent investigation. Period, end of story.

[Major Nikon]

59. I listed several basis

And there already is an independent investigation going on, so it's far from the end of the story.

[whathehell]

60. I favor an independent investigation..

My "end of story" comment referred only to the question of "what should be done" presented on this thread.

[LisaL]

33. Do you?

Gofundme website describes how the money were going to be handled.

Buying him a home which he was going to own. Buying him his dream truck. Setting up not one but two trusts in his name. They bought some sort of camper for him, not a home, which they set up on their own property. They reportedly haven't set up these trusts.

"There will also be 2 trusts set up in his name, one essentially giving him the ability to collect a small "salary" each year and another retirement trust which will be wisely invested by a financial planner which he will have access to in a time frame he feels comfortable with so when the time comes he can live his retirement dream of owning a piece of land and a cabin in the country."
https://www.gofundme.com/hvv4r-paying-it-forward

[Anon-C]

2. ...

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

3. Bizarre

The whole thing sounds sketchy

[jberryhill]

6. I'll tell you how this is all going to work out....

"He’s seeking undisclosed damages, and his lawyers want a judge to appoint someone to oversee the account."

A few years from now, if anyone checks up on "how did this all end up?" it's not going to be very pretty.

First off, Bobbit's lawyers are getting a clean 30-45% of whatever funds are left and whatever can be had from bankrupting D'Amico and McLure. I'd bet cash money the lawyers' take is going to be more than D'Amico and Mclure actually took.

Bobbit's lawyers are going to propose a trustee - also a lawyer - for the court to appoint to "administer" whatever is left over. That lawyer is going to have a fee structure consisting of a flat fee, an hourly component, and a percentage of the fund. Skillfully done, the trustee ought to be able to clean out the rest of it in under five years.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown.

[LisaL]

48. There should have been a trustee from the start.

As posted on GoFundMe, there were going to be two trusts set up for the homeless guy. So where are these trusts?
Instead of buying him a home, a camper was bought for him to be parked on the property of the woman who set up the campaign.
Then they asked him to leave the property in June so he is homeless again. Not sure exactly what happened to the camper, but camper parked on somebody's property isn't a home that he was supposed to have gotten.
https://www.expressnews.com/news/us/article/Homeless-Samaritan-suing-couple-who-raised-funds-13190604.php

[whathehell]

56. Bingo!

I believe you've nailed it.

[whathehell]

58. Lol..Cynical much?

You are assuming far too much.

[Oneironaut]

14. This whole thing is screwed up.

The homeless man is still an addict. If he gets the money, he’ll blow though it in a week, possibly killing himself in the process.

Raising money in the first place was not the best idea. He needs rehab more than cash.

[ProfessorPlum]

17. and yet, he needs cash to go to rehab

[jberryhill]

18. You might want to review the video linked above

He was enrolled in more than one rehab program. What then?

[ProfessorPlum]

22. you're right, I'm just spouting off

without researching the topic.

My bad

[jberryhill]

24. His lawyers had first crack at it

This story has been floating around in various forms for a couple of days, and the couple was refusing comment while they sought counsel. I wish more people would do that.

IMHO, the couple was well-meaning, but naive, and quickly got in over their heads.

If they did get greedy, time is on their side to a certain extent, since it is easy for them to say "here's what's left, you can have it all right now and we're done; otherwise, we can litigate for a while".

[Oneironaut]

28. Not sure what the answer with that is.

You can’t give it to him - he’ll spend it on drugs, possibly overdosing. If you enroll him in rehab, he probably wouldn’t go. Still, that might be the best (though not good) option anyways...

They tried to do something good and admirable, but it’s kind of an unwinnable situation if the person won’t put in effort to change.

[LisaL]

37. Promises how money were going to be spend were made on GoFundMe website.

You can read these promises here. The homeless guy was going to get a home in his name, a dream truck, and two trusts set for him.

https://www.gofundme.com/hvv4r-paying-it-forward

[cstanleytech]

43. Of course he will probably blow it all which is why it should be placed in a trust like

the couple originally claimed they were going to do with it.

[LisaL]

45. And if they actually bought him a house as was promised on GoFundMe,

that alone could have taken care of large portion of the money.

[cstanleytech]

49. Well if possible the house should be owned by the trust to protect it

from him making a mistake and losing it.

[ProfessorPlum]

50. that would seem easy to do

why don't they just set up a trust for him? that's something estate lawyers do every day of the week.

[cstanleytech]

51. Hard to setup a trust if they embezzled the money as he is claiming.

[LisaL]

52. Yet they claim they didn't embezzle and that there is still money remaining.

[cstanleytech]

55. Well then after detracting the price of the trailer and used SUV there should

be plenty to setup that trust they talked about setting up.

[LisaL]

61. Judge ordered them to give up the reminder of the money.

So I guess we will find out soon what they have left.
"A New Jersey judge ordered the couple that raised more than $400,000 on a GoFundMe campaign for a homeless veteran to return the remainder of the funds to him."
https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-orders-couple-hand-remainder-400k-raised-homeless/story?id=57500762

[usaf-vet]

25. The GoFundMe organization should have a mechanism in place to oversee the money as well.

I donated to this drive. Trying to help a homeless man get his life back. If memory serves me right he was a paramedic. The last time I looked they had raised over 200,000 if again memory serves me right.

I believe others who donated have some of the same reservation I had. I want to help him BUT I don't want to make it easier for him to fall back into an addition lifestyle.

Why couldn't GoFundme agency have to say sign off (second sign) on large disbursements that aren't going to the intended recipient.

All this does is make me very reluctant to join into helping another individual buy writing a check.

[LisaL]

36. Once the campaign is over, the money is transferred to the bank accounts, in this case of the

person who set up the campaign, and not the person for whom the campaign was organized. GoFundMe doesn't have the money anymore.