SCouple ordered to turn over funds raised for homeless man

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 4:06 pm CDT, Friday, August 31, 2018

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A couple who raised more than $400,000 for a homeless man after he used his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of a stranded motorist in Philadelphia must now turn over what's left of the cash.

A New Jersey judge issued the order Thursday during a hearing on the lawsuit brought by Johnny Bobbitt , who worries Mark D'Amico and Katie McClure have mismanaged a large part of the donations raised for him on GoFundMe.

The couple deny those claims, saying they're wary of giving Bobbitt large sums because they fear he will buy drugs.

The judge ordered the couple to transfer the money into an escrow account by the end of business Friday and hire a forensic accountant to review the financial records within 10 days.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Couple-ordered-to-turn-over-funds-raised-for-13196065.php

[Sherman A1]

1. Good

I hope that the funds are fully accounted for and transferred to him as was the intent of those who donated to this effort. From what I have read a large degree of the money was siphoned off for the couple to enjoy a rather lavish lifestyle.

[cstanleytech]

2. Agreed and if there is no evidence of embezzlement I would hope he would apologize to the couple.

[moriah]

7. ... for the embezzlement accusation, yes. But there are other issues....

... that I'd be more concerned about. For example, I don't know the wording on the GoFundMe about the purpose of the funds. Mismanagement of funds for a person while claiming they're incapable of proper management is an issue itself, which could have been prevented relatively easily. When they realized so much money was coming in, they should have involved a third party accountant vs keeping the funds co-mingled at all with their own assets.

They've kept the title for the camper they bought for him, for example. So what if he wanted to move it and be independent vs living on their property? If he couldn't, instead of helping him towards independence, it appears this couple used the existence of the funds to ensure his dependence on them -- and even if they thought such dependence was for his own good, the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. And if they're shielding him from money management, he can't know if it was embezzled or not.

I have raised funds for others, but it never was for much, and the funds were given immediately to the beneficiaries. If any had gone viral and suddenly enough money to purchase a home for them was coming in, I'd have immediately been calling a lawyer for a recommendation on getting proper accounting and getting that shit OUT of my name -- and considering some were SSDI beneficiaries, it would have been a necessity to do it a certain way (potentially a trust might have to buy the house, for example, I don't know, that's why you pay people who do) for large amounts of money even if they were perfectly competent in managing it.

At best, they were hopelessly naive to think they should be handling that much money for him themselves. At worst, they committed fraud and financial abuse of an allegedly incompetent adult.

[LisaL]

17. They bought the camper for him, but reportedly the camper was in their name.

And parked on their property. So when he left I presume they kept the camper? So, if that is what happened, the full amount paid for the camper shouldn't even be counted as something spend on him. Reportedly they gave him $25,000 in cash which he promptly spend. They also purchased a used SUV or truck which I presume didn't cost a whole lot and broke down some time after purchase. They also say they took him to appointments (not sure how to even value something like that, but presumably not an enormous sum). Seems to add up to a whole lot less than $350,000 (the approximate amount left after GoFundMe collected the fee).
Can't wait to see if any money gets deposited into the account and how much is left of the $ collected.

[Joe Chi Minh]

25. Ugh. Isn't that vile. I bet he wouldn't have dreamed of pulling something like that

on the people he'd wanted to 'pay forward'.

I expect they made money out of the story in the first place, beauitful as it was..... until.....covetousness overwhlemed them.

[lark]

18. My son keeps telling me about how there's so many people who live off ripping off the poor.

it's happened to him a number of times. I thought he just had very poor discretion, but now not so sure. These people seem to have had bad intentions from the start - keeping the funds co-mingled is a very telling sign.

[LisaL]

33. There is no money left, according to homeless guy's lawyer.

They were ordered by judge to deposit the money, they didn't and apparently there is none left.
https://6abc.com/society/all-gofundme-money-is-gone-attorney-for-homeless-man-says/4144230/

[LisaL]

8. How about you wait until they actually turn over the money before asking for apologies?

"The Burlington, New Jersey, couple who raised thousands for a homeless man living in Philadelphia has apparently missed a court-ordered deadline to turn over the remaining donations."

https://whyy.org/articles/deadline-passes-for-n-j-couple-to-turn-over-cash-meant-for-homeless-philly-man/

[LisaL]

34. So far there is no evidence of any money remaining.

I have no clue what can be done to them for something like that.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/ohnny-bobbitt-jr-go-fund-me-kate-mcclure-mark-damico-money-gone-20180904.html

[cstanleytech]

35. Well if the state has any theft by deception laws or something then maybe

they can be charged if they spent any of the money on themselves.

[LisaL]

36. They were just recently claiming they had $150,000 left.

Seems even they agreed they didn't spend it all on the homeless guy.
Yet apparently there is none left.

[Demovictory9]

30. double good. The guy used his last $20 to bring her gas. This is how she repays him?

[Cal Carpenter]

3. Good.

If he isn't capable of managing the money then the courts would appoint a fiduciary. I know a couple of people with that arrangement due to certain disabilities.

But this couple doesn't get to raise money for him and then tell him how to use it. That's not fair to the donors, for one thing, and it's paternalistic bullshit in terms of the dude they raised the money for.

[Joe Chi Minh]

23. It is beyond disgusting. Sickening beyond belief. There is patronising and

patronising. It was Mr Bobbit who had set his mind on paying forward most of the money he was receiving to other needy, charitable causes. No good deed goes unpunished. Two good deeds and you're really asking for trouble.

[Joe Chi Minh]

24. He seems to be the one person who has behaved as a responsible,

charitable adult.

Incidentally, I have never understood people's fear of the homeless 'falling into bad ways'(cough)(cough), such as anaesthetising their minds with alcohol and/or drugs. Is there anybody who would be justified in seeking a slightly more premature death than the homeless, who are already 'on their way home' to their heavenly Father (avg. 43 yrs in UK). Where they will recevei the good thngs they didn't have n this life, while for we who had good things, the case will be somewhat the reverse. Christ spoke in absoutes, but there must be some truth in all his words, nevertheless.

The very people who shouldn't feel the need to anaesthetise their minds are the ones most given to it. Don't we Brits have a saying, 'as drunk as a lord.' The more worldly their line of work, finance, law, TV, journalsim, business, theatre, the more people need a balm for their broken souls and minds, however similar it might seem to catatonia.

Perhaps the people who like to thank veterans for their service should say it to the homeless, since psychologists have reported that 'sleeping rough' was equivalent to a soldier being permanently 'in the field'. But then, they are often the same people. Polishing boots and running a person through with a bayonet don't readily transfer to civilian life, do they ?

It remnds me of that languorously-brilliant diatribe of Hunter Thompson :

'The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.'

Some wag later put a wonderful finishing touch to it :

'... and, then, there's the negative side...

[moriah]

4. Good. I considered how I'd try...

... to take care of my dad yet not enable his addiction if I ever won the lottery, and my conclusion was paying someone knowledgeable about how to properly manage SSDI payments as a "representative payee" for a disabled person and have them manage the funds the same way, with the same accounting requirements, and limitations on expenses that could easily be converted to cash.

That way it wouldn't be me saying no but the third party, he could still live his life as he wanted, and the cost of paying someone to do the accounting would be far less of a headache.

If they didn't trust the man to handle the money, there ARE professionals that specialize in doing exactly that. And there are laws protecting people deemed incapable of managing their financial affairs. If he was incapable, any irregularity could mean they committed financial abuse of an incompetent person. If not, they unfairly withheld the money from him.

[PoliticAverse]

5. "escrow" and a "forensic accountant" seems reasonable. Hope they kept good records. n/t

[vsrazdem]

6. $400,000 originally and only approximately 150,000 left. That must have been one swanky camper.

[LisaL]

9. Actually, it's not clear what is left there.

Apparently the couple missed the deadline to turn the money over.

"The Burlington, New Jersey, couple who raised thousands for a homeless man living in Philadelphia has apparently missed a court-ordered deadline to turn over the remaining donations."
https://whyy.org/articles/deadline-passes-for-n-j-couple-to-turn-over-cash-meant-for-homeless-philly-man/

[moriah]

11. I'll give them til end of banking hours Monday before...

... deciding they must have *really* been co-mingling assets vs just having difficulty with a bank wire from a separate account...

But much longer than that in delay and we might see what the court thinks about being ignored.

[LisaL]

12. Monday is a holiday.

So presumably won't happen on Monday.

[lark]

19. If they don't show up on Monday, lock them up!

They will have proven to be nothing more than thieves taking advantage of a homeless man and need to do the time for grand larceny. Court should sequester all their funds, sell their house and give all to the man they stole from.

[moriah]

20. Well, LisaL rightly pointed out banks won't be open until Tuesday.

But that is just one more day to get everything in order outside of working with the bank.

So yeah, pretty sure if no wire Tuesday, on Wednesday AM the judge will Not Be Amused.

[lark]

21. Sorry about that.

I'm retired so don't keep track of this as closely as I would have last year when still working.

[moriah]

22. Don't feel bad, I made it first and in my field bank holidays are just another day.

My mom's on vacation though, and woke me up at 8 AM saying she didn't understand why the liquor store wasn't open.

I take meds that ensure I have my days and nights straight, so I know the biological feeling of morning, even if clocks and ambient lighting could fool me. She really thought it was still Friday night.

[ansible]

13. That money is waaayyyy long gone now

They sure lived it up

[getagrip_already]

10. they will probably get..

A chris christie challenge coin with their picture on it and a bust of trump on the obverse. Nothing will happen to them as long as they follow the judges orders. Even if they just deposit whats left weeks late, they will scoot free.

They should be in jail if they managed to spend $300k he never will see. I know if I donated I'd be pizzed. I'd want their azzes in federal prison working the debt off at $0.20/day. They can leave when he gets all the money.

[JohnnyRingo]

14. We need special prisons

Call it Greed Prison for all the creeps who would cheat their own mother for a sawbuck. Enron execs, Bernie Madoff, and these internet hucksters can all be confined in one place. Then give each of them ten bucks and watch them kill each other off. The turnstile to Hell will be spinning like a roulette wheel.

[joet67]

15. Right on. nt

[xor]

16. I stumbled across his story a little a couple months ago.

Not sure if it popped up then because this was in motion, but I didn't read anything about the lawsuit then. The last update I read from it was that he slipped up and went back into the drugs, and that was him saying that.

Hopefully the money will be put somewhere safe once this is all settled and he can use it to get help for his drug problems.

[Beakybird]

26. They should have just bought him an annuity

[Vinnie From Indy]

27. yep

easy peasy

[LisaL]

28. With that kind of money, I presume he could have gone to a nice in-patient

treatment facility for drug addiction, which he seems to be needing most of all.

[Rollo]

29. An annutiy would be a good solution, but...

The world is full of con artists. Like the ones who get lottery winners who choose installment payments over, say, 20 years, to sign over their payments in exchange for a (reduced) lump sum. Probably they would have surfaced and they could have convinced this homelss guy to sign over his annuity income to them for a reduced lump sum.

But it's probably too late now, anyway. Depending of his age (assume 40) $400,000 would have given him monthly annuity payments of maybe $1500. $150,000, maybe $500/mo.

[LisaL]

32. Apparently, there is no money left.

"The attorney for Philadelphia homeless man John Bobbitt, whose act of kindness led to a $400,000 GoFundMe fundraiser to presumably help him, said all of the cash raised in his client's name is gone."

https://6abc.com/society/all-gofundme-money-is-gone-attorney-for-homeless-man-says/4144230/