Homeless veteran will receive all $400,000 raised for him by GoFundMe campaign
The homeless veteran who became a viral sensation after helping a stranded woman will reportedly receive all of the $400,000 raised for him via a GoFundMe campaign.
“We reached an agreement today with GoFundMe and they have agreed to make sure he will be made whole,” said Chris Fallon, the lawyer for homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr., according to CNN.
{mosads}GoFundMe added in a statement to the news network that its “platform is backed by the GoFundMe Guarantee, which means that in the rare case that GoFundMe, law enforcement or a user finds campaigns are misused, donors and beneficiaries are protected.”
The announcement comes after Bobbitt found himself in a dispute with the stranded New Jersey woman, Kate McClure, and her boyfriend, who had launched a crowdfunding campaign to help him.
Bobbitt gave McClure $20 to get gasoline in October 2017 when her car stalled.
Video of the event quickly went viral online and led to more than 14,000 people donating to a GoFundMe campaign McClure had launched with boyfriend Mark D’Amico.
But Bobbitt later sued the couple, claiming that they had withheld the majority of the funds they had raised for him. He said he only received $75,000 and that the couple spent the rest, according to The New York Times. McClure and D’Amico have pushed back against the allegations, saying they would not give him the money because they believed he would spend it on drugs or misuse it.
“Johnny will be made whole and we’re committing that he’ll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from,” GoFundMe said in a joint statement with Cozen O’Connor, a law firm representing Bobbitt, to the Times.
The Times noted that the statement was issued the same day investigators searched the home of D’Amico and McClure. Authorities reportedly took away items in bags and towed a BMW.
Scott A. Coffina, the prosecutor for Burlington County, N.J., told the newspaper that the search was linked to an investigation into the case involving Bobbitt.
Fallon, Bobbitt’s lawyer, told CNN that his client has received $20,000 as part of the guarantee with GoFundMe. The rest of the money will be turned over once GoFundMe completes an investigation based on items gathered by Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.
The news comes about a week after a New Jersey judge ordered the couple to turn over all the remaining money they raised for Bobbitt.
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