20-year-old Madison Russo was dealt one of life’s hardest hands. She revealed online that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, leukemia, and had a tumor wrapped around her spine.
A GoFundMe page garnered her nearly $40,000 in donations. Too bad Russo faked the entire thing.
Russo grew quite the following on TikTok with her plight but admitted over the summer that she made everything up. She pled guilty to first-degree theft in June, and over the weekend was sentenced to a ten-year suspended sentence.
The 20-year-old was also ordered to pay $39,000 in restitution and a $1,370 fine according to USA Today.
Judge John Telleen declined a request that would have wiped the conviction off her record if she completes probation successfully, explaining that people who deal with her in the future should know that she once engaged in a "criminal scheme," and that "serious crimes must have serious consequences."
"Through this scheme, you deceived your friends, your family, your community, other cancer victims, charities and strangers who were motivated by your supposedly tragic story to donate to help support you," he said.
During her sentencing, Russo told the court she made her story up because she hoped her fake cancer battle would force her troubled family to focus on her.
"A lot of people have made speculation as to why I did this and how somebody who looked like they had everything together could have such a mess," she said. "I didn't do this for money or greed. I didn't do this for attention. I did this as an attempt to get my family back together."
GoFundMe has already sent refunds to the over 400 people who donated.
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