PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia man was sentenced in federal court Monday to three years of probation for his part in a GoFundMe scam to raise money for him. Johnny Bobbitt’s story that made it appear that he was a homeless veteran went national.
In November 2017, Mark D’Amico and his girlfriend at the time, Katelyn McClure, made a post on social media about their car breaking down on I-95 in Philadelphia, and Bobbitt — whom D'Amico and McClure said was homeless — offered to help as a “good Samaritan,” giving her his last $20 so she could drive home.
It was all a scam, and more than 17,000 people across the country, touched by the "pay it forward" story, made $400,000 in donations, according to prosecutors.
Federal authorities say McClure and D’Amico deposited $25,000 in the bank for Bobbitt and spent hundreds of thousands themselves on a BMW, vacations, clothes, gambling, and other personal expenses over the course of a few months.
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The federal judge ordered Bobbitt, 39, to pay $25,000 restitution.
D’Amico was sentenced in April 2022 to 27 months in prison. McClure was sentenced in July 2022 to one year and one day in prison.
KYW Newsradio’s Mike Dougherty contributed to this story.