A Philadelphia homeless veteran will never see the rest of the $400,000 raised for him by a woman who created a GoFundMe account to repay him for loaning her his last $20 when her car ran out of gas last October.
A lawyer representing Johnny Bobbitt says Kate McClure and her boyfriend Mark D’Amico depleted the $400,000 and there is nothing left.
Attorney Chris Fallon said the news of the empty bank account “came as a complete surprise” to him.
Last week, Superior Court Judge Paula T. Dow ordered McClure and D’Amico to hand over nearly $200,000 to an escrow account.
In addition, the judge ordered the couple to provide forensic accounting explaining what happened to the rest of the funds.
But Fallon said he learned the money was gone after a conference call with McClure, D’Amico and their attorneys.
“It completely shocked me when I heard,” Fallon told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Bobbitt is being represented by three lawyers pro bono (free of charge). The lawyers asked the court to order the couple to remain in New Jersey, surrender their passports, post a bond and restrict their access to bank accounts after they failed to meet the court order to wire the money to an account controlled by Bobbitt’s lawyers.
Fallon said Bobbitt has received nearly $75,000 in the form of an old camper and his dream car, a 1999 Ford Ranger.
Bobbitt lived in the camper until June and the car broke down on him.
Bobbitt told ABC News the couple also gave him $25,000 in cash. He lent some of the cash to his family and friends to help them out. He admits he spent the rest on drugs. He failed two attempts at drug rehab and was back on the streets in July.
Bobbitt’s lawyers say McClure and D’Amico used some of Bobbitt’s money to buy a new BMW. But they previously claimed they used their own money to buy the high end vehicle.
McClure and D’Amico also took lavish vacations and displayed expensive brand name items in photos on their Instagram.com page.
The couple’s lawyers reportedly refused to respond to Bobbitt’s lawyers’ requests to explain why they never wired the money or if they moved the bank account.
According to Fox News, GoFundMe has launched its own investigation into the missing funds.
GoFundMe also donated $20,000 into an escrow account created by Bobbitt’s attorneys to help pay his living expenses.
A hearing regarding the missing funds is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m.
