
They raised $400K for a homeless vet. There’s none left to give him, lawyer says - dsr12
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/09/04/they-raised-homeless-vet-theres-none-left-give-him-lawyer-says/
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astura
Good old fashion GoFundMe fraud.

>Bob­bitt filed a law­suit against a New Jer­sey couple who had raised more
than $400,000 on GoFundMe to help him re­build his life, al­leg­ing they'd
with­held the mon­ey and spent it on va­ca­tions, gam­bling and a lux­u­ry
car. A judge gave them until Sept. 3 to hand over the re­main­ing funds. But a
day af­ter the dead­line, a lawyer for Bob­bitt said there's no mon­ey left to
sur­ren­der

This is why I refuse to use GoFundMe, I think fraud like this is rampant and
underreported. There's been many times when you see a sad story in the media
and multiple GoFundMes are created for the person in the story by people who
are unrelated to them, or some who are related but have less than honest
motivations. It's just too ripe for fraud and abuse. Even if I 100% know the
campaign is real, I won't use the platform out of principle.

They claim they would release the money once the homeless man got off of
drugs. I don't even think that's appropriate, if they raised money for him
they will have to accept he will spend it the way he wants.

~~~
bena
I also tired of GoFundMe rather early. Every sap with a sob story had a
GoFundMe. Now, some I feel true compassion for: funeral expenses, medical
expenses, and the like.

But then I started seeing some that were like "Eh. Whatever". Stuff like "I
need to buy my college books" or something where it's like "Yeah, you kinda
need that, not really an emergency, but if you don't have the money and are
trying to avoid credit, yeah, whatever".

Then the ones that are just blatant begging. "Hey, I want to go on vacation".
"Hey, I want to move back home". "Hey, I want to be a streamer and I need all
this equipment". Fucking sorry, mate. If I had $5 to pitch in for any of that,
I'd pitch it into the "I'm gonna do that shit" fund before yours. I understand
you need to live your best life, but not at my expense. Sad thing is that
people I know have engaged in these.

And of course, just blatant fraud.

~~~
angus9mcmuffin
I mean the move back home one is kind of necessary. It means that the person
failed to be independent away from their support network without being
homeless

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kartan
This is why state welfare is so much better than random charity. People hate
goverment bureaucracy, but it is there to make sure that money ends in the
right hands. It is not 100% foolproof, but it is way better than this.

~~~
subjectsigma
Don't donate to random charities, then. Donate to established ones with high
levels of transparency or trust.

~~~
jefftk
[https://www.givewell.org/](https://www.givewell.org/)

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siruncledrew
How quickly they became corrupted by money. Hopefully they get prosecuted for
fraud.

In their eyes a homeless man didn't deserve it all because of drug abuse, so
instead they spent it on trips and a BMW for themselves.

[https://abc7.com/society/all-gofundme-money-is-gone-
attorney...](https://abc7.com/society/all-gofundme-money-is-gone-attorney-for-
homeless-man-says/4144230/)

~~~
YayamiOmate
I think that's just a defense strategy.

A pretty bad one I'd say, but I doubt they really thought they deserved the
money because of his conditions. Sounds more like an excuse rather than a
reason.

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logfromblammo
The right thing to do would have been to spend some of that $400k for a
lawyer, to set up a trust with Bobbitt as the beneficiary and the lawyer as
the trustee, put the principal into a no-fee index fund, and distribute $1000
per month, $200 (0.6% of principal annually) to the law firm for trust
administration, and the rest to pay for Bobbitt's housing, utilities, food,
and fuel, in that order. $12000 a year ain't much, but even if it doesn't keep
the wolf from the door, it ensures the door continues to exist.

Then you step away from the funding campaign and pat yourself on the back for
a job well done. If you're still self-interested, you hold out a secret hope
that someone else sets up a campaign for you to reward your virtue and pay it
forward.

And that's the same thing to do if you win the lottery. Pay a lawyer to handle
the taxes and set up a trust, give yourself a (nearly) guaranteed inflation-
adjusted income for life, and protect the principal from you and your
temptations. Salesmen, scammers, and crooks can only milk you for a month at a
time, instead of for everything you have all at once.

~~~
astura
I'm wondering, can you set up those sorts of trusts for adults who have not
been deemed incapable of handling finances?

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bena
This is sad on multiple levels.

$10,000 would have helped him immensely. Could have put him up in an apartment
for a while, gotten some new, fresh clothes, etc, and he probably could have
started turning his life around.

$400,000 is life changing to most people. You can set yourself up in a
reasonable situation with that kind of cash. Basic shelter and transportation
at the very least. And that's a huge load off for most people.

So yeah, I can see the temptation when the nice thing you wanted to do
explodes into basically winning the lottery.

So you start thinking about it. He's just a homeless guy with an opioid
addiction. So you put up the barriers. He needs to get a job, he needs to be
clean for X days/weeks/months.

And really, what's the legal obligation? I mean, you bought him a camper, a
TV, a phone, a vehicle. You've done far in excess of $10,000. Why don't _you_
deserve something as well. Dude was just lucky the internet took to the story.
Could have been anyone. I've paid him back. He wouldn't even have a whiff of
this money if not for my compassion. Where's mine?

And then we're here. Fighting a homeless guy for a couple hundred thousand.

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j-c-hewitt
GoFundMe is not about giving money to some dude, it's about looking like a
good person. Indulgences were popular and successful because of this basic
human need to posture as a good person. Charities often get away with double
dealing behavior because absent strict controls, the tendency will be to
structure the organization such that it's highly efficient at generating the
appearance of goodness while the principals of the organization embezzle
everything.

I remember this specific instance because it was being portrayed favorably on
local TV news when I was visiting my inlaws, and I was characteristically a
skeptical grinch. This confirmation that I wuz right about this has made my
shrunken heart grow three sizes this day.

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dev_dull
Increasingly gofundme is looking like some large scale money laundering tool.
Want to support political persons XYZ? Tell them to start a gofundme and then
watch it magically fill up with hundreds of thousands of dollars

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godzillabrennus
This is sad.

~~~
hexscrews
Indeed, though mildly predictable. If true, which is yet to be seen, They
probably saw the money and thought why should someone else get so much money
while they continued to struggle.

~~~
jstanley
In that case why start fundraising in the first place?

~~~
andrewla
(Not apologizing for what is clearly fraud, and hopefully they will spend a
bit of time in prison after having all their assets liquidated and turned over
to Bobbitt through civil actions)

They started a fundraiser for $10,000, which ballooned unexpectedly to
$400,000. If I had to guess, I would say that they thought that $10,000 was
reasonable for Bobbitt, and would have "happily" turned it over. But $400,000
they saw as excessive and unreasonable -- like the GP said, "why should
someone else get so much money while they continued to struggle". $10,000
wouldn't have changed their life in a significant way, but would have
tremendously helped Bobbitt, but $400,000 probably just seemed frustratingly
unfair -- it would give Bobbitt a lifestyle in excess of theirs, and the only
reason the money was there was because they started the GoFundMe. So really,
it's their money, when you really think about it, because they raised the
funds. Right? Right?

~~~
alttab
Bobbitt was checked into rehab recently, too. Coke binge much?

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ajmurmann
This story is so emblematic of today's America. GoFundMe to help a veteran in
need. Media attention leads to huge results. Everyone involved suffers from
various addictions. Everything goes to shit. Lawyers, tech company and media
likely the only ones making any money off this.

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gshock
sounds like jail time to me

