Transcript for Attorney claims woman in GoFundMe alleged scam didn’t know about a conspiracy
Now to that gofundme campaign for a homeless veteran that prosecutors say turned out to be a scam. The attorney now for the woman who claimed she was rescued after running out of gas is now telling her side of the story. This morning a shocking new twist in the inspiing story of a homeless veteran authorities say was a total lie. The attorney for one of the accused scammers now claiming that she too is a victim. All along Kate is being used and being set up to continue to be the face of this. Reporter: The lawyer representing Kate Mcclure says it was her boyfriend at the time, mark d’amico, and Johnny Bobbitt who met first and pushed the alleged scheme launching a gofundme page with a staged photo and a heartwarming tale. The couple saying Bobbitt offered Kate his last $20 when she ran out of gas but prosecutors say Mcclure even admitted the story was fake when texting a friend. Writing, okay, so, wait, the gas part is completely made up but the guy isn’t. I had to make something up to make people feel bad. What that meant is that he really was a homeless veteran and she was trying to help him. Reporter: Their campaign raising more than $400,000, but prosecutors say Mcclure and d’amico spent most of it in just months on extravagant trips shopping sprees and a BMW all while the story made headlines. It’s like winning the lottery. Reporter: Then in late summer reports of the trio fighting with each other over money went public. The couple telling their side of the story on national TV. It’s so hard to deal with when we know we did a good thing and I still believe that we did a good thing and I would do it all over again. Reporter: Authorities say that dispute began to unravel their web of lies. Kate had no idea that there had been an agreement, a conspiracy really between d’amico and Bobbitt to get money through gofundme. Now Mcclure’s attorney says she and d’amico are no longer together. That they broke up. Lawyers for her alleged co-conspirators declined to comment here. All three facing up to ten years in prison if convicted. I know, Adrienne, you spoke with all three of them back when things were a little better. This is when it first started. We actually booked an interview with them right after this announcement was made on gofundme that they were receiving up to $400,000 in de — donations. Thousands of people sympathizing with this story and initially you saw Bobbitt there with sunglasses on because he had an eye infection. His eye was severely pained and he was so nervous sitting down for that interview. But he said over and over again how much he wanted to give back to other people because of what was being done for him and both the girlfriend and the boyfriend were both saying that they too wanted to make sure that this was something that helped somebody. So it was all about donation, it was all about philanthropy and now it seems a bit more complicated. Yes, we’re viewing the story through different eyes at this point. Americans feel betrayed. People very upset. Yes, so many people were generous. Gofundme is going to refund all of those folks. All of them. 14,000 people. Oh, wow. Who donated to this cause, but, again, it was just interesting, looking back on it and flashing back some of those clips and some of the conversation that we had and how much they insisted that this was a help to people and that they wanted to help others like him. Yep. I’m sure we’re going to learn more details about it. We will.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
