She raised $264,000 faking cancer. It helped her buy 40 opioid painkillers a day, police say
She didn’t have cancer, but that didn’t stop her from having a “Mom has Terminal Cancer Disney Trip” fundraiser, prosecutors say.
In total, Jennifer Cataldo, a 37-year-old Sterrett, Ala. woman, raised $264,163 off her fictional cancer diagnosis over the course of seven years, according to the Daily Beast.
She took money from friends, family and anyone online who would contribute to her GoFundMe websites, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.
Some of that cash was even funneled into drug abuse, according to the Associated Press: Cataldo admitted in a plea deal that she used the ill-gotten fundraising haul to purchase 40 or more opioid painkillers — which she had not been prescribed — each day.
“Sadly, crimes like this make good people think twice before they are willing to be charitable,” FBI Agent Roger Stanton said in a statement in May, when Cataldo was indicted on eight counts of wire fraud and seven counts of bank fraud. “It is hard to comprehend how anyone could sink so low as to claim to have cancer just to fuel their greed.”
Cataldo was convicted and sentenced Wednesday to more than two years in federal prison, according to the Associated Press. She pleaded guilty, the Tuscaloosa News reports.
At her sentencing, Al.com reports that Cataldo said she was sorry for her actions.
“I wish that I could put into words exactly how I feel ... I am overcome with sorrow,” Cataldo said Wednesday morning, according to Al.com.
Cataldo has also been ordered to pay about $80,000 in restitution, Al.com reports.
Even Cataldo’s husband and parents were allegedly in the dark about her elaborate money-raising ruse — assuming, like everyone else, that she actually had terminal cancer, according to Alabama Political Reporter.
“I can’t understand why she would’ve done it,” Robert Flynn, Cataldo’s father, told Alabama Political Reporter. “I just don’t know what would drive someone to do something like that. And I don’t know how she could keep us fooled for so long.”
Cataldo’s GoFundMe account to raise money for a trip to take her child to Disney before she died aimed to raise $4,000, but ended up raking in $10,000, prosecutors say.
A separate “Jenny Flynn Cataldo Medical Care” GoFundMe, set up by an unsuspecting friend, aimed to raise $20,000. That page brought in more than $25,000, according to prosecutors, which Cataldo then put in her personal bank account.
GoFundMe told Al.com that fraud on the website is rare, and that anyone who donated to Cataldo will get their money back.
“In the small handful of cases where misuse occurs, GoFundMe takes action to resolve the issue. The user has been banned, and we are working with law enforcement officials to make sure donors get their money back,” GoFundMe spokesperson Bobby Whithorne told Al.com.
This story was originally published November 8, 2017 at 9:03 PM with the headline "She raised $264,000 faking cancer. It helped her buy 40 opioid painkillers a day, police say."