NEW YORK – An Orlando,
Florida woman faces up to 20 years in federal prison for collecting over
$50,000 from donors after she claimed she had terminal cancer.
Vedoutie Hoobraj, also known as Shivonie Deokaran, 38, sought donations
on two GoFundMe website accounts claiming she was diagnosed with leukemia
and given 18 months to live and that her family was suffering financial
burdens from her chemotherapy treatments and other medical and living
expenses.
She was charged with wire fraud for allegedly collecting the donations
from over 300 individuals from Ardsley, New York and elsewhere based on
her misrepresentations.
Between October 2014 and December 2015, Hoobraj transferred some $32,600
from an Ohio bank account operated by GoFundMe’s payment processor
vendor to her bank account in New York. In November 2015, she deposited
two donation checks totaling $16,274 from the Student Activity Fund of
Ardsley High School in Ardsley representing proceeds of a fundraising
event organized by an individual donor. He also deposited other donor
checks.
Authorities said Hoobraj sent a Facebook Messenger screenshot purporting
hospital laboratory tests indicating her hemoglobin, platelet counts,
and red blood cell counts were all outside the stated normal ranges. Records
obtained from the hospital revealed the document dent by Hoobraj wee a
forgery and that the actual medical record previously provided from the
hospital to Hoobraj stated, “Your lab turned out to show no abnormalities.”
