New York Woman Arrested After Faking Cancer and Cashing in Donations
A woman from Orlando, Florida has been arrested and charged with fraud on Friday after pretending to have terminal cancer and took in donations during the time she lived in Westchester County in New York.
Going by the name of Shivonie Deokaran, 38-year-old Vedoutie Hoobraj was involved in a highly deceptive activity wherein she pretended to have terminal cancer, solicited money online, and accepted donations from charitable donors. According to reports, the fraud took place from October of 2014 all the way until March 2016.
Basing on her social media accounts, Hoobraj had definitely played the part of a terminally ill cancer patient, shaving her head in order to appear as if she is undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Furthermore, Hoobraj claimed that she only had 18 months to live all the while battling leukemia and cancer of the liver.
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According to other reports, Hoobraj set up a fundraising page back in October 2014 through the help of one of her close friends who claimed that she was a photographer and single mother working to support her two sons while undergoing chemotherapy and blood transfusions at the same time.
A second GoFundMe page was set up for Hoobraj by one of her sons, who was 16 at the time, and was eventually picked up online where it was featured in an article. Afterward, she sent the link to an unsuspecting guidance councilor in her sons' high school who would eventually pass on the link to help raise money for Hoobraj going so far as having the school's football team organizing a spaghetti fundraising dinner.
All in all, Hoobraj had cashed in $50,000 before she left the state where it is revealed that she had used the donated money on personal expenses.
Now, Hoobraj has been arrested and charged with one count of wired fraud where she could end up 20 years in prison. She is due to appear in court on Aug. 16.
