WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A woman who collected $51,000 in donations by claiming she was dying of cancer has been sentenced in New York to two years in federal prison.
The Journal News reports that Vedoutie Hoobraj apologized to the community and to actual cancer patients Friday at her sentencing for wire fraud in federal court in White Plains.
She told her two sons that words “can’t describe the pain and hurt I have caused you.”
Hoobraj lived in Ardsley, New York, and went by the Shivonie Deokaran when she claimed to have cancer in 2014. The hoax included shaving her head.
Community members raised $51,000 through GoFundMe and a fund-raising dinner at her older son’s school.
Hoobraj later moved to Orlando, Florida. She was arrested by the FBI in August 2017.
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