GoFundMe investigated the reported fraud and deleted the campaign in question. You can see it preserved in internet archives.
What has not been preserved is the final update that alerted the people who donated to the fraud that had been committed. We will reproduce that update here for the sake of a clear history. Below is the update that was published through GoFundMe on April 17th, 2026.
The Final Update
We regret to inform you that, after a months-long investigation into Bethany Fine’s finances, we have determined that this fundraiser was a plot to steal money from the community that supported Ms Fine.
Having reviewed all the financial records, of the $14,185 that was donated to this GoFundMe, only $2920 of that was spent on her daughter’s medical needs. The rest of the money was used for personal gain and split between the collaborators of this fraud.
We believe that the following recipients of these stolen funds were participants in this fraud:
- Bethany Fine of Woodstock, Georgia, who proposed the target amount based on autism and OCD evaluations that were never scheduled or performed
- Todd Heldt, a librarian for Harold Washington College Library and Ms Fine’s boyfriend. Mr Heldt received $583 in electronic payments and an unknown amount from in-person cash payments.
The moment we discovered these financial irregularities, we paused donations and disconnected Ms Fine’s bank account from this campaign. In the months following this discovery, we were in contact with Ms Fine in order to find the best path toward recovering and repaying the funds. Unfortunately, Ms Fine has broken off communication and has refused inquiries about the fraudulent disbursement of these funds.
If you wish to report this theft, there are a few options. First, please report this fund as fraud to GoFundMe at the following link. GoFundMe has a Giving Guarantee that may offer refunds for the loss you’ve suffered. https://www.gofundme.com/contact/suggest/fraud
You may file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at https://www.ic3.gov/
You may also file a consumer protection complaint with your state Attorney General or with the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
As organizers of this fund, we do not have the ability to report fraud directly from this account. We have alerted the GoFundMe safety team about this and have not heard back anything beyond the standard automated fraud responses. We have changed the names of the innocent children from the title and updates in an attempt to protect them.
As a final note, many of you came to donate to this fund due to the efforts of the X user @politicalmath. He has known Ms. Fine and her children for years and took a personal interest in helping her daughter get the care they needed, making additional donations to her care in addition to his donations to this fund. When Ms. Fine realized that she was being investigated, she asked him to remove his tweets supporting this fund, claiming she had become uncomfortable with the amount of information about her daughter that he shared. He complied with this request, believing it to be in good faith. He is horrified at the nature of this fraud and has filed his own fraud complaint with GoFundMe.