As most of you know, we have been following the Success for Fred campaign closely as soon as allegations started flying about campaign owner Casey Blaney misusing funds, and beneficiary Fred Barley potentially frittering away his windfall on non-educational purposes. To make matters worse, there’s even a ‘satire’ article floating around that accuses Fred of blowing the entire thing on Backpage hookers. Yes, you read that correctly.
Come on, people. Everything about that ridiculous link looks fake as hell.
Anyhoo, now Casey the Caring Campaign Owner has spoken out once again via the Success for Fred Facebook group. Let’s take a look, shall we?
I would like to address one important fact about the current narrative being pushed – that I will not turn over the GoFundMe donations so they can be set up in a trust by Mr. Fred Barley’s trust attorney and/or personal attorney.
This past Thursday was the first time that our attorney has spoken to a formally retained attorney, representing Mr. Fred Barley. It is virtually impossible to turn funds over to trust personnel and/or attorneys that, to the best of our knowledge, have never existed until day before yesterday. Repeated attempts were made to Mr. Barley to have his trust team and attorney contact us, if in fact, they existed. We received contact from a personal attorney for the first time, day before yesterday (Thursday), that works in a firm with trust attorneys.
Alright, Casey, let’s remind ourselves of the fact that this young man was living in a fucking tent when you heard his story and created this GoFundMe campaign. A. Fucking. Tent. $184,000 in internet money now exists for him, however he hasn’t been able to access a penny of it. So, it isn’t all that weird that he may have had a little trouble securing an attorney. Because, you know, lawyers cost money. Money that he presumably doesn’t have. See above re: a fucking tent.
During the course of the GoFundMe campaign, a neutral third-party, unknown to both Fred and I, reached out to Fred in order to connect him with former professional athletes, in an effort to help him navigate his new-found notoriety. After speaking with this third-party, Fred and I both agreed that it would be in his best interest to allow one of these individuals to guide him and help him assist him with the donations from the GoFundMe campaign. As the days went on, this third party began to question Mr. Fred Barley’s actions and behaviors. Subsequently, this third-party decided to suggest to the former athletes that they step away from the situation. Thus, this has fallen back in my lap, as I am the organizer of the GoFundMe campaign.
Could you elaborate on these actions and behaviors? It’s understandable that a young man in his position might act weird given the fact that he is suddenly thrust into the spotlight and will eventually be $184,000 richer.
Also, don’t try to martyr yourself over the fact that you now have the burden of managing the GoFundMe campaign once again, Casey. YOU started it. YOU publicly expressed concerns about Fred’s plans for the money.
With integrity and transparency of the campaign in mind, I then proceeded with the plan that all parties had agreed upon from the start of the campaign – to continue with setting up an educational trust. Mr. Fred Barley posted publically that he would not “sign off” on any trust that is set up outside of using his own trust officials and lawyers; this obviously tied my hands and the hands of any willing trust attorney. Since the professional athletes that previously agreed to assist in this, were no longer involved and no trust attorney representing Mr. Fred Barley had yet contacted us, on behalf of Fred, these events had placed me, as the GoFundMe campaign organizer with this responsibility.
I highly doubt there was any discussion of the sort at the start of the campaign. What if it hadn’t gone viral and had only raised $20 like so many GoFundMe campaigns do? Would she have placed that into a trust? Girl, please.
The GoFundMe that I selected on the GoFundMe campaign site, when setting up the campaign, was the option of education/educational purposes. There are legal parameters inherent to that and I am required to follow those; they are a shaping force that dictates how we are to proceed. I have never, and have no intentions of ever being listed on, or in control of the educational trust. Hopefully, within the next few days, we will receive an initial proposal from Mr. Fred Barley’s attorney, to create a trust. That is our understanding of the next step.
Once a trust has been created, GoFundMe will have the final decision as to whether to release those funds to the trust. No funds will ever be released to me.
Yes, there are “legal parameters,” however Casey is not responsible for how Fred uses the money. Her legal obligation ends at turning the money over to him, period. I mean what is she going to do, follow him around for the rest of his time at school to make sure he isn’t blowing the funds on, oh I dunno, a PLACE TO LIVE. Let’s not forget an important detail in this story: a fucking tent.
Add to that, the GoFundMe campaign may be filed under ‘education’ but nowhere in her initial plea does Casey even mention anything about A) a trust and B) any funds raised being used specifically for educational purposes. She mentions sending him gift cards, inviting him over for dinner, and acknowledges that he would need a place to stay after his time is up at the motel Casey and her husband paid for. So yeah, let’s not get all high and mighty now.
This story is obviously taking on clusterfuck proportions, and it’s doubtful it will quietly resolve itself any time soon. Meanwhile, does anyone know how Fred’s fucking tent is doing? What does the fucking tent have to say about all this? Will someone please think about the fucking tent?
Good luck, Fred, you’re going to need it.
Update: A few folks on our Facebook page who donated to the Success for Fred campaign have expressed their disappointment in Casey’s actions. One writes:
This is complete bullshit. I don’t care if he sleeps naked on a bed of jello and money with it, I donated to HIM!!!! If #gofundme doesn’t side with him and give him HIS funds, I’ll never donate to…or use a #gofundme again.
I swear it on my kids…
I’m pissed about this..
Everyone who donated, did so to give it to him, not so she could control him until it was gone. I cannot stand people like her, that feel the need to control people. She didn’t expect it to blow up like this. Just like she disabled the funds because of the amout already raised. It wasn’t her business to decide how much was enough. He could’ve lived well while going to college.
Now, he’s wrapped up in a legal battle and she’ll convince some people to request their donations back and make him look bad. All because he didn’t want controlled..
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