There has been much made of the fact that George Zimmerman collected over $240,000 in donations from his recently shut down site therealgeorgezimmerman.com, but today his lawyer, Mark O’Mara cleared up all the rumors surrounding the raising of funds.
STORY: George Zimmerman Remains Free – For Now
Through a website entitled gzlegalcase.com, O’Mara clarified what his intensions are with the funds collected by Zimmerman and why his client has disappeared from the internet.
Mark O’Mara’s statement on Zimmerman funds:
I want to take a moment to clear up some of the confusion regarding the monies raised on Mr. Zimmerman’s website. My understanding is that there were three web sites which had PayPal accounts attached to them.
One or two of them were run by friends of Mr. Zimmerman, and then there was the web site therealgeorgezimmerman.com , which George administered. Two accounts seem to have very little money in them, though I have not seen any records on those as they are not being administered by my client. Mr. Zimmerman’s former website and the PayPal attached to it raised approximately $200,000.00 over the period of time that it was up and running. Mr. Zimmerman was using this money, as mentioned on his website, for his ongoing living expenses and other necessary expenses based upon the charge and eventual arrest.
As I was ending any Internet presence George had, we removed any Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts and websites. As we shut down the web site entitled therealgeorgezimmerman.com my client asked what we should do about the outstanding fee monies in the PayPal account or that had been taken out of the PayPal account since its inception.
George immediately gathered the funds that were in either his or his wife’s account, or the PayPal account, and has forwarded those funds to me presently. We are still awaiting a check from the PayPal company which takes several days.
I am also accomplishing a review of all of the monies in and expenses paid out of those accounts, so I will have that information by next week.
The large amount of money that has been raised to date for George’s defense, I believe, is a testament to the support for George as he goes through this most difficult time. Though the concept of a legal defense fund is quite unique, it serves a very valid purpose and gives an opportunity for people to show their support to Mr. Zimmerman.
Earlier today, Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. announced that he’s not going to make a decision about bond until he has all the facts regarding the PayPal accounts and donation lists that have been given to Zimmerman.
Many thought the judge would send Zimmerman back to jail considering he never knew of his raising funds in the amount of $200K.
As for now, Zimmerman remains free on bond and another hearing is scheduled for next week.
