Former Hudson Valley Woman Who Faked Cancer To Be Sentenced

ARDSLEY, NY — The former Ardsley woman who faked having a terminal illness and got people to contribute to an online fundraising account will be sentenced Friday in federal court in White Plains. Vedoutie Hoobraj, also known as Shivonie Deokaran, pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud after admitting that she did not have cancer nor was she dying.

Prosecutors want Hoobraj to be sentenced to between 21 and 27 months, the Journal News said.

Authorities said Hoobraj engaged in a scheme to defraud donors through falsely saying she had been diagnosed with terminal leukemia and needed money to pay for treatment.

She was arrested in Orlando, FL in August 2017.

Then-acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim said Hoobraj “concocted an elaborate story about having cancer when she did not, using GoFundMe pages and accepting money raised by a local high school, all supposedly to fund her medical care.”

Hoobraj received more than $50,000 in donations in 2015 from more than 300 people in Ardsley and elsewhere.

Prosecutors said she made up medical documents, said a doctor who was treated her died in an earthquake in Nepal and lied about going to medical centers and hospitals for treatment.

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