A crowdfunding campaign to raise money for former men’s basketball captain Jack Montague’s legal fees has been relaunched after the original campaign was hacked.

Just over a week after a former teammate started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for Montague — who filed a lawsuit against the University after being expelled in February for sexual misconduct — the fund’s URL was changed from “https://fundly.com/jack-montague-attorney-fund” to “https://fundly.com/rapist.” Nick Victor ’16, who started the fundraiser, said last week he did not know who had made the change, but that “the problem [was] being addressed.”

This weekend, the original campaign was removed from Fundly and then relaunched at the original URL. On Monday, Fundly transferred the information and funds to the new campaign, which contains donations totaling $3,205 from 21 donors.

Fundly Director of Marketing Gretchen Barry said that the change likely came from a targeted hack to Victor’s account.

“It will take more time to figure out where the changes originated,” she said. “This is the first incident where there was an external change of this kind. It will take some time to determine the specific source but the development team is working on it.”

Montague filed a lawsuit against Yale on June 9 alleging, among other charges, that his February expulsion for violating University policies regarding sexual misconduct represented a breach of contract and a transgression of his Title IX rights.

One donor, who wished to remain anonymous because he was wary of having his name associated with the story, said the URL change with the word “rapist” was “rather disturbing.”

“If the campaign began in the legitimate way then I made a small contribution assuming it was legitimate and I’m not sorry I did that,” said the donor, who had contributed to the campaign several days before the URL was changed. “But it would be important to find out what’s going on with that.”

The donor said he chose to contribute to the effort because he sympathized with the plight of the Montague family, as they face a legal battle against an institution that has “very deep pockets.”

Karen Schwartzman of Polaris Public Relations, who has represented Montague and his attorney Max Stern since the pair announced the lawsuit back in March, said Montague and his counsel were aware of the crowdfunding website. 

“Litigation is expensive and this suit against Yale will be no different. Jack and his family deeply appreciate this support,” she said.  

Despite the new URL, a small factbox on the campaign page still provides the link: “fundly.com/rapist.”

rapist screenshot

DANIELA BRIGHENTI
MAYA SWEEDLER