No, these paypal accounts were around long before O'Mara and discussed when his first attorneys quit back on April 10th, and that's why I think he must have known something about them. The two original attorneys set up an account, then over a weekend George made another account before disappearing. So that's at least 2 paypal accounts, and it's actually easy to find out about them online because every network covered it that night.
I think Zimmerman spent (or hid) the 50K, or gave it to his wife to spend. Or maybe it was a "gift" from the NRA or Sean Hannity - we'll never know! Either way, he wanted "control" over it and didn't want to pay attorneys with it.
MSNBC Manuscript, April 10, 2012
UHRIG: Mr. Sonner was accompanied to the bank by Mr. Zimmerman`s
father, for the purpose of setting up a Web site by which people might make
donations.
We went to great lengths to make sure the Web site was set up in way to which the PayPal account paid directly to an account on which for his father has the control on the signature rights.
Jane Velez-Mitchell Transcript, April 10,2012
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, the complaints from these lawyers today. They said this Web site that you`re looking at here,
, was set up by George Zimmerman in sort of a rogue fashion. He launched it on his own with PayPal so he could get money from his supporters, and this is one of the reasons these attorneys are stepping down. They say they were actually working to set up another Web site. So it would seem that these two lawyers and George Zimmerman are working at cross purposes.
*snip*
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey, Frank, can I jump in for a second?
TAAFFE: Yes?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We talked a lot about this Web site. The point is that these attorneys were saying they were going in the process of setting up a different Web site when all of a sudden this --
TAAFFE: Right. It was called Zimmerman Defense Fund. That`s what Hal Uhrig and the other one set up. It was called Zimmerman Defense Fund. Correct.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. I got that, but why? Why is he going on his own path creating a different Web site at the same time as his attorneys were setting up another one?
TAAFFE: I can`t really answer that other than the fact that he wanted me to share it with the public of this Web site, where he could have direct control.
Anderson Cooper Transcript, April 10, 2012
COOPER: So, Mr. Uhrig, were you ever officially his attorneys? Had he signed a document saying you were his attorneys? Had you met with family members? His family members?
UHRIG: We had been in communication with family members. In fact, the father went to the bank with Mr. Sonner to set up the bank account which the Web site we put up for his benefit was going to take so that we didn't touch the money. The money would go to a bank account with only his father's name on it. His father was communicative with us. He was communicative with us.
*snip*
SONNER: I'm not going to make any comments as to whether -- that's just speculation of what he's going through because of everything he's endured at this point.
But the primary thing was that all of a sudden, things -- like I think as Hal said, they went dark. He wasn't contacting me anymore. He wasn't calling by phone. He wasn't sending e-mails. He wasn't sending text messages. On Saturday, I talked with him. There was some little thing we had to resolve and everything seemed fine on Saturday.
Then something happened on Sunday and then, of course, we learned that there was a Web site that was set up, which was fine that he set it up. I had lined up a Web site designer to do it and we'd set up a bank account because I didn't think he was going to be able to do it. But it was really better that he was able to do that himself. It keeps me from being involved with his money. And that's something lawyers don't want to do being involved with their -- is have their hands too much in their clients' money.
Contrary to what some of the lawyer jokes say, we want to keep -- the quickest way to get disbarred is to get your hands in your clients' money or in your clients' trust fund. So that was just fantastic with me that he was setting up his own.
