Isaiah Wartman and two others ordered to pay restitution over role in fraudulent fund claiming to help East Palestine victims

The manager of the 2020 campaign that launched the far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress has been ordered to pay $25,000 for his role in a charity scam aimed at capitalizing on the East Palestine train crash.

Isaiah Wartman and his business partner Luke Mahoney must each pay $22,000 in restitution as well as $3,000 in investigative costs and fees as part of a settlement with the Ohio attorney general’s office, which prosecuted the case. Meanwhile, the settlement calls for a co-founder of the fake charity, Michael Peppel, to pay a $25,000 civil penalty and be banned from starting, running or soliciting for any charitable organization in the state.

  • Phlogiston@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    The Ohio Clean Water Fund for which Wartman and Mahoney served as fundraisers raised $149,000 in donations in the wake of the East Palestine train derailment disaster in Ohio. The charity claimed it would provide donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.

    But the Ohio Clean Water Fund only donated $10,000, and the charity pocketed the rest.

    So of the 130k they stole they only have to give up 25k of it? And they say crime doesn’t pay.

    • sharpiemarker@feddit.de
      0·
      1 year ago

      The two allege that they returned the rest of the money when they found out there wasn’t a deal to donate the money to the food bank/organization. And that it was a 3rd individual who actually scammed them into participating.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
        0·
        1 year ago

        Hopefully they proved that to the court before being let off with this wrist slap, but it’s a Republican AG and Republican judge, so who knows.