COLUMBUS – The leaders of a phony charity that collected money for victims of the East Palestine train derailment and never delivered will have to fork over thousands more dollars after investigators found some additional funds that had been raised under false pretenses.
The founder of the Ohio Clean Water Fund and its fundraiser will have to pay an additional $50,077 in penalties after they raised nearly $150,000 on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, but never turned it over, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said.
Yost says a settlement reached in June required the charity to dissolve and to pay almost $117,000 to the food bank and a civil penalty.
The office began investigating OCWF founder Michael Peppel and the organization’s fundraiser after a complaint from Second Harvest officials, who said they had never given OCWF permission to raise money in the food bank’s name.
Since that settlement, a court-mandated review of bank records, invoices, payment records and other financial documents showed that the phony charity and its fundraiser, WAMA Strategies, had actually raised nearly $149,000, or about $8,000 more than originally estimate.
The new settlement means the food bank will get 100% of the donations raised in its name, Yost said.
The settlement requires Isaiah Wartman and Luke Mahoney of WAMA Strategies to pay more than $22,000 to the food bank, plus $3,000 in investigative costs and fees.
Under the deal, Peppel must pay a $25,000 civil penalty and agree to a lifetime ban on starting, running or soliciting for any charity in the state, Yost announced.
Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer reports that Wartman worked as campaign manager and senior adviser to Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia. Mahoney worked as a campaign staffer for Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, of New York.
EPA weighs formal review of toxic chemical that burned in derailment
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration says it could soon launch a formal evaluation of risks posed by vinyl chloride, the cancer-causing chemical that burned in a towering plume of toxic smoke following the fiery train derailment in East Palestine.
The Environmental Protection Agency this year is set to review risks posed by a handful of chemicals and is considering those used for plastic production as a key benchmark.
Vinyl chloride is used to make PVC plastic pipes and toys and is among chemicals eligible for review.
The EPA says a risk evaluation would take at least three years.
Environmental and public health groups have long pushed to ban the chemical.