The director of the 2020 campaign that launched far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene into Congress has been ordered to pay $25,000 for his role in a charity scam designed to profit from the East Palestine train accident.
Isaiah Wartman and business partner Luke Mahoney each have to pay $22,000 in restitution plus $3,000 in investigative costs and fees as part of a settlement with the Ohio attorney general’s office, which brought the case. Meanwhile, the settlement demands the fake charity’s co-founder, Michael Peibel, pay a $25,000 civil fine and bar him from starting, running, or soliciting any charitable organization in the state.
The settlement, announced Thursday, stems from the men’s involvement in the fraudulent Ohio Clean Fund, which sought donations for victims of the February East Palestine train derailment.
Mahoney previously served as a campaign staffer for New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. Warmman and Mahoney formed WAMA Strategies, a digital company launched in February 2023.
Green campaign paid The company made nearly $71,000 in the second quarter of this year, three years after Wartman’s successful run to her first term in Congress.
Peeble previously served as an aide to Republican state and federal legislators in Ohio, including Congressman Bill Johnson.
The Ohio Clean Water Fund, for which Wartman and Mahoney worked as a fundraiser, raised $149,000 in donations in the aftermath of the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio. The charity claimed it would be making donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank in the Mahoning Valley.
But the Ohio Clean Water Fund only donated $10,000, and the charity took the rest.
According to the settlement, WAMA Strategies cannot solicit charitable donations in Ohio for the next four years. Mahoney also agreed not to start, operate, or raise any money for any charitable organization in Ohio until 2027.
Attorney representing WAMA Strategies Tell Cleveland Simple Dealer reported that Wartman and Mahoney were victims of fraud by Peppel but would not comment on whether they were pursuing legal action against him. It was also alleged that Wartman and Mahoney returned the remainder of the donations they received after learning there was no contract between the charity and the food bank.
“I have said from the beginning that we will continue to fight for the people of East Palestine, which is exactly what we have done here,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. “These scammers took advantage of generous donors to try and line their pockets, but in the end they were stopped and shut down.”