A settlement announced earlier this week calls for Isaiah Wartman, manager of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's 2020 campaign for Congress, to pay restitution in the amount of $25,000 for misappropriating funds donated to the victims of February's East Palestine train derailment.
According to The Guardian, Wartman and his business partner Luke Mahoney benefited from the fraudulent Ohio Clean Fund, which raised $149,000 in funds that were expected to go to the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley — giving only $10,000 and pocketing the rest. Per the outlet's reporting, " [they] 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."
"I have said from the beginning that we will continue to fight for the people of East Palestine, which is exactly what we did here," Ohio's attorney general, Dave Yost said in a statement. "These scammers preyed on generous donors to try to line their own pockets, but ultimately were stopped and shut down."
